Contain & Entertain: Baby Swings, Bouncers and Playmats

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Four different baby holders sounds excessive. Then you try to take a shower.

Here is what three babies taught me: you do not need one of everything, but you do want a safe place to set the baby down in every area where you actually spend time. One on the main floor, one upstairs, one within sight of the stove. The point is not to park your baby. It is to buy yourself ten minutes without a soundtrack of crying.

Babies should not spend most of the day in a seat anyway. They need to lie flat and move their arms and legs freely, which is exactly why the activity mat is the one thing on this page I would call a true must-have. Bouncers and swings are for the gaps: cooking dinner, taking a shower, folding laundry at nine at night.

Jump to a section: Bouncers  •  Swings  •  Playards and Pack n Plays  •  Activity mats  •  Activity centers

Bouncers

Whether you need a bouncer depends on the size of your home and what else you already have. They run from barely more than a toy to genuinely expensive, and the better-looking ones cost the most. I love having one that folds flat so it is easy to move around. We are out of the bouncer phase but since ours takes up no space, I’ll keep it forever for when friends or family with babies come over.

How to choose between these. The real split is powered versus not. The BabyBjörn Bouncer Bliss, the Maxi-Cosi Kori and the Baby Delight Alpine move when the baby moves, with no batteries and no cord, so you can set one down anywhere and never think about it again. The Ingenuity and Bright Starts seats run on batteries and add vibration, which some babies love and others ignore entirely.

The other thing worth checking is how long it lasts. The Ingenuity Keep Cozy 3-in-1 converts to a toddler seat and holds up to 40 pounds, and the Ergobaby Evolve converts too. A plain infant bouncer is finished at around six months, which is worth knowing before you spend real money on one. If you are only buying one, buy the one you can carry up the stairs with a baby on your hip.

Swings

Babies love swings or hate them, with very little in between. The sensible advice is to try a friend’s before you buy one. The realistic advice, since almost nobody does that, including me after I was given exactly this advice and ignored it: buy the one you like and hope. Swings hold their resale value well, so it is a lower-risk bet than it feels like. There are so many swings on the market. Here are a handful of good options.

Before you pick one. Swings take up more floor space than anything else on this page, so measure first. Most run off an outlet rather than batteries, which quietly decides where in the room it can live. And all of them are for awake time only, however reliably they knock your baby out.

The mamaRoo is still the one I would buy, mostly because it is the only one that does not dominate a room. The Ingenuity ConvertMe and the Maxi-Cosi Cassia are the sensible middle. If your baby turns out to hate swinging, and plenty do, you will be glad you found that out with the cheaper one.

One note on the Jool Baby Nova. It was recalled in March 2024, not for a defect but because it was being marketed for sleep when it reclines too far to be safe for that. No incidents were reported, Jool shipped free update kits, and anything sold since January 2024 is the corrected version. It matters mainly if you buy one secondhand: check the manufacture date on the warning label sewn to the back of the seat, and request the free kit if it falls between June 2022 and September 2023.

Worth adding since I first wrote this. The Graco DuetSoothe swing and rocker is the one I see recommended most often now, and it is the Graco you can still walk into a store and buy. The 4moms rockaRoo is the mamaRoo’s cheaper sibling if you love the design but not the price. The Ingenuity Cozy Kingdom covers the budget end, the Ingenuity Comfort 2 Go folds up and travels, and the Maxi-Cosi Cassia and Munchkin Baby Swing fill in the middle.

Playards and Pack ’n Plays

These are a great safe place to contain and entertain a baby, and because they double as a sleep spot I cover them properly in Baby Sleep Spots, along with a side-by-side of my two favorite travel cribs.

Activity Mats and Play Gyms

You will use it hard for the first seven months or so, and often well past that. Newborns lie underneath and stare at the shapes and colors. A couple of months later they are swatting at the crinkle and rattle toys, and then actually grabbing them. It is also where tummy time happens, so get one with a mirror. It makes a real difference in how long a baby will tolerate being on their stomach.

Here is my ongoing conflict: I want the neutral wooden ones that do not fight with the rest of my living room. Newborns want bright, high-contrast colors. The fix is a neutral frame with a few bold toys clipped on, which is what I would do again.

Treetop Friends  •  Kick and Play Piano Gym  •  Octopus Activity Gym  •  Camping Cubs

Fisher-Price Kick and Play Piano Gym is the value pick and the one I recommend most often. Mirror, five toys, and a piano the baby can kick that keeps working as a standalone toy later.

What actually matters in a play gym, roughly in order: a mirror, because it is the single best trick for buying yourself more tummy time; toys that detach, because the fixed ones get boring fast and cannot be washed; and a mat you do not mind looking at, because this thing lives in your living room for the better part of a year.

The Lovevery is the splurge and earns it through the staged activities. The Skip Hop Farmstand folds flat, which matters more than you would expect in a small house. Between those two and the Kick and Play above, you have the whole range covered.

Activity Centers

You will not need one of these until around five months, once your baby can hold themselves upright. After that it is genuinely useful: somewhere safe to set a nearly-crawling baby while you empty the dishwasher.

I regret registering for ours while pregnant. By the time we actually needed it I had changed my mind about which one I wanted, based on everything else we had accumulated in the meantime. They are pricey though, so if you need to round out a registry this is a good thing to put on it. Just do not open the box early.

What separates these. Footprint, and whether it converts. The Skip Hop Explore and More and the Little Acorn both turn into toddler play tables, which is the difference between six months of use and two years. The Baby Einstein jumpers sit at the bouncier end of the range, for a baby who mostly wants to move. Measure your floor space before you commit, because these are wide and none of them fold.

What I would actually buy

If I were starting over with one baby, I’d get a Lovevery Play Gym and a BabyBjorn Bouncer. After the baby was born, I’d determine if I need a swing — but not until then. I’d stall a bit to save space and wait for potential new products but likely get the Tiny Love Activity Center once the baby could sit up safely. The mistake can be buying all four categories before the baby arrives. The baby gets a vote, and they use it.

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