Shortly before my daughter was 4 months old, she seemed interested in exersaucer- and jumperoo-type toys when we visited other kids’ homes, so we took her Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo out of its box and set it up.
But when we put my daughter in her new jumping toy, there was one slight problem. Her legs didn’t yet touch the ground.
Quickly, however, we figured out a way to make the jumperoo work for our little one, a trick that is today’s hint.
Our fix: We put a large decorative pillow under our daughter’s feet (see the images above and below). The pillow fit perfectly between her legs and the floor, and gave her the extra height she needed. With her feet supported by the pillow, she was able to jump around to her heart’s content until she was tall enough to use the jumperoo properly a couple months later.
And it turns out, other parents are fans of this trick too, including moms commenting over at BabyCenter and What to Expect.
To be sure, this solution isn’t perfect. The pillow was easily kickable by my daughter, and it did sometimes end up a bit away from the jumperoo, but it still did the trick for the short period that we needed it.
Of course, a pillow will only work for you if you have one that’s roughly the size of the extra space between your baby’s legs and the floor. What if you don’t have such a pillow? Well, it turns out that you’re in luck, as there are a host of other props you can use to fill in the gap.
For instance, in a great PopSugar Moms post on “Parenting Hacks That Save Time, Money, and Sanity,” Leah Rocketto suggests using an upside salad bowl to “give baby her exersaucer legs” and “eliminate the hang factor.” Elsewhere, other parents suggest using books (think text books), folded towels, boxes and folded blankets, and for even more inspiration, search “too short for jumperoo” and “too short for exersaucer” on Google Images and check out all the clever solutions parents have come up with.
Finally, it’s worth noting that putting a prop under your little one’s feet is not something that’s typically mentioned by the makers of exersaucers and jumperoos in instruction manuals (or at least, I couldn’t find any mention of it), so you’ll want to make sure your little one is supervised when such height adjusters are in use.
What are your tricks for giving your baby exersaucer or jumperoo legs? Share your thoughts below, and if you’re debating whether to buy an exersaucer or a jumperoo, here’s my take on which one to get.
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We used a really thick cookbook!