Fisher-Price Rainforest Gym

I bought this after seeing good reviews and my son absolutely loves it. I bought it when he was only a few weeks old and even then he found it engaging. As time goes on, he finds more and more to be interested in moving on from looking at the various features to batting them to then actually playing with them and improving his dexterity. Now, he looks longingly at it as he's carried around the room and friends who have tried it with their babies decided they would also buy it.

Good points:
- Plenty of hanging items (elephant with rattle beads), toucan with rattle, parrot with rotating discs, soft monkey, hanging mirror, butterflies attached to the hub that hover about when the bars are knocked. You can move the toys around the mat and the attachments and some of the attachments are low enough for very young babies to touch and see them. I looked at several mats where the toys were just too high for a baby laying down to interact with. You can also attach the toys to the outside of the mat for tummy time and there is a crinkly leaf that lifts up to show a hiding bug.
- Sturdy and quality construction with with attention to detail, such as the inclusion of the felt leaves from the central hub and the lovely giraffe.
- Bright, colourful fabric that cleans up well (the mat has to be washed as a delicate on a cold wash) and hasn't incurred any shrinkage, fading, etc
- Music and sounds that aren't too annoying, as well as four lights under the hub that fade on and off in time with the sounds. The rainforest sounds are actually very nice. The music is bearable. There are 3 settings: rainforest sounds, music and music started by the bars being struck. There are two volume levels. I rarely have it on the loudest setting and the batteries have lasted ages (C batteries).
- The bars are far enough apart to put a change mat in between to keep your little one occupied while you change their nappy.

Bad points:
- As a previous reviewer said, once the bars have been put together using the hub it's impossible to detach them again without wondering if you're going to permanently damage it! You can take the bars apart from each other to the point where they can be folded together and it can still all be put in its original bag. I can't do the middle popper up on the bag, but it's still travelled well out and about.
- The mat is thinner than some others so you can imagine it might get a bit uncomfy after a while. Needs to be placed on carpet or a rug. It is easier, however, for babies to move themselves around on the mat.
- It would've been nice to have the complete package and have a head and shoulder support for tummy time. I bought another mat for this and don't use the mat the support came with at all. It would also be nice if the butterflies went around by themselves, but it can give older babies something more to reach for.

I have no doubts about how good this product is and would quite happily recommend it to anyone. Well worth the money. I bought it from babycity through Amazon and the service was excellent.

I bought this when I was pregnant and boy was I glad I did!
I placed my daughter beneath the gym when she was about a week old. Being as she was so young I never expected much but I was pleasently surprised that she seemed to instantly love it!
At only a few weeks old she would reach for the various colourful toys and smile at them. She would stare at the lights for ages.
It became a godsend for me during the first few months as it seemed the only time she wasn't crying was when she was under the gym. It kept her occupied for at least 20 mins a time (a few times a day) so I could get things done.

At about 6 months she started lifting her head and just dropping it back down on the floor so I stopped using it. The mat itself isn't very thick and I have wood floors. She also started getting upset when she couldn't pull the toys into her mouth (teething!) so I decided to get the fisherprice jumperoo (another godsend!) Which is perfect for her present age of 7 months.

The fisher price rainforest gym says use up until 12 months but I don't think it lasts so long. However, I couldn't rate it down for this. This baby gym was the only thing which kept my daughter happy during the early months when she seemed to cry all the time. It was worth the money.

It looks great, has lots of colourful toys for the baby to play with. The lights and music really seemed to amuse my daughter too. This is a bit more pricey than some other baby gyms but well worth the extra money.

Great for baby development!

Overall this is a nice playmat. It's well made, sturdy and seems to use high quality materials. The colours are bright and vibrant for baby and the music options (music or rainforest sounds) are pleasing to the ear. Most of the hanging objects including the mirror are detachable and moveable, so you can change the layout to suit baby. As others have said, the butterflies at the top do not rotate automatically, you have to push them yourself.

Downsides: The mat needs a rug or carpet underneath as it is quite thin. Also beware that once the two overhead bars and the leaves are snapped into place, there seems to be no way of taking them apart again. For storage, you take off the overhead bars, and the lower bar can be rotated to line up with the upper bar (the one with the giraffe). Basically, once you assemble the mat, you can never get it back into the packaging again, so you will need some space to store it.