Customer Reviews

Wimmer-Ferguson Infant Stim-Mobile

5 star:		(128)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Deciding on a mobile has a lot to do with what the parents are looking for in the mobiles purpose. We looked at many mobiles trying to decide what features we wanted. After reading about the Montessori method, we decided to go with one geared to stimulate baby visually and physically. This mobile fits the bill! Baby enjoys staring at the images and I enjoy switching them out to keep her interested. It doesn't over-stimulate nor bore baby. As she gets older, I'm sure she will bat at the images.

I think most mobiles under or over stimulate. This mobile is a great tool for baby's development. Musical mobiles may be nice for some. I prefer using a CD player in the room and switching around CD's for baby's musical pleasure. We use a mobile for visual and physical stimulation.

We received this mobile as a gift when our daughter was only a few weeks old. She was fascinated by it from the beginning and continues to be interested in it even at 6 months. (Once she started getting grabby, we had to remove the extra plastic links so that the images were out of reach.) Our baby clearly preferred this mobile to the musical one that we bought her (at twice the price, I see now). The changeable images keep it interesting and stimulating, from very simple black/white/ red geometics for the youngest babies, to more colorful images and faces as baby gets older. This mobile is designed for infants up to 5 months, but our 6 and 1/2 month old is still interested in it--I haven't had the heart to move it from its position on the changing table. One of the best gifts ever!

This mobile is very well designed, my son really loves the pictures, they are reversable so I can switch them as he gets older, the pictures face the baby unlike most mobiles.

As an ophthalmologist, I can attest to the functional utility of this product. Newborns truly are drawn to high contrast patterns--but this product is so poorly made I would not recommend it. The plastic cards are badly made--3 of them were broken straight out of the box such that I had to use tape to put them back together. In addition, the holes in the card to attach to the main apparatus are inconsistent so that some fit too loosely and are easily knocked off while others are so tight I can't get them attached. If motivated, you could probably make your own sturdier mobile--the patterns are available online.

We really hoped to get a good stimulating mobile for our child, and this looked perfect. Upon un-packaging though, it became very clear that it was not a very well made toy. The cards are a flimsy plastic that has the tabs easily tear off. Two of the preset card pairs tore just straightening them into the T-shape. I am not willing to take a risk that the tabs may break off and become a choking hazard. IMHO it should cost about $10. We are disappointed and will be returning the mobile and looking for something that is better built.

My daughter (now 10 months old) has loved this from the day we got it, when she was only 2 weeks old! The trick is to ditch the plastic rod it comes with and put a small eye hook into the ceiling and then hang the mobile with clear fishing line. This allows it to spin freely and really keep the baby's attention. My dad also used an Exacto knife to cut slits in all of the discs so that we can use all of them in any position. Annoying tweaks? Yes. But totally worth it!

I was excited when one of my friends purchased this mobile off our registry for us because I'd read such excellent things about it. Well, it arrived yesterday. I put it together last night and here is my review.

I want to like it. I love the idea of the interchangeable high-contrast cards to keep a baby interested. I knew it didn't have a motor and planned to have a fan circulating air in the nursery, which would move the cards a little bit. I knew people had had breakage troubles with some of the parts so I was careful in my assembly and indeed did not break anything. However, it still falls short of what I'd hoped for.

First, I agree with other reviewers that it is very cheaply made. The various plastic components are different shades of "white" (one reviewer said the arm and crib attachment were lavender and that's about right).

Second, the crib attachment piece is non-adjustable. If your crib slats or edges are too skinny or too wide (like mine is), it simply will not fit. However, I imagine if your crib is too skinny you could find something to act as a spacer and get it to wedge on there just fine.

Third, as mentioned, the mobile doesn't fit on my crib. I have the Baby Mod Park Lane crib from Walmart and the edge panel of the crib is just slightly too wide for this mobile to fit. For the time being, I have figured out a much less secure way to attach it, but we will probably just end up trashing the plastic arm and crib attachment piece and hanging the mobile itself from the ceiling.

Fourth, as other reviewers have mentioned, you'd think that all of the cards would be interchangeable but they're not. Some cards are designed to be vertical and some are designed to be horizontal. Therefore, your selection of cards to display to the baby is limited to only the fronts & backs of the horizontally-designed cards. I'm not sure what the purpose of the vertical cards is other than to look pretty for Mom and Dad.

Fifth, it *is* difficult to switch the cards out. Because I knew that people had broken theirs, I took my time and tried not to force anything. It definitely required a bit of patience and some twisting/turning this way and that. Fortunately, I was successful and did not break any of the tabs off the cards but I can see how it would be easy to.

Sixth, the notches of the vertical cards inserted into the slits of the horizontal cards (the ones baby sees) is a very tight fit. This causes the horizontal cards to sit at an angle. I am crossing my fingers that these "joints" will loosen and relax over time, perhaps if I take a few minutes to wiggle them each a little bit whenever I think of it.

Like I said, I want to like this mobile. I love the concept and the images are pretty cool. However, I wish the crib attachment fit my crib. I wish that all of the cards could be used horizontally rather than only half of them. I wish the plastic arm and crib attachment didn't look so cheap. And I hope the plastic cards relax a little so that the images hang straight down rather than at an angle. If I have my husband hang this from the ceiling and remove the plastic arm and crib attachment I will eliminate two of these problems so that's what I will probably do.

I'm really glad my friend only paid $11 for this. That's about as much as I would feel comfortable having paid or having had someone else pay for this right now given its limitations.

Our 7 week old loves this mobile. It can keep him occupied for at least 20 minutes, which is remarkable for a 7 week old -- no other toy we have comes close. The high-contrast patterns on the mobile are extremely easy for him to see. We loosely attach a ribbon between the mobile and his arm or leg and he derives enormous joy and excitement from realizing that he can move the mobile around by himself. For him this is a source of continuous wonder, for us a source of continuous relief when he's fussy.

It would be nice if the clamp were a little more flexible (it really only attaches to the side of a slat sided crib), and if it included a wind-up turning mechanism, but all in all this thing works wonders.

This was by far the best gift we received (well, at least at the moment.) As soon as our daughter turned 6 weeks she started really looking at the mobile. We placed it above her bassinet/changing table and at 7 weeks she was just thrilled with it. You can change the images to keep baby from getting bored. I didn't believe all the hype around this kind of mobile at first, but now I do. I don't know what I'd do with out it... I sure couldn't type this review!

I'm giving 4 stars a my 5 week old baby is drawn to the shapes and thus is getting good visual stimulation. You can almost feel those neurons connectng. But for an extra dollar they could give you a wind motor to rotate the mobile and thus develop visual tracking skills as well. Still, much better then the average stuffed animal mobile.