Johnny jumpers???

Both of my sons had a jumper. (the kind that goes on the door frame) My oldest LOVED it, would sit and jump until I took him out!! He would "run" and swing, it was so funny to watch and he laughed all of the time. My youngest didn't like it, but he didn't like being confined to anything!! As for long term effects, my oldest son is now 14 YEARS old, and he didn't have any problems because of it. I will definitely be getting another one when we finally get matched and adopt!!!

I had one for my son , his physical therapist suggested it. My son had low muscle tone in his legs and this did help him gain strength in his little legs. He has great posture and no knee problems. I can see someone smashing their fingers, but my son never did.(he's 8yrs old now)

My DD loved her jumper!!! We had a doorframe one and did not have any problems at all. However, once she started crawling she wanted nothing to do with being contained anymore...that was the end of the jumper and the exersaucer!

We have a door frame jumper and our babe loves it too - he is 14 months now and still goes in it once a week or so...I think it is great exercise for him and the smile on his face in that thing is priceless!

We had the door jumper too. H was sort of neutral about it. I hated it because it took the paint off the door frame and was starting to garbage up the molding.

I had spoken with our pediatrician about it when we recieved them as gifts for my boys, he said he had several incidents of injuries with them. One child separated his shoulder he said. Honestly, though I am not sure if it was due to not installing correctly or the actual johnny jumper thing. My boys loved their exersaucers which allows them to jump like crazy but also turn themselves in circles. There is also one that is doesn't attach to a doorway but has 4 springs that hold it steadier, I think it's called a jumperoo. We had planned to buy one of those for our little girl, if we ever get her. Good luck!

My daughter & nephew are 5 months apart. They both used the jumper. Maire-Kate would just bounce up and down and she loved it. Kellen would use it to walk and stretch and stretch to get to the door frame, he'd hold on and then let go and swing in some random direction until someone grabbed the jumper and stopped it from moving. He would never just sit there and bounce. He'd just keep trying to stretch to reach something and then go swinging wildly. He was only about 6 or 7 months old at the time and it just wasn't safe for him. For my daughter, who followed the baby jumper rules, it was fine. I think it depends on the child. Kellen was too active for it. For Maire-Kate, it was perfect.

Sydney has the Graco Bumper Jumper too and she loves it. She fell asleep in it the other night! :)

DD didn't like the one that hung from the door frame but LOVED the jumperoo. I think the one that hung from the door moved around in too many directions for her and she didn't feel safe. She liked the jumperoo because she could just bounce up and down. It also had music and buttons she could push!

I bought A the jumperoo. He really likes how it lights up and the music, but he is too small for it. Even on the lowest setting his little feet don't touch the ground yet!! Oh well he will grow into it!!! Thanks!!

I think if you child doesn't sit in it constantly, it's fine! People get upset about exersaucers too, saying it makes babies bow-legged. It doesn't if they aren't it 12 hours a day! We don't have any kiddos yet, but I did buy the over the door moulding kind...but we are doing all the rehab on our home ourselves. We'll know if it's a secure doorway or not!

Same here-- I have both, but DS only likes the jumperoo. I keep trying the doorway one, though, because it's WAY more portable. Shy Bear, when I first got the jumperoo, I had to put books underneath so that DS's feet had something to touch. Once he started bouncing that way, it stretched out some, and I was able to move the books pretty quickly.Char

I am a child care provider and have had quite a bit of experience with babies who have Jolly Jumpers and Jumperoos. I can always tell when a baby has one without the parents even telling me. We don't use them in our home. The downside to them is that the babies learn immediately that with little effort they can get a huge response. In other words... the effort put into them bouncing is not even close to the response they get in the bounce. Repeated messages of little effort big response can lead to some problems when they don't have access to the jumper. What we see here is babies who are in jumpers kick there legs (usually both legs at the same time) when you are doing normal life stuff like changing them, feeding them, holding them, stroller rides etc. They can be pretty unhappy when you are trying to do necessary things and their kicking isn't resulting in anything but a thud on the floor. If the child is in a jumper for long periods of time daily they have a hard time adjusting to situations where they kick and don't get any response much less a big response. I had one baby join our care at six months. She spent the majority of her home time in a jumper because she "just loved it". She spent the first two weeks laying on her back and kicking repeatedly (both legs) against the floor, the crib mattress, and while sitting in an exersaucer she would SLAM her body down increasingly hard when the little foot taps didn't bounce her back. She was VERY fussy. She was extremely difficult to change her diaper because of the CONSTANT kicking motions. A week into caring for her I tried to count how many kicks per minute she was doing and she kicked SO fast (both legs simultaneously) that I litterally couldn't count the kicks. Fortunately she was a large baby and outgrew the weight of the jumper at about eight months. I talked to the parents a lot about her having a decent amount of floor time instead of Jolly time but they wouldn't consider it because she was not happy on the floor. It took about a month to get her used to normal gravity here wherein the effort she put out with her body movements resulted in equal response. If she kicked the floor her feet felt the impact of the hit and they did not bounce back. After repeated kicking her legs would tire and she would slow down. If she bounced in the exersaucer she landed her bottom in the seat but did not bounce back. When she kicked the air while being fed her feet just came back to rest on the foot tray of the high chair. In other words... she adjusted to the "response" being exactly what she put out. I see where some of you Mom's are stateing that the child kicks when not in the Jolly. IMO, this is their attempt to get the BIG response. They will try it over and over again. I haven't seen babies who are in Jolly's as their primary source of entertainment walk or crawl early. In fact, most of them have been a bit behind their non Jolly counterparts. I have seen a trend of fussiness during play time as they aren't very content having a large floor area filled with toys where they can scoot, roll, and crawl for any substantial time period. They grow weary of it pretty quickly. Once they outgrow the weight of the Jolly they seem to start to catch up and the fussiness definitely decreases. I have seen similar patterns with babies who are in swings and bouncing exersaucers for a large part of their waking hours. It's pretty much the same result... where they want motion they didn't create to keep them occupied and happy. When they are left to deal with plain old gravity it just isn't as stimulating. So just a word of caution with the jumpers (which offer the highest response to the least amount of effort). Make sure they have a good amount of time and experience with real gravity. Jolly jumpers can be GREAT as an activity for short periods here and there but can become sort of addictive to the baby brain if used as their primary source of entertainment. If they are in care during the day and the provider doesn't use them it can be a rough transition often without the provider even realizing that the fussiness is because the baby is really wanting large response motion that they get at home. Definitely tell your provider what equipment you use and an average of how much time the child spends in it a day. This can help the provider figure out what will work at home and give them insight to when the child should adjust to what they use in their home. Nan

My DD loved her jumper!!! We had a doorframe one and did no longer have any issues at all. However, once she started out crawling she wanted not anything to do with being contained anymore here ...That changed into the end of the jumper and the exersaucer!