We think a good-sized baby play mat is a must for any home. You can move them quite easily to any room so that baby can come with you and enjoy hanging out in a safe and comfy place while you get on with chores or have a moment to yourself.
If you're looking for a really big one that's nice and padded, with plenty to keep little one entertained, the Infantino Giant Fold and Go Discovery Mat ticks all the boxes! It offers over two square metres of extra thick mat with built-in activities and a gorgeous contrasting colour design.
Who tested the product?
We put the product to the test and gave it to our mum tester Rosie and her son Eli who is seven months to try out. They tried and tested the Infantino Giant Fold and Go Discovery Mat for Mother and Baby, and then shared thoughts about the product for our readers in this review.
What the product was tested for?
Rosie shared her first impressions of the product and her little one's reactions to it. She also commented on how easy the mat has been to use to engage her son Eli. When talking about the size of the mat, Rosie shares her thoughts on the practicality of using the mat, and also keeping it clean. She has spoken about comfort, portability, the things she's like to see improved, and whether she would recommend this product to her friends.
Testing the Infantino Giant Fold and Go Discovery Mat
First Impressions
First impressions was that this is a fun, colourful playmat with lots of interactive features. The animal designs are cute and colourful, with some black and white patterns too. There’s a detachable mirror and all the animals have flaps either on their ears or the owl’s wings which babies can play with. Eli’s favourites are the labels on the clouds, and he’s also a big fan of the mirror.
Ease of Use
It’s been a great mat for tummy time, there’s lots of different textures and things he wants to reach for, its comfortable and a really generous size, maybe not great for those with smaller homes.
Keeping clean
I’ve used it on the patio as well, but as the back isn’t that wipeable I’ve avoided putting it on grass and stuck to using my cheaper more plastic-y playmat for that. While all the textures are great, the surface of the mat isn’t easy to wipe up messes – you can put it in the washing machine but it is quite a big mat, so if you don’t have a large washing machine it might not fit.
Comfort
The comfort of it is great, it’s nice and padded, even on hard floors or the patio Eli was happy to be on it.
Portability
It’s good that it comes with a storage bag, which makes it easier to take on the go, but I will say it’s not that easy to fold back into the bag, there’s a bit of force needed, but once in you can zip it up and it’s good to go. It’s a big playmat so I think the bag is a must-have, would definitely recommend keeping it!
Final thoughts
The only other thing I’d say is that the mirror is completely detached from the mat – now sometimes this is great, it means you can move it around and Eli can hold it and play with it as much as he likes, but I’ve taken it out of the bag a couple of times now and the mirror has ended up detaching and flying under the sofa, so maybe it would be better to have a little pocket for it, or a stronger velcro attachment so that you can secure it when you want to!
All in all though, I think this is a great mat, particularly for younger babies doing tummy time or just starting to learn to sit up and crawl.
Would you recommend it to friends?
I definitely think it’s helped Eli’s development, and I’d recommend it to other mums and dads looking for a large playmat that is interactive and will encourage their babies to play.
Proud aunt to her teen niece, Zara Mohammed is a Digital Writer for Mother&Baby. She has 10 years freelance writing experience creating lifestyle content for various platforms, including pregnancy, women’s health, parenting, child development and child mental health, plus lots of fun seasonal family articles and celebrity news.