New parents need a lot of help, and there are devices that can monitor a baby's heart rate can keep an eye on a baby while she sleeps. There are also helpers that can calm a crying baby and get them to sleep. One such device we got to test recently is from the brand 4moms and is called the MamaRoo4 Infant Seat. We tested this portable seat with a newborn baby to see how well it helped to soothe her needs.

Note: There has been a voluntary recall of MamaRoo swings due to two incidents involving entanglement and strangulation. Learn how to get a free strap fastener from 4moms to help protect your crawling infant when not in the swing.

mamaRoo4 with infanct insert can go anywhere in your house.GearBrain

What is MamaRoo4 Infant Seat?

MamaRoo4 Infant Seat is a Bluetooth-connected infant seat that rotates to replicate the motions of a parent's arms. This infant seat has built-in sounds and an MP3 plug-in, so you can also play soothing sounds — or your favorite song — to calm your newborn. The seat is adjustable and can fully recline, which is good for newborns who can't yet sit up independently. By unlocking the back of the seat, you can slide it up and down until you find the desired place, then lock it into place.

There are three distinct styles for the seat, with five different prints, letting you choose from a plush material, which is multi-colored or silver, a blanket-like material, which comes in grey or black; and a woven polyester material, which comes in a dark grey. The covers are removable (a necessity with a newborn) and machine-washable. You can also purchase a newborn insert which is a mesh cover and machine washable. We used the cool mesh fabric with a newborn insert for our test.

mamaRoo4 without infant insert. GearBrain

What separates MamaRoo4 from other infant seats, especially moveable ones, is the way the seat rotates. The rotation is designed to simulate a parent rocking their baby, but you can control the speed through either an iOS and Android mobile app or controls at the base of the seat. There are five motions: car ride, kangaroo, tree swing, rock-a-bye, and wave. Each has its own unique motion, with some side-to-side and others a combination of up and down and side-to-side. Our newborn tester responded best to a car ride, a full rotating motion.

Besides the rotation, users can control four sounds and their sound levels, ranging from 1 to 5. The four sounds are ocean, fan, rain, and heart. MamaRoo4 includes a cable connecting to your iPod or smartphone if you want to play music. Just plug the cord to the aux (MP3) input at the seat's base and start playing. Our tester responded best to rain versus the supplied music.

mamaRoo4 comes with instruction manual and a very short MP3 cord to connect your own music to the seat.GearBrain

How to Setup MamaRoo4 Infant Seat.

Setting up your MamaRoo4 infant seat is quick and simple and should take about five minutes. We recommend using the mamaRoo app for setting up the seat, finding the instructions very clear and easy to understand.

The MamaRoo4 Infant Seat also has a mobile tied with three different Interactive and reversible toy balls. The balls are black and white on one side, with a green, yellow, or purple color on the other. One of the balls has a mirror on the black side; another has a rattle inside, and the other ball crinkles. Parents must rotate the balls if they want them to move because the mobile is stationary. You can also take the balls off the mobile for the baby to play with. Our newborn tester really liked the colors of the ball and initially spent a fair amount of time just staring at them. She also had fun with the ball that was scrunched.

Cost

MamaRoo4 Infant seat costs $249.99 and is available on the company's website and Amazon. The extra MamaRoo seat fabric costs $39.99 each.

4moms MamaRoo Multi-Motion Baby Swing, Bluetooth Baby Swing with 5 Unique Motions, Grey

List Price: $188.99

New From: $188.99 in Stock

Performance

My wife and I had five children, and we did a lot of rocking on a chair or just standing when the kids were infants, but a device that could give us a break once in a while would have been nice. This is what MamaRoo4 Infant Seat offers: a smart connected infant seat that automatically helps keep your newborn calm and can soothe them with sounds and movement. It's a perfect gift for any new parents, whether this is your first or fifth child.

Our newborn tester loves her MamaRoo4 and does her parents, helping to keep her occupied while doing other tasks, like laundry, cleaning the house, or — these days — working from home. But as our newborn tester turned 4 months old, she became more restless after 20 to 25 minutes in her seat. The mobile doesn't move, and since she can't reach it, we spend time pushing it to keep her occupied.

Summary

MamaRoo4 is an expensive, connected infant seat that offers parents a break from holding or soothing their newborn. It also provides newborns a calming experience that parents can control in a simple app. But we would like to see more automation in the seat, particularly with the mobile. A stationary mobile is fine, but a rotating one would keep the baby's interest as they age. Also, the infant insert should be part of the initial purchase. We often used that insert because our newborn tester was a small infant. If your baby is big, you might not need it. However, including it with your purchase of MamaRoo4 would be good.

We also noticed the cord used to connect an MP3 player to the MamaRoo4 is rather short. It would be more useful if the cord were at least 6 feet long. It would make it easier for parents to play music from their smartphones, iPods, or iPads.

mamaRoo4 has manual controls at the base of the rocker. GearBrain

In our opinion, MamaRoo4 is prime for babies that are between 1 and 4 months old. But about 4 to 5 months old, the seat might be less needed as babies tend to get interested in what's around them and want to start moving about. This is due to your newborn craving more interaction and not wanting to be tied down to a seat. And this is something 4moms does note. The MamaRoo4 is primarily designed for babies from birth up to 25 pounds when they can sit up unaided or start to try to climb out of the seat.

Overall, the MamaRoo4 Infant seat is great for newborns and their parents. It's a solid, connected baby device that gives parents that much-needed break to make dinner, do laundry, or have a glass of wine at the end of a hard day.

Pros

• Ease of use and simple setup
• Controllable sound and motion
• Covers are soft and washable

• Infant insert is extra
• The Mobile doesn't rotate, and the auxiliary cord is too short
• Price

4moms RockaRoo and MamaRoo Infant Insert for Newborn Baby and Infant, Machine Washable, Cool Mesh Fabric, Reversible Design, Mint

List Price: $39.99

New From: $39.99 in Stock

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