Tell me about exersaucer

[Claki]

DS is six months tomorrow and his teacher at day care asked me today for permission to put him in the exersaucer at school on Monday. We don't have one and I don't know anything about them. His teacher said he seems to frustrated with lying on the floor and I agree, I have seen that at home when he tries to crawl and rolls around and gets frustrated. However he is not sitting up unassisted yet. He has excellent head control though.

So tell me, is there any reason to not let him go for thee or four minutes at a time in the exersaucer? She said that's how they will try him out in it.

[liz]

I don't think it's a problem at all. I put all of my kids in at about 4 months, but they had good head control. I think a few minutes at first is a good way to break them into it. My kids really enjoyed the exersaucer.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Just keep it to under 20 minutes in a day, ideally. Take out sooner if tired or frustrated. My guys liked the exersaucer.

Beth

[Cam&Clay]

Three or four minutes? Heck, I couldn't have gotten dinner cooked without ours.

Starting around 4 months, my boys loved the exersaucer. DS1 loved it so much that he cried when he could no longer fit. DS2 enjoyed it, but was done with it way before he was a year old.

They are wonderful. Couldn't have managed without one.

[sunshine873]

Just keep it to under 20 minutes in a day

Beth

We never had one. We were heavily warned against it by DD's doctors & therapists. They're counter-productive for preemies, because they encourage development of muscles in the legs & back and that's the opposite of what preemies need. When born early, babies don't have as much muscle development in the core and that is critical for rolling, crawling, standing, walking, etc.

For term babies that have normal core muscle strength, I've heard they're OK, but that it's important to keep it under 20 minutes a day. Apparently it's really easy to put them in there for quite awhile and that's not good for their development. My concern in a daycare environment would be just that...so make sure that they understand your desires that they keep it to a minimum.

[wellyes]

Of course an exercauser is no replacement for being held or floor play, but as a short-term fun new type of stimulation I think they're lots of fun for LOs. DD loved hers for a little while. I wouldn't hesitate to say yes.

[mom2binsd]

LOVED OUR EXERSAUCER for DD!!! She loved to play in hers and it kept her occupied and out of trouble if I was cooking etc (we also took it with us if we were going to a home without kids/baby proofing- dinner at a friends house was easier!)

We had this one...http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/n...708676756.html (this is not my ad).

[brittone2]

I'm not a fan overall but I think most people know that after my annoying posts about the topic through the years I do think they are probably fine for most kids (kids without a risk of delay) in moderation (20-30 mins max per day). However, I personally would be hesitant to have *daycare* use one. When I was working as a PT in EI, far too often I went into daycares where infants were in them for an hour straight. The room was too busy for anyone to notice a child getting fatigued and starting to slump, etc. If the baby is happy in there, IMO it can be all too easy for a parent, let alone a daycare where there are often quite a few kids to watch, to have the child in there for too long. It is just too convenient, IMO.

Obviously all caregivers are different and all daycares are different, but if I were going to use one, I would want it to be at home vs. daycare. I just saw it all too often in the centers I visited...I'm sure there are daycares that are great about limiting their use, but I saw the flip side too often.

I'd at least maybe discuss it from that angle...that you really want the overall use limited to X mins per day if you feel that way.

eta: please don't construe this as me picking on daycares. I'm not I think at home they can be an all too convenient place to put a baby throughout the day and that the minutes add up more quickly than people realize. My point is that if this happens to parents, I think it might be possible for it to happen at daycare...and maybe more likely since they get busy tending to other kids' needs, etc. If the baby is happy, they might leave them in longer than ideal too often, or miss cues that the baby needs out sooner rather than later.

[ehlana06]

We love our exersaucer here as well. I wouldn't be so concerned with it as a development problem as much as I would be about it turning into a replacement babysitter for those in charge. I was lead of an infant daycare class and ended up taking the exersaucers out of the room because that was just what happened. When I was off or out of the room the other teachers took advantage of them and left the more active infants in there for long periods of time to keep them from having to chase the babies all day. It was quite disappointing because when used right they are great and kids love them. Just make sure your teacher really does only keep him in there for a reasonable amount of time. Twenty minutes max and I would suggest less time if possible.

[maestramommy]

I put my dd in the exersaucer around 4 months. Or maybe it was 3 months. She had excellent head control. I actually put her in there so I could get a couple minutes break. And darned if she didn't start bouncing up and down. I was pretty surprised