Review - 4Moms mamaRoo Baby Swing

At my last job, one of our clients was a manufacturer of baby products. Strollers, highchairs, and swings.

Some of their most-heated litigation involved baby swings - because there have been some real leaps forward in design in that area.

The "open top swing" didn't exist a decade and a half ago, and now it's all you see. And believe me, the fight over who came up with that innovation was rough.

The last couple of years have seen some new advances in baby swings. Like the Momaroo, which is less of a "swing", and more of a "robot that gently rocks your baby to sleep". It's awesome.


There HAS been a lot of innovation in the baby-swing arena.

We've gone from A-Frame swings with a wind-up mechanism (as demonstrated by this young contortionist):

Seriously, this kid looks uncomfortable.

.....to open-top style swings, which made it much easier to get your kid in and out:

.....to fully mechanical battery-powered papasan-style swings that were capable of both front-to-back AND side-to-side movement: 

And now, we arrive at the Momaroo, which may represent the end of baby swing design. 

It's a mechanical open-top swing, with a plug-in drive mechanism. (No more D-batteries!)

It moves left-to-right, and up-and-down. Or both at the same time. 

The Momaroo has 5 "preset" swing motions, each of which can be dialed up in intensity from 1 to 5. 

So your kid may prefer the U-shaped "tree swing" motion, or the inverted U "rock-a-bye". 

Or the bouncing "kangaroo".

Or the circular, rolling motion of "ocean", or the swaying "car ride". 

Something's going to work. 

It makes white noise sounds, which can come in handy when getting your baby to sleep. Or you can plug in your iPhone and play anything you'd like. 

The primary drawback of the Momaroo is cost. You're going to be in for $200, plus another $40 or so for the newborn insert - and let's face it, baby swings are primarily used for newborns. 

For a product that you are NOT going to be using for more than a year or so, that's a lot of cash. But it's definitely a high-quality product, and you should be able to sell it and recoup some of your cost. 

All told, this fits right in with the Apple aesthetic - you're paying a premium for design. That said, you're getting a top-of-the-line product. 

We'll dock it one star for price - but if money is no object, you aren't going to get a better swing in 2014.