We are starting to get into that baby “in-between” stage with Emma when we are out and about. She’s beginning to not be content to stay in her infant car seat while we are at a restaurant or even shopping but she’s not quite big enough for a highchair or a shopping cart. Even at home, Emma wants to be part of what’s going on and wants to be up with everyone else, not playing on the floor.
BambinOz has designed a compact, lightweight baby seat that is focused on safety and portability in The PortaChair. The PortaChair has a 5-point safety harness for maximum support with adjustable shoulder straps to accommodate children ages 5 months to 2 ½ years.
I put Emma in the PortaChair while in the kitchen with me washing dishes (it seems like we are always washing dishes!). She had a great time kicking her legs on the chair and generally being closer to me.
She was not restricted in being able to move her arms or legs, even though she was strapped in pretty tight, as I discovered when she managed to get one of the kitchen drawers open and threw bibs all over the floor. I also put some toys on the chair for her play with and she was happy as could be.
We also had a visit to the grandparents house for dinner so I rolled up the PortaChair, tossed it in my bag and off we went. I had the PortaChair on one of their dining room table chairs, which is shorter than our table chairs, in a few minutes and Emma was happy as could be sitting at the table with us. While going out to eat didn’t happen this week, I will be using the PortaChair for sure the next time we head to a restaurant.
The directions to set-up the chair were very easy to follow. My dining room chairs have rather tall backs so the conventional chair directions didn’t apply. However, there were additional directions for using the PortaChair with tall back chairs that were exactly what I needed. The PortaChair attaches to any chair with large straps securing the fabric to the chair and then a second set of straps securing the child as well.
The PortaChair is made of lightly padded fabric that is machine washable (hooray!!) that rolls up compactly and is perfect for tossing in the diaper bag, bottom of the stroller or my giant purse.
Also, BambinOz sent us the Instant Heat Bottle Warmer Pack to try out.
This product is designed to be able to keep bottles warm, wherever you may be, without electricity or batteries. It consists of a small insulated carrying bag and a heating pad, very similar to a reusable handwarmer. The heating pad contains a solution of water, a food grade sodium acetate and a stainless steel disc. When you gently flex the disc, this starts a chain reaction where the solution begins to crystallize and generate heat lasting up to an hour. Once the pad cools, simply immerse in boiling water for 5-10 minutes or until the solution becomes completely clear.
This sounded like one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” products. Typically Emma doesn’t drink very warm bottles so I was a little concerned that the heat pad would make her bottle too hot. The disc was a little tricky to snap the first time but within a minute the liquid was warm and had crystallized. I made her bottle, wrapped the heat pad around it and popped in the carry bag. We use Avent 9oz bottles and the bottle wrapped in the heat pad fit in the bag, with a little room to spare. My only downside was that the zipper on the carry bag was pretty tough to open and close.
About 45 minutes later, Emma’s bottle was warm, but not too hot at all. The heat pad was still warm in the carry bag but not hot enough to worry about anyone getting burned by touching it. At home I boiled the cool pad and was surprised that it only took about 5 minutes to become completely clear again. Also, the heat pad is flexible enough and the right size to warm up for sore muscles or boo-boos that need a little bit of warmth too.
This is a great product for on the go families like ours. The carry bag is just right for a bottle and a container of baby food for a dinner out or even to fill up with snacks.
BambinOz has done a terrific job of making the necessities of a little one more portable and practical for an on the run family with an overstuffed diaper bag.
Thank you to BambinOz for providing the products for review. No compensation was received. The opinions are mine and that of my family.
This is pretty neat! Would sure come in handy!
The portachair would be nice for visiting relatives homes without high chairs… especially during the holiday season!
Such a great product idea. Wish they had this when my children were little, it would have saved me alot of headaches (LOL)
She seems to be quite pleased with it!