Since you brought up nursing pillows and boppy's, we ended up with 2 different kinds of boppys: this traditional one and this nursing one. My wife preferred the nursing one over the traditional one. It has hard foam on one side so it provides some stability for the pillow. It also stayed on her lap much easier even without the strap. The traditional one we pretty much just used when he was little and was wanted him to lay on the floor supported.