Bumbo Baby-sitter

Little Man was about 10 or 11 weeks old when we bought him a Bumbo seat. I had seen them in Mothercare and thought they looked great so as soon as he had good head control I bought one for him. It was very expensive – almost €50. We got great use out of it for the first little while. Little Man loved that it allowed him to sit up and look around.

From about four months though, he started to resist being put in the seat. Or if he was in the seat, he’d arch himself backwards to lift his bum out of the seat. I tried using the play tray that comes with it to stop him from doing this, but that didn’t really work. Even at four months old, he was a determined little guy.

Thankfully, I had done my usual Internet research about the seat and read all the horror stories about babies falling from heights while in the seat. (I distinctly remember one story I read online about a woman who left her baby in the bumbo on a ledge beside her open twin tub washing machine. You can guess where this is going… She left the room and came back to find the baby in the twin tub. ) So I started ensuing that the only time we used the Bumbo with him, he was safely on the ground.

But even so, one day when Little Man was about four and a half months, he was in the Bumbo on the kitchen floor. The play tray was on it. But he arched himself backwards and lifted his bum out of the seat. In an instant his head was dangling backwards over the back of the Bumbo. Thank god I was watching him or I’m sure he would have toppled out and hit the tiled floor.

I sold the Bumbo on shortly afterwards with warnings to the new owner about using it safely.

I’ve read reviews online where people talk about using the Bumbo until their child is a year or more. But it wasn’t an option for us. So this is not a purchase I recommend unless you can get one second-hand. I certainly wouldn’t spend €50 on it again if I had my time over.