EvenFlo SmartSteps Exersaucer Entertainer
by Evenflo
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of EvenFlo SmartSteps Exersaucer Entertainer
Customer Review: Hours of fun for your little one!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this exersaucer when my daughter was 3 months old and had enough head control for an upright toy. We already had a jumperoo that I had received as a gift, and since she really enjoyed playing in that, I thought an exersaucer (with so many more toys than the jumperoo) would be even more fun. I also felt that the exersaucer would be a bit easier for her to use at first since at its lowest setting it's lower than the jumperoo and therefore better for slightly smaller children.
At first, the sheer number of toys was extremely overwhelming to my daughter. She would only stay in the exersaucer for a minute or two before she started to cry. We kept putting her in for a minute or two every day, and she quickly worked up to sitting in it for five minutes or more.
At this age, she's still not doing much deliberate playing with the toys. However, the design of the exersaucer and its toys allows her to make a lot of things happen even without really trying. By facing her towards the interactive book, she manages to trigger the lights and sounds just with her random batting at what's in front of her. By facing her in the opposite direction, towards the hanging toys, she can easily spin the "kaleidoscope" wheel by herself, and with a little help she can pull the hanging toys to trigger lights and music. As she continues to grow and develop more dexterity, she will be able to use each of the toys even more fully.
One of my favorite features of this exersaucer, though, is the ability to swap in and out different toys in addition to those that originally came with the SmartSteps. Three of the included toys (the cell phone, teddy bear and turtle) have interchangeable bases that work with a number of replacement toys. Each replacement toy (purchased separately) is marked with what kind of educational development it's supposed to encourage, and they cost a very reasonable $3-$8 (approx.) each. So, for a few dollars extra, you can buy some additional toys to focus on different developmental goals as your child grows and give your child even more to do on this exersaucer.
As for assembly and storage, the exersaucer has a slightly smaller footprint than the jumperoo or the aquarium cradle swing, and I've found it much easier to move from room to room than either the jumperoo or cradle swing. It also easily collapses into a relatively flat circle, which makes it good to pop in the car and take along as a portable entertainer. Assembly was easy except for installing the lower (green) legs into the yellow base. The instructions say to snap all three green tabs into the yellow base. What the instructions don't say is that if you don't do it in the right order, it's virtually impossible. When you look at the tabs, you'll see that two are identical to one another and the third looks slightly different. Snap the different-looking tab in first, and then snap the other two in - it makes the whole process go much more smoothly.
Overall, I highly recommend this exersaucer. Yes, it costs a few dollars more than the next most expensive brand, but for the tremendous amount of stuff included in it, it really is a bargain.
Customer Review: My daughter loved this and so did we
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought this saucer when she was 4 months old. In the beginning it was too much for her, she would stare and keep still and sometimes cry. I liked that I could take off some of the toys and it was less overwhelming. Around 5 months of age, she really started to get into it and this contraption was PRICELESS and worth every single penny.
It allowed us to get dinner ready, or eat a meal and kept her happy. She loved it, especially when she learned to jump. It's loud when they jump! But anything was worth seeing the hugs smiles and how excited she got. It was so amazing to see her motor skills develop as she learned how to work different parts of the saucer. And as she got older, she discovered new things - like the arch. She didnt pay much attention to that until she was around 7 months old.
However, I do have some gripes. Because of the intriquit parts, this thing is a hassle to clean. But clean, you must! Also, the volumes on the keyboard - we always kept it on the lowest setting because the louder setting on our was eardrum bursting!! And as the batteries wore down, the low setting would get quieter and quieter until we had no choice but to put it on the high setting, which had NOT gotten quieter unfortunately but was as boisterous as ever - at least it forced us to change the batteries eh? OUr daughter loved to turn the pages back and forth, back and forth. lol
Our daughter is now 10 months old. We monitered her usage of this exersaucer because of all the hooplah about their leg/foot health and also because we didn't want it to become a babysitter and the BIGGEST REASON - we didnt want her to get bored of it because we spent so much money on it. 10 minutes a day, twice a day at most. Sometimes we'd even put it away for a week completely or kept it in another room where she wouldnt get more than 5 minutes in it at a time, if that.
However, around 9 months, she started to scream as soon as I lowered her in to it. I tried to rearrange the toys, that worked for about 3 minutes. She now uses it maybe twice a week for 5 minutes each and finds mild amounts of entertainment in it. I don't think it's the toy completely - maybe more about a baby who's crawling and learning to walk and wanting her independence rather than being kept stationary in her saucer. Still, it's frustrating to us that she's over it. And dang... it takes up a ton of room.
However, it's cute. It gave her a lot of joy and I think encouraged her motor skills. Never use it as a babysitter and kids need time on the floor, too!
My rating isnt about my child's interest. It's more about the volume problem - a big, annoying problem. However, the toy is great and just as fun for us to watch her in it as it was for her to play in it. You do ask yourself, though. She might have been just as happy with a cheaper model, I'll never know.
Customer Review: Think twice before getting this!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
I usually don't write any review but want to warn any parent or gift giver to think about twice before getting this exersaucer. I got this saucer for my son when he was 5 months old. We bought it from the babiesrus store. We looked at all the exersaucers and walkers they carried in the store, and decided to get this one because we thought that it has a lot of activities to entertain the baby despite it's the most expensive model. It was a great saucer in the beginning until one day we found that there was purple dye all over my baby's clothes, hands and mouth! You know how babies put everything they found into their mouths. My son put the rattling flower which is one of the attached toys into his mouth and the purple dye came from the purple and blue cloth petals around the rattle! I immediately tried to remove the rattle from the saucer but found that it's attached to the eletronic book. If I have to remove the rattle, I have to remove the eletronic book at the same time which is my son's favorite! So I cut the cloth string that attached to the rattle. I would return this saucer if I could at that point, but there were too many toys to be taken apart which all came in plastic wrappers before it was assembled. I thought that we could sacrifice one toy since there are many other activities on it. My son soon grew out of interest within 3 months. He refused and cried when we put him in it. It has been sitting in our living room unused for another 3 months when I finally decided to put it away. Although it features that it can be folded for easy carrying, I found out that the 3 butterfly springs can't be taken apart after they got snapped into the saucer. Now the saucer can't fit into the original box with the 3 butterflies sticking out. I put the saucer on the side in a standing position after it's being folded While I was trying to get a big trash bag to put it in for storage. The saucer fell and broke one of the butterflies off and leaving a stick with sharp edge. I had seen my son poked the back of his head by the butterflies when he bent back his body. Now it is even more hazardous to let any baby sit in it with a sharp edge on the stick. What was the manufacturer thinking when they designed this? If the butterflies can't be taken apart and the saucer won't fit in the original box after assembled, you'll have to put it flat on the floor when storage, since it could fall and break the butterflies off easily! Unfortunately, it's too bulky to put it flat in our house. I'm very surprise of all the good reviews it received. I would never get it if I knew about it. This saucer has very poor design and safety issues to be addressed. So think twice before getting it because you can't return it after it's assembled unless the store will take it back without the original box!!!!!Customer Review: Pricey investment but worth the play it provides
Summary: 4 Stars
I did not have a stationary entertainer for my first daughter. I read a lot of literature and decided that if it was not reccomended for children because of the chance of developmental delays I would not use one. As it was, my oldest daughter still did not sit unassisted until 7 months, crawl until 11 months or walk until 19 months. If I had used this I doubt it would have made a difference.
However, I have a new baby and the two children are a mere 22 months apart. I knew I would have a need for a toy like this. I could not imagine how I would be able to get dinner ready with a baby and a 2 year old both wanting my attention. So I broke down and entered what I call "the lazy mommy zone".
My baby is now 4 months and is scootching along the floor, Im not at all worried about her being delayed by being in one of these toys. I also have no intention on leaving her in it all day either.
Anyway, this toy has been great. I decided to buy this one because it does have soooo many toys to play with. That and the fact that extra toys to swap out with are only 3.99 per toy.
My daughter has been playing with this for about a week and now has about 20 minutes of fun in it. She bats at the toys and causes the lights or music to play, making her delighted each time. My oldest daughter will stand on the outside of the excersaucer and play with the toys while the baby watches and smiles. This has also helped my oldest 'play' with the baby a lot, showing her how to play and make things happen. This is extremely cute to watch.
This is a pretty pricey toy, but I end up ebaying almost everything so I figure if this is the last baby then I still will get some of my money back. If we end up having more children then it will be put to more use.
Since I have only had this for a short time I havent run into any of the problems that the other people have. Although by the sounds of it their babies are far too active and rough to be playing with this anyway. If your little baby can break a piece of plastic then you wouldnt want your kid around anything they could break. I cant break the butterflies on this so how in the world a baby can is beyond me.
The only negative to this was there was a piece missing in the box. We put the whole stinking thing together and then realized one of the legs was not included. But we called babiesrus and told them we needed another part but didnt want to put another one together, they happily obliged and had the missing part waiting at the counter for us.
All in all if you have a normal strength baby and dont plan on leaving them in here for a rediculous ammount of time then I think this is actually a good investment.
Customer Review: Dissapointing and the crinkly flower is possibly hazardous
Summary: 3 Stars
Okay. It looks really cool. It seems to do alot, but a five month old wants lots of buttons to press, not things to bat at. This has some things to chew on for the teething baby, but mine is strangely drawn to the crinkly flower which is hopefully dyed with something non-toxic because the dye has faded considerably and has no doubt been ingested. The detachable ipod thingy, whatever silly pretentious name it is called is actually very boring. I have also been hanging extra toys off of the arch to change things up for him, and I also purchased a Sassy brand mirror which I also attach from time to time so he can see himself, and it's teether is much safer than the asformentioned crinkly flower, but honestly, considering what I paid I shouln't need any extras, which brings me to mention the whole "switcharoos" thing. Three of the toys are detachable and can be switched with interchangable toys, which I think your going need if you buy this and I believe they are about 8.99 each. The only detachable toy that is even the slightest bit interesting to him is the telephone, which falls off the cradle constantly over the side and he can't reach it and gets really frustrated. The other two toys are just chewy teethy things which do pretty much nothing, he tugs on them and sees they do nothing and gets bored quickly, and sometimes tries to chew on them and they are very hard to reach as well. Then the poor little guy goes in circles trying to find something exciting to do, wacking the one spinning toy a few times and finally gives up and wants to get out. I would say at the longest he has stayed in this thing no more than 15-20 minutes. If you're a mom wanting something to give your burning arms a rest, or get some work done, don't get this one. My sister-in-Law has the circus themed saucer that has zero blinky lights and sounds, just alot of fun things to wiggle and jiggle and he seemes to love it and sat all through thanksgiving dinner without a fuss. I wish I would have purchased one of the other saucers instead, BUT that's what I get for having gadget-loving hubby with me who scoffed at two of the other models by a different brand that seemed way more interactive and thought because of the blinkies and sounds we were buying the ultimate "Creme' A La Creme'" SuperBaby saucer. He also liked the way it folded up, as if we ever go anywhere! But... lesson learned, and after the holidays I will return any gifts given to me so I can treat my little one to something nice because he deserves better than this.