We Found One Baby Activity Center
That Accommodates a Tall Baby Well.
There are lots of names for the baby activity center and baby jumper kind of products. From exersaucer, stationary entertainer, to jumper or jumperoo. In this category we're basically talking about any one of the variety of stand-up play centers.
The challenge with these big hunks of baby gear, is that they are generally designed for a baby old enough to sustain head and neck control -- generally 4 months. However, they have maximum weights. Some are as low as 22 pounds. A really tall four month old can be nearly 20 pounds already. So there's the rub. While your baby will probably have some window of time in which any of them can be used, you want that window to be longer than three weeks. Otherwise, you're looking for the next thing to put the baby in and the next $100.
These baby bouncer entertainment centers also have limits to their height. Generally, the baby sits in a seat or "bucket". Some of the models offer 3 height adjustments, but they're often too low to begin with for a tall baby.
Finally, the seats themselves can be a tall baby challenge. The seat buckets are all one size. On an average length baby, the top of the seat reaches higher on their torso, to basically under their armpits. There's nowhere for them to tip inside such a high seat, and the surrounding toys are out of face-plant range.
However, with a tall baby, the top of the seat may only come up to their waist instead of their arm pits. If the seat opening is wide too, (most are), your tall 4-month-old can freely tip over in every direction. Tummy control isn't developed at that age. With our first "stationary entertainer" our baby could lose his balance in his wide, shallow seat, and "tip" straight onto the sharp plastic toys. Worse still, these sharp toys were at eye level for his height! You must definitely be careful of this with upright play bouncers!
After much measuring and searching, we found only one baby activity center brand or baby bouncer that fit a tall baby body: the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo.
The seat bucket is narrow at the top. That means the diameter of the opening is inches smaller than the wide shallow seats of the other baby bouncers or activity centers. The seat has a higher back too...no top-heavy tipping backwards either. The height adjustment is taller than the other products too. In the tallest position, it was even too high for our 30 inch tall baby to touch his toes to the ground. We could use position 2 safely. None of the toys were at eye level either. They were safely out of range for a sleepy face-plant. In fact, a shorter baby would likely not fit this baby jumper at all, because his or her armpits wouldn't clear the top of the seat. This one truly "fit" a tall baby better. Click through for current pricing here: Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo
While we hope Fisher Price makes another version that accommodates 30 pounds instead of 25, at least this new baby gear worked for a long and lean body! By the time he outgrows it, he will be able to sit in other places.
The baby activity centers we investigated and found to be too short, or which had wide shallow seat designs that made the baby too "top heavy" and tippable, included: Baby Einstein Stationary Activity Center and Motion Activity Jumper, Evenflo Smartsteps Exersaucer, and 3-in-1 ExerSaucer Triple Fun, Baby Sit and Step, Bright Starts Around We Go. Essentially, we're talking about most of the most popular models out there.
But a variety of Fisher Price models all have the narrower, deeper bucket. This link takes you to a range of various ones similar to the Rainforest Jumperoo
More A Variety of Tall Jumparoo Models by Fisher Price
The additional problem with all the alternatives, was that their seat heights weren't high enough. A tall baby would be flat footed (and able to push out), on the highest settings. These are products parents of average height babies swear by, too. Don't jump on the bandwagon though. While we're sure these alternatives are great for those middle range body lengths, but if yours is a tall baby, stay away.
The Baby Doorway Jumper
Aside from this kind of stationary jumper and baby activity center, there is always the classic baby doorway jumper. These have some benefits for taller babies over the floor-fixed versions.
Click here for more info, and our recommendations.
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