Review - Fisher-Price Rainforest Open-Top Cradle Swing

 Fisher-Price 

 Rainforest Open-Top Cradle Swing 

I bought this swing from Argos for my daughter before she was born after reading how good it was. It definitely didn't disappoint. I'll be honest, it is rather large and it isn't easily folded away as I was lead to believe. Don't get me wrong, the legs do fold, however it does seem laughable and slightly pointless as it doesn't make it any smaller. It does however stop me from tripping over the legs when clearing up the breakfast mess, so not the worst design. 

The swing itself has lots of different features it plays music, swings and the toys on the arm rotate and the leaves move up and down. The swing has six speed settings which you can turn up and down using the dial. 

The arm also move up and down which makes it easier to lift the baby out. I discovered this after a few near misses between Charlotte's head and the monkey :) note to self lift arm before removing child. 

One great thing about the seat is you can turn it left and right, making it easy to get your baby out the seat or turn them towards something. With the frame being so large, it's not ideal to move it therefore the ability to turn the seat makes it brilliant and more functional. I can easily turn her to me for feeding and then turn her after towards the TV while I clean up. 

Another great aspect is the harness in the seat, you can remove the shoulder straps and just have the waist straps. It's really well designed and easy to change this back at any time. You can also remove the tray from the seat. This is not so easy when you have already clipped it in, but it is possible. I personally chose to remove the tray as my daughter kept kicking it and didn't like it on the seat. 

Having the safety harness has made this product more usable for us as we not only use it for soothing our baby but also to feed and entertain her. Many a time she has happily fallen to sleep whilst having a leisurely swing, working out perfect for me to get stuff done, especially in the colic days. 

I do find it extremely disappointing that it doesn't have the ability to use a plug in adaptor and solely relies on batteries. As you can imagine it eats through them and can be quite costly especially when it takes 4 D sized batteries. Having both options to use a plug in adaptor or batteries would massively improve this product. Even better if Fisherprice could also look to include a power pack which could be charged from the adapter as an additional purchase, it would be well worth every penny. 

The other part which isn't so great is the seat itself, its designed to have a reclining option but only has two settings which really do not make that much difference. The settings are so close together, it's really hard to see any discernible difference. You can adjust this from a green button on the side of the chair, you have to press the button and pull or push the back of the chair to click it into the angle you want. I feel it would be much better if it reclined further back for when baby falls asleep or sits further up when she wants to play. More settings on the recliner would drastically improve the product.

Negatives to one side, it is a great product. We have especially found it useful for feeding our daughter as she is a very dainty baby and seems lost in any highchair, whereas this allows her to sit comfortably and safely to enjoy her food. 

Even with the downsides, I would still say this is a must buy. As usual Fisherprice do not disappoint with the number of features on this product. They have really thought about how you would use it by including the ability to turn the chair and the aspects of entertainment. More attached toys would be nice but you can understand why this might not be possible when you see the design. Maybe if Fisherprice release a new model they could look to include toys which dangle over the side of the chair so baby can reach for them and pull them up but we will have to wait and see for that. 

New Lansinoh products - Tried & Tested

I was very excited to receive this great parcel from the lovely people at Lansinoh with some wonderful products to test. As you will see from the picture above the parcel contained, going from left to right, top to bottom, the Lansinoh mOmma Feeding Bottle with NaturalWave Teat, The Lansinoh TheraPearl 3in1 Hot or Cold Breast Therapy, Lansinoh Nursing Pads and The Lansinoh HPA Lanolin Nipple Cream. 

A few days later, I also receive the Lansinoh 2in1 Electric Breast Pump.

So let's tell you about them and how I've got on using them the last few weeks:

Lansinoh mOmma Feeding Bottle with NaturalWave Teat

This product has been designed to encourage babies to feed in the same way they do from a breast. 

Following a study that was led by Professor Woolridge, Senior Lecturer in Infant Feeding at the University of Leeds, it was found that babies have two distinct styles of feeding 'suckling' and 'sucking' to remove milk from the breast. This bottle has been designed to allow babies to use the same actions to take milk from the bottle as they do from a breast. 

So that's the technical bit what is it like to actually use :). To begin with my daughter didn't take to it if I'm honest. To be fair, she didn't take well to any bottle, we have tried so many. For quite some time she refused to feed generally, from breast or bottle. We therefore went through the range of bottles to find one that she would take. I was so desperate to find something that would get her to feed. That's when we discovered the Medela Calma and thought it was the best product ever made, as she would finally feed :). We thought there wasn't a better product out there. 

Well that was until we used the NaturalWave, as I say at the start she didn't like it and was on and off it like all the other bottles. However I persisted using it, hoping that after she got used to it, she might feed better at the breast and bottle or even better she might actually start to enjoy feeding again. 

I'm so happy I did she loves this bottle, she prefers it to everything at the moment and is taking far more milk than she did before. She will feed from this bottle and then get annoyed that she drank it all :). It seems to be soothing to feed from and I now have to keep extra milk at my side to top it up. After using this bottle for a few weeks it has actually improved her feeding from the breast and improved her latch.

I would definitely recommend it, bottles are available in 160mls and 240mls.

Lansinoh TheraPearl 3in1 Hot or Cold Breast Therapy

This item was new to me and I was very excited to use it, as I have been suffering from vascospasm, which is basically where your nipple constricts stopping milk flow and can be quite painful. This only tends to happen to me when hand expressing or pumping using the Lansinoh Manual Breast Pump. When it happens the milk stops and my nipple goes white and sore. The use of this products allows me to continue pumping. The heat takes away the pain. It's fab as you just pop it in the microwave for a few minutes. I have also used it after pumping or if my flow slows down. I have found great results from it and only wish I had this product sooner, especially in the early days when your milk hits you like a tonne of bricks :/. 

Lansinoh Nursing Pads

I love this product, I have been using them since my daughter was born but it's always nice to get extras :). I still use them today and never have any issues with milk leakage whilst using them. I find them so comfortable to wear and in fact don't even notice they are there. They are the best I have used after trying the supermarket brands and they are the only ones I buy. You can get a great deal on Amazon, 4 boxes of 60, which in total is 240 Nursing Pads for around £15 (please note prices vary) which is great value and they last a good few months, obviously the length of time they last depends on how many times a day you change them.

Lansinoh HPA Lanolin Nipple Cream

The only way I can describe this cream is as a miracle treatment. It's very sticky at first but dries in lovely.You just squeeze a pea size amount, massage it in between your thumb and finger and massage it into your nipple. I had so many issues with sore, red, dry, flaky and cracked nipples, it was awful. It was getting so bad that I thought I would have no choice but to give up Breastfeeding and pumping. This cream has actually saved my breastfeeding experience. I now never go anywhere without a tube. My only regret is that I didn't have this for my hospital bag and wasn't using it from day one, as it would have saved me from a lot of tears and soreness. I would recommend this cream to any new mum or anyone who is Breastfeeding. I now use this cream before and after feeding and pumping. It's especially great on the pump as I find that sometimes it can pinch my skin or irritate any pre-existing soreness, rubbing a small amount into each nipple makes it so much comfier and acts as a lubricant.

Lansinoh 2in1 Electric Breast Pump

This is a fabulous pump. I think all the little extras are amazing. In the box you obviously get all the pump parts and connectors but you also get:

~ Two sets of Breast shield medium and large - this allows any mum to find a comfortable fit. I use the large which has been great. 

~ 4 pump connectors - 2 of these are spare.

~ A handy bag - I have found so useful. I've been storing all sorts in there like spare nursing pads, nipple cream and the instruction booklet (just in-case). The bag is great as you can carry it on your shoulder and it's very discreet, no one would even know you had a pump in there. 

~ Two NaturalWave bottles.

~ One NaturalWave slow flow teat. 

~ Two collars - these are two purple screw on tops with a hole in the middle, you can either put the two silicone ring discs inside the collars to form a lid, which you get free in our box to seal the milk or push your free NaturalWave teat through so you are ready to feed. 

Lansinoh heavily promote their pump, store, feed policy and this lovely set assists you to do this perfectly. When using the pump, I have found it completely amazing. No more 40 minute to an hour pumping. In 20 minutes, I can express 100mls which for me is unbelievable. 

It is a little noisy I must admit but I just normally combat this by putting a blanket over it at night. I love that the pump has a back-light so you can easily pump in the dark. What makes this great is the fact that the light dims after a few seconds so the light isn't going to disturb everyone. 

I love the size of the pump to, really small, compact and portable. As I have said before I love the bag too as it allows you to easily tidy it all away. Another great feature is that you can use batteries. So no worrying about where you are going to pump, as anywhere will do :). After using this electric pump I dont see the point in using a manual, a double pump is so much quicker and makes life a lot easier. I know they do cost alot more but trust me when I say this one is worth every penny.

The pump itself has a stimulating phase and three different pumping phases. This allows you to find what works for you. You can also increase and decrease intensity at any time using the plus or minus symbols. You can also switch between phases at any time. The pump starts on a stimulating phase which lasts for two minutes and then automatically switches to the second pumping phase, you can change sooner by pressing the button. When the pump is at the pumping phase you can press the pumping button to change the pumping phase to your preference. It sounds very complicated but its so easy to do and makes alot more sense when using it. When I express, I like to switch regularly between phases, I will let the pump automatically change from stimulating to pumping and every few minutes I'll change it back to stimulating as I find that this works best for me. This is a must buy and I feel very lucky to have it. 

The only downside I have found is not having enough storage bottles. The way I combat this is pouring my expressed milk into alternate container/bottles for refrigeration so that I can clean the bottles for the next expressing session. I do think that Lansinoh need to look into producing milk storing pack, which could maybe include two or four bottles in a cool bag, containing 2/4 bottles, 2/4 collars, 2/4 ring discs and 2/4 bottle caps. That way mums can pump and store for as many feeds as needed. Personally I have found it comfier to pump into the 160ml bottles. These bottles are only currently purchasable with slow flow. If this milk storage pack was available, it would allow mums to buy the pack and then purchase the appropriate teats they needed separately. This idea has been sent to Lansinoh, so watch this space.