As a parent, I try to always look for the middle ground. Whilst my heart wants to shower our little boy with lots of toys, I am conscious of buying him a bunch of stuff he will barely spend a couple of minutes interested in. I’ll be honest, he will happily play with a wooden spoon and a box for just the same amount of time as he does with his real toys.
However, we probably did fall into the same habit of most parents of purchasing a few baby items intended to keep him independently occupied for a little while. Preferably long enough to allow us to get a few jobs done. We started off with the bouncer but he never really sat in until he was around 3 months old and even then it was for a few minutes before the tears started. Next came the play mat which he did prefer a little more and was happy to lie on as he attempted to roll around. As he began to outgrow the playmat and learnt how to sit up on his own, we started to look for a chair we could leave him to sit in without the fear he’d fall over.
One of the most popular and well known baby seats on the market is the Bumbo. Mamas and Papas have their 7.5-month-old version of the Bumbo called the Snug Seat which comes with an activity tray. The Mamas and Papas Snug Seat was the one which caught my interest first, however at the time it was on sale for £49.99 and I just couldn’t justify the purchase when I wasn’t even sure if my son would sit in it. After a bit of research, we found that Summer Infant offered a similar seat called the 4 in Super Seat but it was available for £10 less at £39.99 on Amazon.
It seemed to do all the same things as the Mamas and Papas Snug Seat but for cheaper so it seemed like the better option. We also used a £10 Amazon gift voucher which brought the price down for us a little more.
We’ve had the Super Seat for a few months now so I’ve more than garnered my opinion on it. In terms of the pros, it is very cute to look at and compared to some of the garish and fluorescent kids toys out there (parents, you know what I’m talking about) it looks quite stylish. I also really like the activity tray on it which comes with a range of fixed and removable toys.
My favourite part is probably the spinning plastic globe with beads inside. I’ve also made use of the feeding tray to sit and feed my son a few times or give him a few pieces of food on the tray to try and feed himself. It does also fit its buying purpose of keeping your child entertained for a few minutes. Our son is not keen on being restrained in seats too much though, so we can probably get max 10-15 minutes at a time with him happily in it.
I would imagine that it might come handy as a toddler booster seat and being able to sit at the table with us. Though perhaps parents of older children will beg to differ on how successfully you can keep a toddler strapped in!
As to the not so great things. I do find the build of the seat quite clunky. The rotating 360-degree tray is made up of 4 pieces which slot in and connect together like a jigsaw. Whilst it does mean that you get these different stages and uses out of it, the pieces are quite difficult to put together. It took us probably an embarrassing amount of time to figure out how they fit into the chair.
The other day, I left my currently 7.5-month-old son in the seat for about 2 minutes while I popped to the kitchen and when I returned, he had somehow managed to disassemble the activity tray pieces! This meant that the metal wire-like tracker toy fits across two different connecting pieces had come out of the holes it fit into which was not that safe. It then subsequently took me ages to fit the tray back together again.
A part of me does wonder if I would have preferred the Mamas and Papas Snug Seat, I’ve never used it so I can’t really compare. I was not willing to fork out the extra cash for it, but if you’re open to buying it second hand, I constantly see it in places like Gumtree, Facebook marketplace and Schpock for about £15-£20.
So to sum up, I like the Summer Infant Super Seat in principle and in looks and whilst it does achieve its main purpose, I do wish it was a little more sturdy considering it is hardly cheap. I will keep on using it and can definitely see myself using it as an alternative to the highchair and a booster seat when he’s a bit older. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, if you’re looking for a seat to keep your baby occupied and you don’t want to pay £50, then this may very well be a great option for you. If you don’t mind paying an extra £10 or so, then I might suggest you look into the Mamas and Papas Snug Seat a little and compare the two for yourself.
*This post contains affiliate links.
Summer Infant 4-in-1 Super Seat
£40.99
Welcome to Mr and Mrs Reviews. Run by Imran and Abida, we are a husband and wife duo reviewing a range of food, lifestyle and parenting products.
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