This is no "Baby Sitter", but it is an excellent little chair.

This is a great little seat that I wish had been around when my daughter was a baby. My 22 month old son still loves the thing. He started using the Bumbo not long after being able to hold his head up. When he was able to sit on his own he preferred to sit in “big people” chairs, but even now he carries the thing throughout the house as his own personal chair.

I’m not sure this should be called a baby sitter, though. I understand the little play on words, but I think of a baby sitter as someone I can leave my children alone with. As the manufacturer will tell you, determined babies will be able to get out of this at will and they should never be left unsupervised.

What is it

This is a baby seat made of durable non-toxic polyurethane foam designed to allow babies to be able to sit up earlier than they normally would. If the child is able to keep their head up then the sides of this chair should support their torso enough to allow them to sit on their own.

Since the Bumbo is only designed for very small children it only comes in one size. The weight recommendation is 22lbs, but my son is over that now and has no problems sitting in it. It is made of foam and it is not going to break, so I think the size of the child’s hips and possibly their leg size have more to do with when they outgrow it than their weight.

What I like about it

This seat allowed my son to sit upright much sooner than he normally would have been able to. I have no idea what is going through that crazy little boy’s mind at times, but he really appeared to love the chair even as a baby. Both of my children want to be able to do things that all the older people do and this allowed him to do so.

I think it is obvious by looking at it, but I have to mention it anyway. There is no assembly required. This seat is just one solid piece. As a father who seems to spend a good portion of his life putting things together this is always a good thing.

I also do not like cleaning up after my son and all this seat requires is a quick wipe down. There are no nooks or crannies where food or anything else can get stuck in to be found later after the smell of it permeates the house. Everything that needs clean can be easily wiped down.

No straps or harnesses. I hate having to buckle my son into stuff. Even now he is constantly on the move and seems determined not to be tied down. He hated his car seat for the longest time, because it restricted his movement so much. No straps also allowed him a little more control and this probably helped with the development of some of his upper body and neck muscles.

Finally, I like the fact the he likes the thing. He not only liked it when he needed it, but he uses it now as a toy. It is light enough for him to carry around and use as his own little chair. It seems a strange thing for a kid his age to enjoy so much, but I do not even pretend to know what is going on in his mind.

What I don’t

The chair is not perfect. My son was and still is a very very active boy. We were told by friends who have children of a similar age that babies could not get out of these things. Well maybe some kids cannot get out of these, but my son took it as a challenge. It was not much of a challenge. He had only been using this chair for about 2 weeks when he figured out he could escape. Once he figured out how he could do it, he did it at will. Most of the time though he was perfectly content sitting in it, but just know that you cannot leave a child in one of these things assuming they are not going to be able to go anywhere.

For a little foam chair it does seem kind of pricey. The materiel itself cannot be that expensive, but I’m sure that the cost of developing the chair was probably high. I am a free market kind of guy and I believe if you have a high quality product then you should be able to get what people will pay for it. This is a product I would easily pay another $40 for if I needed another one.

Summary

From a dad’s perspective this is an excellent little chair. My son could sit in it without straps holding him down, it was easy to clean, he could not break it (If there was a way he would have found it.), and no assembly required.

I do think the name “Baby Sitter” is slightly misleading since you cannot leave your child alone in this chair. The manufacturer is quick to state this, though, and they are quick to admit that some children can get out of these chairs. Since the manufacturer does warn the consumer about leaving the child unsupervised I have no problem recommending this product.