PRODUCTS YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT

[Willow2]

Does anyone else out there have a baby product they hate with a vengeance? I made the mistake of buying the Chicco Mamma high chair because it looked the business and I'd inherited a load of other Chicco bits and bobs that were great. Being a first time mum I didn't think about how easy it would be to clean. If I tell you that the tray alone has over 30 nooks and crannies for food to get into it will give you an idea of just how badly designed this item is. It is an absolute nightmare to keep clean - yesterday, after a lunch of tuna/rice salad, I ended up sticking it in the garden and turning the high pressure hose on it. Aside from the cleaning aspect it is also far too big for anyone under the age of 21. My son is fifteen months and above average height yet still has to have a booster seat in it. Plus the tray doesn't come in far enough so half his lunch ends up down his bib or on the floor. I hate it with every inch of my body and can only presume that it was designed by a mysognistic sadist for a laugh. I don't know if I can face another year of dealing with it and am seriously thinking of taking an axe to it, whacking it on the bonfire and buying a £10 one from Ikea instead. Any other suggestions for my pire of useless products?

Yes a sadist did invent that! Though maybe not a mysoginist!!

I went and bought all the baby products eg baby soap, baby oil etc etc all a certain brand! For the simple reason everyone says "you need this and that", so being the first time you go along with it! But this brand bought Jack out in a rash so I stopped by this brand name and started using the cheaper Boots equivalent and hey presto, no more rashes. It wasn't so much me who suffered there, it was Jack!

Willow2 - I felt exactly the same about my hideous Prima Pappa high chair. In fact, you could be describing it exactly. I hated it so much I used to try and break it so we could justify buying a different make. I bought a Handy-sitt in the end (my daughter was 13 months), it is brilliant, neat, discreet and easy to clean.

I will step forward and throw my Galt Play nest and my Tippitoes baby bouncer on your pyre. Both rubbish, my daughter used to lay crying inconsolably in the Play nest. So we'd move her to the baby bouncer where she would do more crying, but this time spinning very slowly around. Our Baby Bjorn was her favourite place to be, on mummy, preferably out for a walk. I've also thought those Sangenic nappy bins are a load of old rubbish too. Mind you, I should know about all these useless products, I used to write the selling copy for Blooming Marvellous!

This is a v v funny thread already Good idea to vent some spleen on the manufacturers who must see us coming a mile off! One of my favourites is any toy made by V-tech and their ilk. I'm sorry but I'm not convinced that children need everything they touch or in some cases breath on to play a mindlessly happy electronic tune!! They can learn to sort shapes, pull things and even walk without these ANNOYING, LOUD LUMPS OF PLASTIC, grr....!!!! I have, of course, fallen for their charms and promises of sensory stimulation on a few occasions and now I am regretting every single purchase and would happily burn each one. Give 'em a pan and a wooden spoon if noise is what they want to make.... that's my rant over (for now)!!!

One of those changing tables with a baby bath underneath. Nightmare trying to fill, empty, clean and that's before you've put the baby in! It used to take an hour to bath my new born 6 years ago! Number two just went straight in the normal bath with a couple of inches of water easy!

I paid £150 for a bike trailer I've hardly used. Oops, it looked like a good idea in the catalogue. But it's so cumbersome I kept hitting things with it as it's much wider the bike!

A cold water steriliser, nightmare. The bottles all pong and you have to wash them out after. It is far easier to boil them in a massive pan. I bought it for when we went on holiday in a caravan and used it once.
I also bought a lovely big wooden toy box, but now I realise that as it has a lift up lid it could give her a very nasty crack on the head. I am going to unscrew the lid.
I have to stick up for the playnest though. We ended up getting one because Lauren loved the childminder's so much. She could be propped up and her toys didn't disappear-for a while. Once she was crawling it had to go as she kept trying to get out and landing on her head.

The Sangenic nappy bin gets my vote - we have under-floor heating and 28 warm nappies stewing in a bin for three days was enough to put you off your lunch. And a bottle warmer - who wants to wait 8 minutes with a screaming baby at 3 a.m. - I know microwaves are not recommended for warming feeds but they are quick and convenient, just shake that bottle well before giving to hungry mouth.

Apologies for my useless spelling of pire (oops) make that pyre. Can you tell I used to be a journo? I think my brain left with the placenta. Plus there are no sub editors in my house to correct my copy. Caznay - what is this marvellous handysitt thing? Also has anyone splashed out on that expensive wooden seat that grows with them and you just push into the side of the table? I think it is called Tripp trap - which for all I know is swedish for "expensive *rap".

I'll vote for baby baths too. Awful things that totally wreck your back - as if it wasn't already under enough strain! No.2 went in the big bath with his older brother - loved being swished around in the deep, warm water.
I also hate those electronic gadgets. Unfortunately my husband is Gadget King of the Universe and has to be persuaded at every turn that they REALLY don't need another thing that bleeps and does the exploring for them!

mel, i must stick up for baby baths...i used to use mine inside the big bath when mine were tiny - easy to fill and empty, quick too. later they make a nice little pool or sandbox for a bigger one (just sitting up - they can lean against the back) to play in; and last of all you can grow frogs in them!!! (with shallow water and some rocks and weed.)

I'll stick up for the Trp Trap chair, or rather the adjustable chair from GLTC. I have used one for a just sitting to a now seven year old, infact I am sitting on one right now at the computer. One's back is supported and you don't lean over the keyboard as with an ordinary chair. Infact I also have one in my(home) office, they are all at different positions, for different people on the house. They are very easy to keep clean, children's feet are supported instead of dangling and it encourages them to sit up properly at table and you find that they eat better ans they are in the right position.

The Sangenic, I have been using it for my daughter's sanitary towels, since she was 12, she says all her friends think it is a brilliant idea and they have o need to feel embarassed about disposal at out house as they know it is in the loo. I just empty it and put it in the rubbish.I know Sangenic do a small one for this purpose, but I already had the big one. Infact since we had ablocked drain, when the plumber lifted the drain cover and I saw several tampax applicators, I too, now use it!

Yes, all those flashing light/music playing gadgets - why do they all play the same annoying tunes! I am SICK to DEATH of twinkle twinkle little star!
My son has hours of fun putting the pegs in and out of the basket and throwing them down the step into the kitchen - I wish I had known that before wasting my money on toys that are never used.
Plus, does anyone actually own one of those freestanding nappying changing units - a changing mat on the floor does the job just fine for me; you'd need another pair of hands to hold them down to stop them rolling off surely? A totally useless piece of furniture, I think.

We are expecting our first in July. Of all the books and magazines we have read, this thread was the most useful and entertaining! Thanks!

I've got a freestanding changing unit and I love it! We've used it every day for over 6 years. I'm quite tall so getting down on the floor for nappy changes has never appealed. Number 2 is now 2.7 years so we're nearly finished with it.

I've never used baby lotion or baby oil, I've had rotting bottles on the shelves for years.

I use the sangenic nappy wrapper too - although I have to say that it starts to hum well before it is full. Also, and this just might be me being cack-handed, but has anyone else noticed how the white "grabbers" fall out every time you empty the bin? We have now lost several due to my husband emptying the sangenic straight into a bin bag and not noticing that a grabber has fallen out at the same time. This has happened with two sangenics so must be a design fault or hubby and I are really dim (also a possibility).

Message withdrawn

lol to Willow2, that product sounds like a living nightmare. Well i bought one of those nappy bins, thinking it would save me a lot of time (why i thought that, i'm not really sure) but all i did was take it out of the box, and that was it, i didn't once use, and it somehow ended up wasting away in the back garden, i couldn't even give it away! What a useless product.
Viva le nappy bags, i say!

I too have to stick up for the playnest, it was an absolute God-send, for 3 months my son would play happily in it for hours. We did take it away from him once he started crawling after finding him trying to come out of it head first! I have now passed it onto a friend for her son to enjoy.
One thing I would not have bought is a travel system! the car seat was great for a while, then my son just looked too big for it! the pram/pushchair was just too heavy, their was no way that I could push the pushchair and hold an umbrella at the same time, we got about 4 months use out of it, oh an another thing my husband found the handles too low, what a waste of money!!! we now have a buggy which is a lot lighter and easier to use.

My mother suggested I bought one of those "nappy tardis" type contraptions, and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who's hardly used it. Judging by the line up at out local NCT second hand sales, no one else likes them either.
Nappy bags are best, and the really dirty ones just get flung out of the window (in the bag) ready for me to pick up and put in the dustbin when I go out. Trouble is, I nearly knocked out our postman one morning! He now always glances up at my sons window as he's passing... just in case!

A Tomy changing bag with integral mat. Big, bulky, overpriced and a complete waste of space. It has the opposite of Tardis effect - too big on the outside, not enough room on the inside. We now travel fairly lightly in comparison to the early days where we took the whole nursery out with us, and use a small zip up bag with side pocket on the inside to stop ds pinching my specs from the bag. On long days out we just take my old rucksack - lots of room for toys, change of clothes and everything else and I can sling it on my back and forget about it.

Smalline I'm with you on that one. We spent about £300 on a 2 in 1 travel system and it was money down the drain. The car seat which clipped on to the pram chassis was good, but the pram was nightmare. It was just so cumbersome. We couldn't get it into any shops locally and it filled up the boot of the car completely. We ended up buying a small buggy which has been used and abused now for 18 months. Also, because it wasn't too expensive, should we decide to have another child I won't feel too bad about throwing this buggy away and buying a new one.

If I was doing it all again, I'd buy one of those car seats that has its own set of wheels and a buggy.

Also bad buys, baby oil - brought my son out in a rash, a big tub of nappy cream - why did I ever think I'd need that much? Any toy which cost over £10.

Have to say that I disagree on the Nappy sacks versus the Sangenic disposal thingy. Living in a tall thin London house with 50 stairs between the basement and the top floor, in the basement changing area we use a bin with nappy sacks and at the top of the house we have a sangenic. The bin with the nappy sacks gets far far smellier than the sangenic to the extent that I have to put it outside every week to air it.

Agree on the 3 in 1 travel system. Although the car seat attachment was indispensable, the carry cot was virtually never used and the pushchair attachment far too cumbersome to take anywhere although nice for local walks.

Our worst buy ever though has to buy the bottle/ food warmer which we used before we had a microwave. For bottles, it took a long time but also if you left it too long, the bottle gets far too hot. As for food, it was an absolute joke to suggest that it was EVER going to warm anything up to a reasonable temperature. I would definitely say to anybody else, just get a microwave at the outset.

Our playgym was a massive hit for a good 6 months as was the baby bounce. The playnest however was a disaster - the overhead thing continually collapsed and our son never liked it. Overall, our best toys though have been the more expensive ones - the trike, old fashioned pushalong dog and little tikes kitchen. guess it just goes to show that all children are different...

Just contribute my Sangenic experience...like Croppy, the only time I ever used it was when we were in a tall thin town house with the bathroom on the 2nd storey. It was REALLY useful for about 6 months, but has spent the next 3 years wasting space.

I think with baby nests, bouncers etc, it depends entirely on the baby whether they like it or not. I bought an expensive rocking chair which I thought was a complete waste of money as my daughter screamed every time she was put in it. However, the next two babies loved it and spent many happy hours in it. That was the biggest surprise to me, that such young babies can have such strong likes and dislikes and personalities!

I agree totally about VTech - hate toys that need batteries! I was dismayed to see that all the Tonka toys seem to be battery powered too now. Lots of people where we live have battery powered trikes for their small children too, at weekends you hear the noise of the engines as they're all trundling round their back gardens laying up future heart disease, or whatever you get from not taking any exercise.

Another waste of money is inflatable paddling pools - I really tried to take care of ours, but two of the rings have punctures already. Maybe we could have a mumsnet survey of paddling pools? as I'm not sure what to go for next. It's got to be small, not too expensive and strong.

Sangenic, why is the neck so small? I hated squeezing my hand into it, to push in the dirty nappy - have taken to using carrier bags, I find the nappy sacks too fiddly as well. Makes me feel very enviro. and green as its amazing how many carrier bags I seem to have!

I hate that baby seat bouncer thing as baby bounced out of it (yes he was strapped in!) onto the kitchen floor from the top of the units(oops) emergency rush to the GPs feeling like mother from hell!