sit-in activity centers or walkers

I need to find more ways to distract my crawling-obsessed DS (he's not able to yet and quickly cries in frustration). I thought maybe an activity center. Or even an actual walker, which would be confined to the Family Room where the only way out is up some stairs. Anyone have experiences good or bad with these?

 

The activity center or exersaucer is really just dependent on how much you want to spend! I have a baby einstein one that my kids enjoy.

As for the walker, he may be a little young for it yet, a little wobbly, but again, it depends on how much you want to spend. I have a cheap one from walmart.

I use the link-a-doo's to attach extra toys to them to make them more entertaining when they get bored with what's already on it.

You can also look at a jumperoo, it would give your ds a chance to bounce around and wear off some energy!

 

We had exersaucers & they were good for that age where they wanted to be upright but weren't quite ready to do it on their own. The jumperoos are good too, I didn't have anywhere to put one with L&L but my older kids loved them when they were little.

 

We love our rain forest jumperoo. We've never tried an exersaucer.

 

We bought a Baby Einstein bouncer at the used baby store. We spent $40 and they have used it so much (I think it's 80 or so new). At 10 months, my DD doesn't like it as much as she did in the past. She wants to move around on her own. Although she will pull up on it and play from the outside. My DS still loves it and uses it several times a day. It's been a great activity for them.

 

With my older DS, I took him to Babies r Us and let him "try out" the different exersaucers. He ended up liking the Baby Einstein one best even though it didn't have all the bells and whistles (and was cheaper than some). That is what the twins are using now, along with a jumperoo I picked up from one of our MOMs sales.

 

we have the rainforest jumperoo and the baby einstein activity center. great way to give the boys a chance to be upright and active before they were really able to be mobile and sit up by themselves. we started using them at about 5 months, and the benefit of the jumperoo is that it has a high cushion in the back to protect their necks. the activity center didn't really get used until they were super strong and stable with their head control because it didn't have the same kind of cushion.

 

We have two exercausers, a walker, and a "johnny jump-up"... the exercausers are awesome in the beginning, but after a while they get bored so adding toys (like pp said) helps. The johnny jump-up is nice for our busy gal who likes to move-move-move, but they have to have pretty good "core" control to really use it effectively. The walker is also nice, and it folds up so it's easy to take places. I don't know, I'm a fan of all three, it's good to have options. Check out thrift stores or baby consignment shops first - I bet you could find some good deals.

 

Tyler LOVES his Jumperoo. he really goes to town jumping in it like a MAD MAN! lol Up until a few days ago he was just in it playing with the toys and then he started jumping and it does not end..lol. We also have an exersauser and he LOVES that just as much!

 

I highly recommend the Fisher Price "Galloping Fun Jumperoo" and the Bright Starts activity center (we got ours at Target but I saw them at Wal Mart the other day too). We use ours daily and the babies love them!

 

Another fan of the Jumperoo and Exersaucer.