Bud Booster Seat with Detachable Tray
£49

Reviewed by Nicky Chow of the Mamas & Papas Parent Approved Panel
@wonky_chic

Designed for babies already sitting unaided and with weaning in mind, the booster seat can be strapped to most chairs. It’s ergonomic, hard in all the right places, soft where it needs to be and can be cleaned easily. It comes in soft grey and white, which not only spoke to our tastes, but sang to us in euphoric accord – something like Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” being played at a wedding!

As a play seat on the floor with the activity tray attachment, Aoibhe loves it. She loves playing with the different toys on offer and we love the fact that it’s secured in the lip of the tray with clever hidden suckers, so she can’t throw it across the room! This can buy us 20 minutes or more! It’s also usually the first item Aoibhe’s friends head for when they are over for playdates.

We also took to the streets and trialled the Baby Bud at a restaurant. The chair itself is very light (1.6kg), however by its very nature it can’t help but be chunky. We managed to fit it in the basket, but only just.

Lion playmat & GYM by Offspring
£69

Reviewed by Patrizia O’Shaughnessy of the Mamas & Papas Parent Approved Panel
@lifewithkodabear

We’ve been using the new lion playmat for the last three weeks and it’s useful in so many ways! Originally, I set it up with the bars and hanging toys but very quickly noticed that Koda’s favourite thing to do on it was to use his monkey feet to play with the toys and then to fold the bars down, which I didn’t mind; I saw it as a fun challenge for him. He then learned how to roll and, as this was his new trick, he wouldn’t stop rolling and kept rolling into the bars and getting stuck!

I removed the bars and attached the little hanging toys to the wedged part of the mat on the available loops. This really encouraged him to enjoy tummy time a bit more and gave him room to roll. The mat is slightly raised, which also helped his love for rolling and tummy time.

The bottom of the mat has several multi-coloured tails, one has a crunchy noise to it, another a rattle noise and the other a squeaker. These were great fun for Koda as he has really active legs and loves to kick. I hear the crunchy tail all day long but every now and then he would kick the squeaker and wonder where the noise came from; then he’d tire himself out trying to do it again.

We are now practising sitting up and the playmat has been a great help as it’s so padded and the slightly raised element makes a nice cushion support when he wobbles forward. Koda is a very big baby so I like that the playmat is more of a wedge than a circle. With his previous one he didn’t fit on it at any angle as he was too long, but on this one his legs don’t even reach the bottom of the tails!

At first I was sceptical about the colours in our light, white-and-blue living room; but in person they’re nice and bright and have really grown on me. The little red strawberry is Koda’s favourite… and mine! Our living room isn’t the biggest but the playmat fits nicely into the middle of the room and can be easily folded up and stored away when he goes to bed. All the toys can be removed, too, so we can take them with us to the supermarket and Koda can feel like he hasn’t left his mat behind.

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