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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Sharing baby purchases we regret, like our nuna pushchair

133 replies

Bookshipper · 17/04/2023 16:46

Posting for traffic.

I absolutely regret buying our nuna mixx next pushchair. I wish I could go back in time and pick a better pushchair. I'm convinced that almost any other pushchair is better. We've since bought another pushchair that's miles better, and shows exactly how bad the nuna is.

Theres no returning it so ive got to just live with how dysfunctional this nuna pushchair is. Now when I go to John Lewis I urge anyone I see looking at a nuna pushchair not to buy it.

So this is my digital version of that.

Below is a long account of why I dislike our pushchair so very much. Please read it if you're thinking of getting one. If not then feel free to skip and just share your baby buying regrets.

Reasons why I dislike my pushchair:

  1. You can only adjust the straps behind the child, instead of being able to make adjustments to the straps while they're on the child like any normal, not brain dead pushchair design.

This means you have to take the child out of the pushchair anytime you want to make the straps looser or tighter, then put them back in and then if you didn't make the right adjustments the first time round you go through the whole process again.

And the reason you need to adjust so much? Because the straps get a lot tighter when you move the chair from upright to a more flat position (ie for a nap). So anytime your baby wants to nap you've got to go through this whole malarkey. Once you're through, baby is probably not nice and sleepy anymore.

  1. The footrest is comically useless. It's so flimsy, it doesn't stay in a horizontal position (for naps for instance). It's also a lot shorter than many other pushchair footrests. Our 7 month old has almost outgrown it.
  1. The nuna pushchair looks nice and well made but ours creaks and seems to veer all over the place. It corners really badly.
  1. You cant use the nuna raincover on the pushchair if the chair is in any other position except upright. It's been a rainy few weeks and ive felt chained to the house because I can't do something as simple as recline the seat with the raincover on. I'm biting the bullet and ordering a universal cover from amazon - but really, the actual nuna cover should fit.
OP posts:
tillytoodles1 · 17/04/2023 20:58

JudgeJ · 17/04/2023 20:32

I recall having a carry cot on a frame, the carry cot looked like a corn flakes box covered with plastic! As we were working with the Army most other stuff was provided, a man came from Stores with a cot and then said I'll be back with a high chair in a few months. Eventually we bought a far more substantial pushchair but the tatty pram was also used for number 2 I think.
I was surprised to see door frame bouncers are still around, even then they were considered bad for very young legs.

I had a doorframe bouncer for both of mine. Why are they considered dangerous now? My two loved it and I could leave them in it while I was in the kitchen.

LittleMG · 17/04/2023 21:00

tillytoodles1 · 17/04/2023 20:58

I had a doorframe bouncer for both of mine. Why are they considered dangerous now? My two loved it and I could leave them in it while I was in the kitchen.

Because the encourage children to bounce/walk/use their tip toes not their heel while foot on the ground when they walk.

LittleMG · 17/04/2023 21:02

@tillytoodles1 as a side note I had one for DS2 and DS1 tried to fire him out of the window a bit like and arrow 😂 by pulling it really really hard.

red78hot · 17/04/2023 21:03

A Seraphine Skin To Skin top, never wore it, was too hot last summer to have a baby against my sweaty torso plus he HATED being swaddled while in hospital, which is just as well as I couldn't master it like the midwives did. There's no way he'd had been happy contained inside a vest top 😆
He's a very wriggly baby" people used to say, "was he like that inside you"
Yes he bloody was!!! 😅

sanabria · 17/04/2023 21:06

Oh I've got a big list of these...

Baby baths. Perhaps we didn't buy the right ones. Either too small, too big, too slippy, difficult to hold DS etc. We liked the shnuggle for a while but DS grew out of it so quickly. In the end I gave up buying baths and just put DS 4 months in a shallow bath and he loved splashing around. Plus we freed up space around the bathroom.

Baby towels. DS grew out of all his baby towels by the time he was 6 months old and then they just became annoying small towels floating around the linen cupboard. Since then DS gets wrapped in a regular bath sheet.

I bought a ridiculous blow up baby chair from mamas and papas. I bought it because I went to another mum's house and her baby had so many pods, rockers, bouncers, play mats, and this blow up chair that looked lovely. I hadn't bought my DS any of that stuff and I left feeling bad about myself (and for DS!). So I rushed off to buy the same chair. Which was useless. He couldn't sit up right in it, and if I took my eye off him he would slide all the way flat on his back before shouting for help. The toy board at the front bored him within 5 minutes. He then figured out how to rip it off and then because he had no balance would just face plant onto the carpet. By the time he could actually sit in it properly he had already began crawling and had no interest in being confined to the chair.

Chicco Polly magic high chair. This was actually a gift so I feel a bit guilty saying this. Firstly it's enormous. Folds up but it's still enormous. Prone to falling over when it's folded. Doesn't really prop babies upright enough for them to be safe while eating. The pleather upholstery plus all the nooks and crannies are a nightmare to clean. And it costs around £170! DS now has an IKEA high chair and it does the job.

Baby blankets now that safe sleeping advice is to use sleeping bags. I've got a drawer of blankets that aren't used.

Soothers. Was gifted and I bought a good selection. Likewise the safe sleep advice is to not let them sleep with any toys. So they also just sit in a drawer.

Steriliser (mam 5 in 1). Took up too much space on kitchen counter, needed cleaning and drying in-between uses. Just a total faff. Within a week I'd packed it back in its box and was using either cold water sterilisation or steaming stuff in a pan of water.

Nappy bin. Of all the jobs I didn't want to have to deal with, emptying the nappy bin topped them all. So we got rid, and nappies just go in the regular bin and I had one less hassle to deal with.

Changing mat covers. My DM bought us a selection of white (!) fluffy changing mat covers that basically had to be changed as often as babies nappy because virtually EVERY poop was a poonami up to his neck and would get the covers dirty. Or, if I was trying to protect the changing mat cover, I would be trying to yank the damn thing off with one hand while holding a poo drenched baby in the other. Again, just an additional hassle to deal with. In the end, if DS needed to be laid down naked on the mat, we just used a clean tea towel or muslin so he wouldn't be cold.

Breastfeeding pillow. The only person who used it was my husband while ds slept on him. I just found it annoying and it got in the way of easy position changing while feeding.

We could have saved a lot of money. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

NevillesLeftNadger · 17/04/2023 21:07

I had a Jane Powertwin double buggy that constantly tried to steer itself into roads. You don't realise how many pavements are gently sloped towards the gutter until you're trying to shove two hefty toddlers in a straight line using a pushchair that behaves like a supermarket trolley with a dodgy wheel.

This was about two minutes before Phil and Ted came along with their nifty Stack The Babies Above Each Other system.

Also our first baby we had a Graco pushchair that was great with the baby car seat bit clipped in for tinies, but for slightly older babies you had a seat with a five point harness. It turns out that it is impossible to clip all five parts of a five point harness together while keeping an angry thrashing one year old in place. So I bought a Maclaren cheapo that had a three point harness.

BQ91 · 17/04/2023 21:09

StaySpicy · 17/04/2023 19:54

The Joie Mimzy high chair. Loads of little crevices and virtually no way to get the cover off to clean it. I tried once but spent ages fiddling and then got to a point where I couldn't see any way of actually getting it off. Awful design.

I second this, absolutely terrible and I chucked it away as I didn’t want anyone else to have to use it and suffer the smell of the trapped food in the crevices. It got such good reviews which baffles me.

BertieBotts · 17/04/2023 21:17

The Axkid Move should be able to be adjusted with the angle wedge. However some DC are sick rear facing. I know there is supposedly some research showing that it's not related to direction of travel but anecdotal evidence seems to suggest otherwise. Yes ERF is safer, but the chances that you'll be in a crash bad enough for it to matter and roll the unlucky throw of the dice are very low. Don't beat yourself up for FF if it works for your child, get a decent seat and use it according to the instructions.

We bought a door frame bouncer but it was weirdly huge and DS2 could never stand up in it, he just wobbled all over the place and clung to the door frame in terror! I really wanted to get it out for DS3 but DH had scribbled "USELESS" all over the box and buried it in the cellar and we didn't find it until he was 18 months old! They can't possibly affect development unless you have them in it for hours and hours a day. I was annoyed when I saw photos of ones that other people had and they weren't anywhere near as stupid looking as ours. I wish we'd just got a second hand cheapy one.

When I had DS1 the only purpose built co-sleeping cot was the Arm's Reach and it cost a bomb and you had to import it from America, so we converted a cot instead. I got purpose built ones with the other two and they were the most useless and annoying things ever with giant unsafe mattress gaps and wobbly and outgrown really young. I should have just got an Ikea cot to convert.

Rightsraptor · 17/04/2023 21:20

I loved my Silver Cross coach-built pram, we walked all over the place with it. They aren't any good for modern life, I'm talking about 40+ years ago and I didn't drive. I had shopping underneath in the tray, shopping packed around the baby ...

I eventually sold it for only a little less than we'd paid for it.

Seems people are encouraged to go mad and spend loads of £££ now - I'd get things piecemeal, as I needed them, if I was doing it again

AngeloMysterioso · 17/04/2023 21:24

I researched the crap out of every single purchase when I was pregnant with DS1 and I’m happy to say everything got a fair bit of use- including the ergobaby 360 carrier and the shnuggle bath! The real superstars have been the Uppababy Vista pram - a real workhorse, has never let me down yet- Ewan the dream sheep, the sleepyhead, the kanga wrap (not so much for DS1 but DS2 lived in it) the perfect prep, the microwave steriliser, and the ubbi nappy bin.

BertieBotts · 17/04/2023 21:27

I did the piecemeal approach with DS2 and 3 and it did work so much better. There were still a couple of duds, but nothing awful.

orangedalmatian · 17/04/2023 21:30

Moses basket. Never slept a wink in it

MotherOfLunatics · 17/04/2023 21:32

For all those saying muslins, I only really started using them once DC had started solid food, so hold on to them!

They can be used as a make shift bib when out and about, wipe runny noses/food covered faces/dirty hands, peek-a-boo prop, or my 2 year olds favourite game, pretending its a scarf. (Of course DC will not wear an actual scarf because they're a unreasonable toddler, but a boogie covered muslin, wrap me up!).

SprinkleRainbow · 17/04/2023 21:33

Joie Bold car seat for DC4. I know a lot about car seats but due to our 2 vehicles we were very limited on options. It was recommended by approved car seat specialists.
I hate it, it only passes crash tests above 30mph rear facing by Which! And it moves about so much in my car it doesn't seem safe. I had it fitted and apparently it is. I'm stuck deciding between keeping rear facing in wobbly seat or turning forward facing in different solid sturdy seat.

DC2 was the sickest baby known to man, and Muslims were life. DC4, never needed them.

My most loved baby item is the Uppababy Vista, hands down the best pram (and I've had 9).

BertieBotts · 17/04/2023 21:36

Joie Bold isn't a rear facing seat? Do you mean Stages? Wobbly isn't normally good TBH, are you sure it doesn't have forward anchorage? I do think people salivate over Joie seats to an unreasonable level in those car seat groups, they def have their place but they are still cheap seats and sometimes it shows.

MMM2022 · 17/04/2023 21:36

We got a jumperoo once LO could sit. But started crawling quite quickly, just a month later and then hated the jumperoo 😂

MMM2022 · 17/04/2023 21:37

MotherOfLunatics · 17/04/2023 21:32

For all those saying muslins, I only really started using them once DC had started solid food, so hold on to them!

They can be used as a make shift bib when out and about, wipe runny noses/food covered faces/dirty hands, peek-a-boo prop, or my 2 year olds favourite game, pretending its a scarf. (Of course DC will not wear an actual scarf because they're a unreasonable toddler, but a boogie covered muslin, wrap me up!).

Oh I use them all the time!! Once LO grows up will probably use them as cleaning cloths lol

Eggseggseverywhere · 17/04/2023 21:38

Op may I suggest you refrain from arguing with your buggy in a public place.

All this talk of small squares of mop ups makes me die a bit... Dh was a complete novice when I got pregnant.. Never even held a baby. I mean a novice in the highest degree. As in shouting across the rails in a top children's shop that he had found the musliMs... We went home. And never went back.
And I never dared to buy any square mop up cloths...
Multiple dc and not enough space to text out all failed purchases over the years...

Phos · 17/04/2023 21:39

Sort of a purchase, I regret ever paying a sleep consultant for help.

She was a complete charlatan and an absolutely dreadful woman to boot who talked down to me, belittled me, basically caused my mental health to take a nosedive then played the victim when I said I needed to cut ties with her. It's not like her so-called techniques were any good anyway, it was basically controlled crying.

FirstnameSuesecondnamePerb · 17/04/2023 21:42

Any type of baby carrier.
I am short, short body,short arms, short legs and large busted.
I am also married to a tall man and had long babies. No carrier ever worked.

CosieRotton · 17/04/2023 21:47

I regret buying a new cot for his main cot when he outgrew his bassinet at 5 months. He was in it all of 7 months before he just wouldn’t let us put him down in it and he’s now sleeping on a single mattress on the floor and will go from that straight to a single bed. Should have just got a cheap second hand one!

On the other hand I love our Axkid Minikid and have loved all the soft baby carriers we’ve had (different ones from eBay as he’s got bigger) and the hiking one we’ve now got.

AintNobodyHateMeBetter · 17/04/2023 21:49

SouthLondonMum22 · 17/04/2023 17:48

Muslins - bought loads and I just don't need them, DS is 4 months and not a sicky baby at all.

Baby carrier - DS hates it and I feel awkward wearing it.

I wouldn't be too confident just yet. I'd save them for the food, snot and dribble that will be around their face in a few months time.

tillytoodles1 · 17/04/2023 21:49

LittleMG · 17/04/2023 21:02

@tillytoodles1 as a side note I had one for DS2 and DS1 tried to fire him out of the window a bit like and arrow 😂 by pulling it really really hard.

😂

CupEmpty · 17/04/2023 21:50

I also HATE my nuna mix. I think it was a mumsnet best recommendation and I bought it during Covid when shops were closed. It’s a pile of shit. Brought an uppababy which is miles better.

Issania87 · 17/04/2023 21:54

My ergobaby omni carrier. £140 and think I used it 3 times.
Cosatto wow buggy. Loved the size of the basket but the buggy is an absolute beast, so heavy! Wish I had gotten a lighter one.
Joie 6 in 1 highchair. Again over £100, bought because it converts to a booster chair so thought it would have a long life, but my daughter refuses to sit in it so it's now in the garage 🙈