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?

I kind of wish I'd waited with the buggy. Both of mine went in the Babybjorn sling followed closely once they could hold their heads up, by the bushbaby backpack. I only started to really use the bugy when I was pg with No2, and couldn't face lifting dd onto my back as she was 18 months. So we could have been 18 months further down the line before we bought it.!

it was a joke - but I do know a couple of Persona babies and think I'm right in saying the company is being sued. My gynae said it's only use was as an aid to conception.

Oh Scuba, isn't it funny how some people hate things that others love? We had a Mothercare cube high chair and I think it's been the biz! Now that DS is nearly 3 he sits in it at the dining table (without the tray) and it is his special chair ... we also take it apart so that he can sit at the little table and do his drawing or his playdoh ... and if a friend comes for tea we have another little chair and they sit there together!!!

My worst buy was a b/f shirt from Blooming Marvellous - my boobs were so big that there was no chance in hell that they would fit through that minute little hole!!!

Luckily we borrowed a baby bath ... it wasn't long before we abandoned it and used the big bath ...

Sangenic Nappy bins I think are useful with newborns when you change nappies more frequently but we stopped using it as the nappies got bigger and more smelly!!

One of the BEST things you have in the UK are paper maternity knickers ... they don't have them in NZ (have never heard of them) and I shall be stocking up when we come over at Xmas in readiness for No 2's arrival in May!!!

I know it is very useful to most people, but our baby monitor was a waste of money ... whatever made me think that I would not hear my baby? Our house was so small and his cry was SO loud that even if I was the furthest away that I could be in the house and all the (all 2 of them) doors were shut I could still hear him ...

It was only used if we took him to stay at my mum and dad's (without us there) because my mum was always worried that she wouldn't be able to hear him...

I use our baby monitor turned on loud so I can hear DS2 (and the doorbell!) if I'm at the end of our garden.

And Ghosty, I find it quite sad that the thing you think is best about the UK is paper knickers. Surely we have more to offer than that? So, France has wine, Canada maple syrup. Italy other good food, UK paper knickers. Quick! Call the tourist board - I can see the advertising campaign now!!

LOL soupdragon

Of course paper knickers aren't the best thing that the UK has to offer ... reading my post again I can see how it might look like that is the way I think!!

No no no! What I really miss about the UK is ...

The pubs
Boots the Chemist
Marks and Spencers sandwiches
The Early Learning Centre
Anything older than 150 years
Most clothes shops
Ikea
BBC 1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4
Radio 1
Eastenders (major withdrawal symptoms there ...)

My mum and dad
And lots of other things ... so no, paper knickers are not the only thing but they are EVER so important I feel...

Willow2 & Grommit, I really liked my persona, and only in the 1st month do you need to do lots of urine tests - 16, the rest of the time it's 8 per month, but I kinda liked doing them anyway - the anicipation - will it be red or green?? (I know - I need to get out more). I used mine very successfully as contraception for ages, and then also successfully as an aid to conception. I was very happy with it.

I think it's a shame they're being sued. I very much felt the instructions were extremely clear and easy - idiot level really. They made it very clear you shouldn't use it if getting pregnant was totally unacceptable to you, and the free helpline is great too. They offer a service (ie natural family planning) which is great for many people who don't want to use artificial contraceptives, but the thought of nfp the old fashioned way is too difficult/daunting/time consuming. I really believe if you follow the instructions 100% it's very unlikely you'll get pg, but approx. 4% of women will pa, and the manufacturers state that fact very clearly loads of times. I think they are v. clear & like I said I think it's a real shame.

I hate the litigatious nature that's increasingly prevelant in our society.

I will stick up totally for the TRIPP TRAPP... it is a bigger outlay than a high chair but it is not just a high chair!!!
It is a dining room chair, a computer chair and desk chair. It grows with the child rather than having the balancing on some booster seat or cushions, or if at mil two phone books...!
I love our tripp trapp and bubba number two will have one too!

A bottle warmer. It took far too long and was quicker to boil the kettle and warm in a jug and when I got even wiser the microwave.

Bebecare travel system - total pants. Cost a fortune, had a million bits and pieces to clip on and off, took up all the room in the car boot, car seat sun shade always fell off, shopping basket fell apart after 5 mins.

baby wipe warmer - although it did the job and baby wipes were lovely and warm at night, it dried last 20+ wipes on the bottom of each packet (where hottest presumably). Cost me £25 and is soon gonna be ebayed.

A non-baby item...

I wish I never bought the snazzy, incredibly expensive bottle opener where you just push the handle down and the cork comes out.

Invariably, it would push the cork down into the bottle with a merry spray of wine splurting up through the neck of the bottle and all over me (the ceiling, floor, guests etc....). What a waste of wine!!!!!! :o

A 'baby wipe warmer' ?!

I got one of those for Xmas one year, v. snazzy but the only bit we use is the foil cutter, as the rest is a faff (may well be easier if we didn't keep it in the box though )

probably been posted but..a sangenic nappy wrapper!urggh

I hate DS's Britax Renaissance CAr seat. Wonderful for a tiny baby, maybe a one year old but since DS was 2.5 yrs I have been wondering how could you fit a 4 yrs old in one without squashing him against the roof of the car...

Now, about non baby products... a pasta maker! we have only used it once, so that was the most expensive pound of fresh pasta ever!

wish i had never got my mutsy pram, and my quinny zapp, annoying, stupid things!also wish i had never got dd the fisher price roaring dinosaur as its too big and bulky and im always tripping over it. and the bumboo or whatever they are called, the foam chair thingy that you squeeze a baby into, and if they hve chubby legs like my dd its a pain to pull them out, she used hers for about a week.

Kuster highchair - looks good, but stupidly expensive, impractical, difficult to clean, bits fall off it and the cushions are crrrap.

Can't believe this thread is still going, five years on...

those musical things on the side of the cot.

never used 'em. the cot is for sleeping, not playing.

Avent bottles! DD had really bad colic so all the bottles we bought were useless. Tommee Tippee Healthcheck bottles are also uselss! And all the colic relief products, colief, infacol and dentinox!

So us Mums havent learnt our lesson 5 years down the line!
Wish I never bought a Potty-dd wouldnt sit on it

Not baby product but Nads hair removal system - what a pile of, well, NADS!!

And blackboard paint for my back door that is magnetic but needs about 55 bleeding coats of the thick bloody sticky stuff before any of my lovely letter magnetics for the DD?S will stick to it!!

This one has dust and cobwebs on it!
loads:
Stairgates - could never open them!
Highchair - grr at cleaning all nooks and crannies
travelcot - used about 5 times at granny's house. tooheavy to take on holiday!
biodegradeable paper nappy liners. Fleece were so much better!
kissaluvs - too tiny
stacinator fleece wraps - strangulated DD's little thighs and waist. US babies are a different shape to UK babies
moses basket - I hate to say it, but it was an expensive purchase for 6 weeks use! Borrow one. I think I will start a company hiring out moses baskets.
Thankfully, I did not sucumb to a baby wipe warmer.

None baby related stuff - esspresso coffee maker, fruit puree machine, fondue set, all those food themed christmas gifts, like, a balti set, japanese saki set, sushi making set, italian infused oils, or a billion other gifts like this from Lakeland.

A £35 changing bag. Such a rip-off. I must have only used it for about a week when DS was born.