The 4moms mamaRoo is one of the most popular baby swings around. With motions that are reminiscent of what babies are familiar with, it isn’t your average baby swing. Its sleek design makes it attractive to millennial parents. And almost everyone I know has used one or has one on their baby registry. My sister used this baby swing with both of her kids. In fact, her use of the mamaRoo influenced me to get one to use for Baby #2. Plus, it looks super fancy! I couldn’t wait to use it with the baby once we brought her home. That I did, and after a few months of use I am here to tell the truth about the most popular baby swing.
What is the mamaRoo?
The mamaRoo is not your average baby swing. It’s a combination of a swing, a rocker, and a bouncer in one. Its goal is to mimic the way mom or dad hold and rock their baby. The mamaRoo achieves this through five different motion settings: car ride, kangaroo, tree swing, rock-a-bye, and wave. The speed of each of these motions can also be adjusted directly from the baby swing’s touchpad or via a Bluetooth paired mobile device.
What I Liked About the 4moms mamaRoo 4
The mamaRoo is a swanky looking baby swing. Its colors are appealing and don’t take away from the aesthetics of the room it’s in. That’s what sold me initially. I also like how the shape of it hugs the baby as if they were being cuddled. Additionally, the materials of the mamaRoo are washable, which is much needed when dealing with infant blowouts. It happened once and I was thankful. Other things that I enjoyed about the 4moms mamaRoo are:
- Being able to control the baby swing from my phone
- It’s lightweight (19 lbs) making it easy to move throughout the house
- It helped keep my hands free at times so that I can do other things like take a quick shower
- Easy to put together/take apart
Why I Would Reconsider Buying the mamaRoo
This baby swing costs just as much as it looks. At around $220-2$50, it’s expensive for a baby item that will only be used for a few months. The suggested usage limit for the mamaRoo is until the baby sits up or reaches 25 lbs. My daughter aged out at around 4 1/2 months since she was sitting up on her own by then. But her time using it was cut short due to the baby swing malfunctioning. 4moms, did, however, replace the base for free thamks to the 1-year warranty.
My daughter preferred using the 4moms mamaRoo 4 without the motions; therefore, we mostly used it without it plugged in. Even though it stopped working it functioned as a very fancy baby seat. After speaking with other family and friends who own the mamaRoo, many of them stated that their babies didn’t enjoy the motions either.
In addition to not enjoying the motions, when my daughter began paying attention to the mobiles, she really didn’t enjoy them either. They seemed to frustrate her more than anything since there wasn’t a magic button to make them move. The only time she seemed to get joy from the mobile was when her sister, my husband, or myself manually spun it.
The mamaRoo had a feature that I was really excited about, a speaker that allows you to play factory-installed white noise like rain or you can plug in your own device via an aux cable to play lullabies. However, the speaker output is so low that even on its highest level it is hard to hear especially when the swing is in motion.
Is the 4moms mamaRoo Worth it?
The 4moms mamaRoo 4 baby swing has its benefits. However, I think that for the price, improvements need to be made for it to be worth it. There are more economical baby swing options that have better features.
The silver lining to owning a mamaRoo is that it is one of the baby items with a high resale value. So, if you own it you can get at least 60% of your money back. If you’re in the market for one, buying one second-hand or borrowing from someone you know may be best just in case your baby ends up not liking it.