The battle of the baby chairs….

The Bumbo

This seems to be a must-have baby product. I’d heard about it when I was pregnant and I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t really like the look of it (I always thought it looked a bit too much like a potty for some reason!) but I was aware that I should buy some sort of chair for baby W as he was getting to the age where he could sit up.

Then one week, they had one at the mother and baby group we go to and I plonked him in it. Instantly, I realised why it was such a must-have item – my little 4month old baby looked so cute and grown-up!

The next day I went to Asda to buy one and my excitement quickly disappeared when I got it home. I liked the way he was positioned in it – hard to explain but baby’s bum is quite low down in it, seems like a nice comfy position. The big downside is I realised that his chunky legs were already quite snug and didn’t allow much (any) room to grow.

I thought I should take it back to Asda as basically it wasn’t going to last very long at all for us! But also, the tray that came with it didn’t seem to slot together – I didn’t want to force it and break it so I thought it was just a duff one but looking at some online reviews since then, it seems to be a common problem. For £40 you expect a bit more!

The Mamas and Papas snug

I’d not come across this until I asked on Twitter about alternatives to the Bumbo and a few people mentioned the Snug. It was on sale for £30 (normally £37) in the recent Asda baby event so I thought I’d give it a whirl.

I’m much happier with it – baby W has room to grow into it. (And then the coloured bit comes out so you kinda get 2 chairs for the price of 1, although I suspect as they get older the less they want to sit in it and stay still!)

Personally, I think it looks a bit more attractive than the Bumbo and to me, it feels like a higher quality product due to the materials used and the finish. The tray slots together easily, I’m looking forward to using it for weaning shortly!

Overall result

In my humble opinion, the Bumbo is an overpriced gimmick – I can’t imagine any baby would be able to use it for more than a month max (they can’t use it too early – you need to wait until they can support themselves etc). The Snug on the other hand, for £10 less, can hopefully be used for a good many months.

I know there are some complaints that babies can fall out of the Snug, whereas the Bumbo comes with a fitted harness thing… but neither recommend leaving your baby unattended so if he does wriggle out of the Snug I plan to be there to catch him!

At the moment, I’m just sitting W in there for 5-10 mins a day (he gets bored of anything after that amount of time) with his favourite toys on the tray and already a week in I can see how it’s helping his development as he’s started moving his neck around to see what’s to the side of him. I’m looking forward to seeing him eating his first meal in it 🙂

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If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my guide on the top 9 things to do with outgrown baby clothes, or my epic guide to travelling abroad with a baby/toddler!

Small print: I wasn’t asked to review or write about either product, I paid for them myself and just wanted to share my thoughts with you