Finding the Best Nursery Glider and Rocking Chairs

Those first few months of being a parent can be tough. You’ll spend countless hours trying to rock your baby back to sleep to help calm them. We’d often do this either standing up or sitting on a bed. We’ll be honest though - this is only comfortable for so long before you eventually getting a sore back from the awkward seated position. 

Enter nursery gliders or nursery chairs as they’re also known.  We look at these comfortable seats which are designed to help you rock your little one back to sleep while also providing comfort and support for you, the parent.  This article looks at what is a nursery glider, what to consider when buying one and some of the best nursery chairs on the market. 

If you don’t have time to read this article, we really recommend the for . 

Best Nursery Chairs Compared

What is a Nursery Glider?

A nursery glider is simply a rocking chair with added features designed for parents including:

• Padded armrests for comfort
• Washable covers​
• Storage pockets whether that be to hold your baby related odds and ends or even a water bottle for you.
• Leg rests​
• Locking mechanisms to help keep the chair in the one position 

As a parent of a newborn, you will spend plenty of time in the nursery for feedings, book reading, and many other activities, both day and night. This means that the nursery glider should be comfortable for both you and the baby. Considering how much time you will spend in the chair, we recommend not cheaping out too much as you want something that’s comfortable and something you’ll look forward to sitting in rather than associating it with a negative frame of mind.

Different Types of Nursery Chairs

As nursery chairs have evolved over the years, we’ve begun to see chairs with different mechanisms (basically how the chair moves) enter the market. Some of these include:

Reclining Mechanism

Similar to what you’d find in your lounge room, a reclining based nursery chair uses a reclining mechanism which will often include different reclining settings. From what we’ve seen, some chairs now come with electrical motors to help put the chair into position without requiring you to do much. While also including rocking and/or gliding mechanisms to help sooth your child.

Rocker Mechanism

Rocking mechanism chairs use a rocking motion to help sooth your child. These chairs will often include a lock on them to avoid you sitting in the car and the chair rocking back.

This type of chair is generally most popular on the market.

Gliding Mechanism

Gliding nursery chairs are designed with a platform where the chair can smoothly glide back and forth which in turn helps provide a comfortable soothing sensation for your child.

Standard Seat

Not all chairs include a different mechanism and some are just designed to look pretty in your baby nursery. For this reason, be sure to check the product listing detail and make sure you know what type of chair you're getting.

What’s the Difference Between a Glider and a Rocker?

Good question! 

Generally rockers use wooden curved mounts at the bottom of the chair which is designed for the chair to rock back and forth. While gliders are designed for you to move back and forth.  Both work equally well at calming your baby and really comes down to personal preference to what you as the parent finds more comfortable. 

11 Things to Consider When Choosing a Nursery Glider

Like anything baby related, nursery gliding chairs can be basic $50 chairs all the way up to costing a $500. We’d recommend reading our below buying tips and prioritising what’s most important for you. You might not need all the bells and whistles but just one or two features are most important for you. Let’s take a look at what we’d recommend considering when buying a baby nursery chair:

1. Comfort

We’ll start with what we think is the most important consideration when it comes to buying a nursery glider - Comfort.

You will be spending many hours in the chair gliding and trying to sooth your child so why buy something that’s only uncomfortable for you? While comfort may seem like an obvious feature to consider, you may be surprised by how many parents overlook comfort and go for style.

In terms of things to look for when buying a comfortable chair, we recommend:

• Choose a nursery glider that comfortably supports your back and offers excellent head support
• Consider also the size of your body so that you can get a chair that has plenty of room to enable you to change positions easily
• Ensure that the glider allows your feet to reach the ground well​
• The pockets that hold the baby gear should be located in a place where you can easily reach them.

2. Electrical Assistance

If you’re willing to spend the cash, some chairs come with an electric remote to help recline into position or if you’re lucky, massage your back. 

3. Padded Armrests

Your arms need to be supported as you hold your baby as it helps absorbs some of the weight to avoid you getting sore.

Try choose a nursery glider which comes with thick padding and are wide enough to accomodate your arm. They should be spacious, soft, and have enough room to allow your arm and baby’s head to rest.

4. Locking Mechanism

When choosing a nursery glider, we’d recommend selecting one which locks in place to ensure safety for you and your child. A locking mechanism is vital in preventing the chair from moving when you don’t want it to move. It works by locking the seat in place when you’re no longer rocking the baby to sleep, and you want to get them out of the chair.

5. Easy to Clean

Over time your nursery glider will take lots of spills which means you want something that is easy to keep clean. 

We’d recommend ensuring the fabric of the chair is easy to clean, and if possible, machine washable because it will make work easier for you. 

6. Storage Pockets

We found when using our nursery chair, it was easy to get stuck there without being able to get up and get things you need. For this reason, we think storage pockets are a must when buying a nursery glider. They’re normally big enough to hold your television remote, magazines and a drink bottle. 

7. Leg Rests

One of the rising trends with nursery gliders is the inclusion of a leg rest. Normally this is through a seperate foot ottoman which is designed to help support your legs and provide comfort.

While others chairs will use a leg rest that simply pops out of the chair when reclining back. These work equally as well as ottoman’s.

We’d recommend checking whether the chair comes with an ottoman or footrest as this may come as an additional expense.

8. Safety

Our second most important part - safety. Having a chair that is safe is critical for both you and your baby. We’d recommend checking the weight limit of the chair to ensure it’s able to comfortably hold both you and your baby (or babies if you have multiples!)

We also recommend looking for a chair that includes a locking mechanism to avoid any accidents when you’re sitting in the chair holding your baby.

9. Size

Nursery gliders come in all different sizes with some naturally favouring taller people more than others. While some chairs are quite wide and favour people who are trying to feed twins.

10. Recline, Swivel or Glide? Or All? 

From what we’ve seen, some chairs are capable of reclining, swiveling and gliding while others are more one trick ponies and only capable of doing one. 

We favour swivel based chairs that rock back and forth. The reason being is they allow you 360 degrees movement while being able to rock and comfort your baby. This is particularly useful if someone enters the room and you want to swivel the chair to look in their direction. 

11. Good Reviews

If you’re purchasing your nursery glider online, the chances are that you may not see it in person before purchasing. For you to make the right choice, it is good to read reviews like this one on what other users have to say about the product.  Sometimes it’s the experience of someone that has used the product for a year to know the quirks that come with the product which you may not notice when you’re looking at the product either online or in the store.

How to Clean Baby Glider Cushions?

Depending on the glider chair you buy, you’ll generally have a couple of different options for cleaning the chair. These include:

• If you’re able to take the covers off the cushions, remove the covers and place in the washing machine on a warm gentle wash cycle. We recommend spraying stain remover on any stubborn stains prior to washing.
• If you’re not able to remove covers off the cushions, we recommend getting some warm soapy water and giving stained areas a gentle wipe without aggravating the fabric.