What was your most wasted purchase made in preparation for becoming a parent?

[GreyBalonz]

Can be anything

Cot!
Heavier M&P Ocarro pram system - prefer our Nuna trvl.
UV steriliser (unused)
Travel playpen/cot (bought it too late).
Outfits before say 6-9 months.

Barely used.

Bottles and ‘emergency’ formula for my second child. Didn’t use either.

So so much 😂 Far, far too many newborn clothes. One of those mats with dangling stuff over it (baby just screeched if you put her down - may as well have been on the floor). Baby bath - washed her in the sink or took her in the bath with me. Black and white flashcards for the baby (was a baby shower gift). A GamePass for the Xbox thinking I'd have the energy/concentration to play while she slept. Everything in my nappy bag that wasn't nappies or wipes. BioOil - always forgot to apply it. 'Nice' maternity clothes - couldn't be arsed to make the effort. Oh and microwave steriliser - used self sterilising Mam bottles when I stopped breast feeding

Breast pump. Used it once and got approximately half a teaspoon of milk out. Although a little pot that came with it is still used 18 years later!

Cot

Emergency bottles in case I couldn’t breastfeed - why did I buy like 10 … never used them couldn’t give them away as for some reason I felt compelled to sterilise them myself

Baby sleeping bags. DD would scream if she felt constricted in any way, gave in and bought cellular blankets after a few nights. Also dummies, she would just spit them out immediately.

I treated myself to some quite nice bamboo breast pads for DC2 and didn't get any leaking for some reason. Passed them on to a friend.

I remember we had a just in case pack of formula and bottles that went around several of us when having second babies too.

Baby Bjorn - used it once and hated it

Door bouncer - it kept falling off, absolute rubbish

Baby monitor, we lived in a 2 up 2 down, if she made the slightest noise I’d heard her! £80 down the drain 🤦🏻‍♀️

Top n tail bowl

spritz for bits, never needed it.
baby carrier, never used it.
tommee tippee perfect prep machine, gave DD a bad tummy.
white noise machine, never worked.
Cotton wool, DD is 2 now and the unopened back is still in her chest of drawers.
buying too many of the same size nappies, had loads wasted when she grew out of them.
clothes, DD was a slow grower, she was only just growing out of 3-6 months on her first birthday so all the clothes I’d bought in pregnancy from 1 month to 12-18 months were all the wrong season so a lot were wasted.

Definitely the cot. Ds slept with me while he was bf (0 - 18 months) by which time he'd worked out how to pile bedclothes in the corner of his cot, and climb out.

Thankfully I only had it on loan.

Only the puppy pads that I bought to put under the sheet in bed in case my waters broke when I was sleeping 😂 I kept them to use when we potty trained but they weren’t used even then. Still sat in the bottom of the wardrobe! (And if my waters had broken in bed, no way would they have been useful anyway!!)

Bloody Ewan the dream sheep….. absolutely wanted it turned out to be a useless waste of space 😂

Baby bjorn
baby bath
newborn baby clothes

So many things…

Baby clothes in newborn sizes. In fact pretty much any outfits as we much preferred keeping them in babygros for as long as possible.

Blankets and top sheets - ended up using sleeping bags with the odd fleece for the pram.

Baby sunglasses - what was I thinking?!?

All sorts of lotions, bubble baths, creams etc.

A ‘snot remover’ that a friend convinced me I needed. 🤢🤢🤢

Edited to add the Baby Mozart DVD set - not going to be a child genius after all!

😂

Plastic "baby bath". Just one of my ridiculous first-time-mum purchases. Wash the baby in the kitchen sink or swoosh them around in the bath with whoever else is in there.

Bugaboo travel system. Expensive & space occupying purchase. Used the £100 McLaren way more!

Cot, neither of them slept in it. Same for the next to me crib, I used to use it to put my cup of tea on.

Baby bath was given to me but I would not have bought one, just put them in the normal bath.

A playpen. It took ages to set up, took up loads of space and my son hated it and figured out how to break the zip to get out when he was 6 months old.

Bugaboo Fox pram. Full price, from John Lewis, about £1k at the time.

DC screamed like a banshee every time we tried to put them in. Only ever caused tears. Still is in the garage, pretty much brand new.

Oh yes, also the cot.

Playpen. Although it was useful for storing toys.