That is indeed the question. 

What is a Jolly Jumper? 

It’s basically an inverse trampoline for babies.  The baby is suspended in a harness attached to a spring that allows them to jump up and down without toppling over.  See picture below.

These are the benefits of jumpers as claimed by the manufacturers:

• It’s good exercise for babies
• Strengthens baby’s leg muscles
• Promotes earlier walking (by virtue of the fact that it strengthens their leg muscles) and motor coordination

According to “What to Expect, the First Year”, the added benefit is that the Jolly Jumper offers baby a means of mobility where the lack of it may frustrate a more active baby.

From personal experience, the Jolly Jumper has a couple of benefits for Mummy too:

• helps Mummy strengthen her pelvic floor muscles when she jumps alongside baby (I soon discovered how weak mine were when I starting jumping up and down to give Gavin the idea of what he was supposed to do and nearly created a puddle on the floor)
• gives Mummy a good cardio workout (trust me, you don’t even have to jump as much or as hard as baby to get the heart going)

According to our paediatrician, Dr Lam, jolly jumpers may well help babies to learn to walk at an earlier age.  In his opinion it isn’t necessary as all babies will learn to walk eventually of their own accord.

Another type of jumper is the exosaucer activity center jumper:

These provide baby other amusements as well as the ability to rock and bounce.  The down side of the exosaucer is that the toys attached to it are distracting for babies with their limited attention span and the limited range of vertical motion.  The exosaucer is also a lot more expensive than a regular Jolly Jumper costing as much as four to five times the price.

If you want a jumper with exercise value, I recommend the Jolly Jumper over the exosaucer. 

Popularity: 15% [?]