The things you wish you never bought

[PearlHeart3]

As my baby is nearing a year old, I'm going through all the items I rarely (or in some cases, never) used for the baby's first year and am listing them for sale or for donations, where appropriate.

What items did you wish you had never bought for the baby? Or were gifted and are now having to re-gift/sell?

I'll start:

Play bouncer (you know, the ones that hang from the door frame). He didn't like it and it was a faff to get him in.

Baby björn bouncer. Yep, he didn't care for being bounced. I'm sensing a theme.

I was gifted some lovely White Company baby clothes but they had buttons instead of poppers along the inner leg. Whilst aesthetically pleasing, they were a pain to do up. So he literally only wore them once, photo was taken and then the item nicely folded away.

This is such a personal thing. Things often come up on these lists but I’ve personally used it loads (like a changing table, nappy bin, video baby monitor, white noise machine and swaddles).

Personally, my biggest waste of money was a nursing chair. Bloody uncomfortable. Yet lots of people like theirs.

My baby also didn’t care found bouncers or swings, but luckily we borrowed these so no money wasted. He did, however, love his dangly baby gym.

Oh yes, absolutely personal to parents and babies.

I never had a nursing chair but I did want one, there was just no space for it.

See we love the babybjorn bouncer. Use it every day. Dh was even tempted to buy another so we have one upstairs

Bumbo chair

Yes, the Bumbo was another fail! Luckily we’d been given ours. Awful for babies spines. We gave ours away quite quickly.

First time parents to 3 month old here, so far:

Nappy Bin, used until the first cassette ran out then didn't bother buying a refill.

Wrap sling, DS hasn't got on with it at all (luckily only £9 wowcher deal so no big loss).

Medela electric breast pump, bought on a whim when I had delusions of pumping loads, used about 3 times as it was clear early on FF was better suited to us.

Separately, we received so many gifts from our kind family and friends but here's my review: so many beautiful outfits in size newborn or 0-3 months, outfits are a total faff to dress a tiny baby in / change them in, plus with it being lockdown we've barely gone anywhere to warrant "dressing him up", if I was quicker off the mark I should have taken them into M&S, John Lewis etc for exchange and massively sized up.

DS is quite warm naturally so he's only been in vests for the past 4+ weeks and I guess will continue to do so for the remainder of summer!

Purchases/gifts that have been great for us so far: Sleepyhead, Ewan the dream sheep, Perfect Prep, Mam bottles, Hipp formula, Baby Bjorn bouncer + toy bar and Fisher Price vibrating bouncer, baby Einstein play gym, any Nuby teething toys.

I'm probably going to go against the tide here, but we've found our nappy bin to be one of the best buys ever. We use it all the time and my DD1 is 21 months old and we still use it. DD2 is due next month and I've popped another bin in her nursery.

I think my DD must just have awful smelling nappies but there's no way I could tolerate them being in my kitchen or bathroom bin!

The carrycot bit for the pram... I never used it as she cried anytime I put her down, so I just carried her everywhere in the sling.

Moses basket, again couldn’t put her down, so we coslept

Any baby outfit that requires ironing

Socks & mittens (not that I actually bought any, all were gifted.) they are too damn small and clothes with enclosed feet & foldable sleeves are way better.

I agree @cookiesaurus - we couldn't survive without our nappy bin!

I've been doing something similar today OP - DS is nearly one and I'm gathering up things for my DB and SIL who are expecting a baby in a few months. I have a couple of slings which were used once each and never again. We also have a lot of cute outfits that were barely worn before DS zoomed up the percentiles.

Also: the Fisher Price tummy time llama. A tummy time pillow is useful for the early months but the llama is stupid and keeps falling over. It’s better now DS can pick it up and give it a cuddle, but I resented it in the corner of the living room for months.

Travel system - as above, baby didn't lie flat so never used the carrycot. I should've got a from birth pushchair and separate car seat.

Baby also hated bouncers and swings because she would only be held for the first 6 months.

Perfect prep machine - waste of money. Far easier to pre make bottles with actual boiled water (not just from the tap!) and flash cool.

I love my perfect prep!

Agree with the travel system. DS HATED the carseat that came with it, to the extent we had to fork out £250 for a new one. The old one just sits in the corner in the hallway gathering dust.

Sleepyhead... ds hated it. Gave it to my sister, her baby hates it.

That white noise sheep...Ewan! Another complete waste of money

I got a microwave steam steriliser, as part of my plan to have some bottles and stuff as backup in case breastfeeding didn't go well. Other than a few wobbles it's gone fine, so I haven't needed to sterilise much - and it turned out not to fit inside my microwave properly anyway! The steam sterilising bags work much better for those times I do need to sterilise something, plus they take up much less space.

Still using our nappy bin at 16m and wouldn’t be without it, see also changing table. Microwave steriliser still in use daily. White noise toy used every night. It really is so personal!

Our jumperoo was short lived...she didn’t mind it but we only used it occasionally for about 4 months. Other people swear by them! Agree re tiny outfits...I loved the idea ha even bought some myself but even now it’s a romper suit or leggings and a T-shirt most days. Swaddle really didn’t work for us either.

Oh and I really couldn’t get on with those stretchy newborn wrap slings - that was me more than baby though. She was perfectly happy but I couldn’t bear being wrapped in all those layers of fabric in summer. As soon as I bought a structured carrier at about 5m it was all fine. Thankfully only hired that sling anyway. But loads of other people wrap slings for little babies.

4moms mamaroo - went in it first 2 weeks then hated it.

Gro egg - never used it. Find it pointless. If baby feels hot/cold I will remove/add a layer.

Maxi cosi bucket car seat - liked it for first few weeks, then screamed bloody murder every time. Brought joie 360 that I always wanted but tried to cut corners to save £. Lifesaver.

Hats & mittens, never wore any of them.

Baby bjorn carrier - 9 weeks old and still seems too small for it?! Never used it. And I know I definitely wont be able to manage carrying him when hes bigger.

Took tags off all clothes that were gifted and hung them up in open wardrobe to look pretty. Should have left all tags on and eventually returned them for an exchange as most of them he never got around to wearing. Someone brought me a newborn thick padded puffer jacket for him. He was born in June.

Ewen - baby liked white noise from YouTube and I actually wanted to be able to use my phone when she was asleep so bought ewen but he just didn’t cut it! Ended up using an old phone to play the white noise from YouTube 🤦‍♀️

On to second baby now and the things baby one loved baby 2 hates and we’ve ended up selling things like Moses basket, Ollie the owl and carrycot and instead bought things that baby 1 hated like baby carrier

@BeautyAndTheBump1

4moms mamaroo - went in it first 2 weeks then hated it.

Gro egg - never used it. Find it pointless. If baby feels hot/cold I will remove/add a layer.

Maxi cosi bucket car seat - liked it for first few weeks, then screamed bloody murder every time. Brought joie 360 that I always wanted but tried to cut corners to save £. Lifesaver.

Hats & mittens, never wore any of them.

Baby bjorn carrier - 9 weeks old and still seems too small for it?! Never used it. And I know I definitely wont be able to manage carrying him when hes bigger.

Took tags off all clothes that were gifted and hung them up in open wardrobe to look pretty. Should have left all tags on and eventually returned them for an exchange as most of them he never got around to wearing. Someone brought me a newborn thick padded puffer jacket for him. He was born in June.

The last point made me laugh! DD was born at the end of January, someone bought us a really thick, padded snowsuit in a 6m size 🤦‍♀️

Nappy bin - I didn't replace the cassette when it ran out and we didn't miss it. But my outside bin was easy to get to.

Boppy Cushion - it was just too solid and really not comfy. Maybe it was the type I got as the look great when everyone else uses them.

Breezy Hood - for our Bugaboo Bee. The idea is that it lets the air circulate and deflects the heat, in reality it was fiddly to attach and then made it too light for the baby to sleep under the hood. It was better to just use the normal hood.

Doidy Cup - looked great, but it really confused my kids!

Johnson's Baby Box - the ok bit was great as all changing stuff fit into it for around the house or going to grandparents. The Johnsons products were no good for my DS except the Top to Toe which I still use on him now (age 7!). I'd check which products work before buying a load of them in a box (good value if they're suitable though!).

Bath seat - the lay back one was good but the plastic sit up one just seemed like more of a hazard than a help. My DS spent his bath times trying to escape out of it when we used it.

Over the cot changing station - too much risk of the baby falling off the side when you take your hands off them put cream on or fasten the nappy. Also, when they wee it goes all over the cot unless you put a sheet underneath. In the end we used a changing mat on the floor.

Nursery furniture - cute but too small once the baby gets older, had to replace which meant buying things twice.

Oops that was a lot. I think we wasted a lot of money on DS1.

Loved loved loved perfect prep machine and jumperooo...nappy bin,bumboo seat hardly used x

too many clothes, we erred on the side of caution but it was disgusting how many were worn once or not at all,then too small.

honestly, we should have just kept to sleep suits (easier with tiny babies, quick, easy to layer), and not done the small handful of outfit-type things... what a waste of money and effort!

gifts of clothing, unless specifically asked for, were a massive waste, i wish i'd had the balls to ask forthe gift receipt for them so i could exchange for something else.. or even bigger clothes (e.g. 9 months plus) would have been much better.

Great thread. Following to hopefully save some money as FTM