What gadgets were you convinced you couldn't live without and actually they're a waste of time and/or money..?

[bigredtractor]

There! I threatened to do it so I'm starting this thread.

Mums Netters - come and tell us preggers ladies what not to waste our dosh on!

I'm going to start with.... A top & tail bowl - oh PLEEEASE!!! Just wash your baby's face first - then the rest of them. Voila!!

I have to disagree with 99.9% of people about the top n tail bowl.
I use cotton wool / washable wipes and reuseable nappies so one half gets water in and the other half gets the dirty nappy!

other good buys for dc1 and 2 - but not for dc3
bouncy chair
play gym
bumbo (dc1 only)

good buy for dc3:
sling

Useful:
Stretchy wrap
Woven wrap
Mei Tai
cloth nappies
Bouncy chair
Ikea highchair - far superior to the M&P one we had for dd1
Ikea bowls & plates (but don't buy the beakers that look like dogs cos the lids come off v easily)

Needn't Have Bothered With:
Pram
Bath thermometer (I was obsessed with the idea I wouldn't know whether the water would be ok when pregnant with dd1 and I never used the thing once she was born )
Top & Tail bowl
The box thing for bath stuff/sponges etc my mum insisted we'd need; didn't know what the point of it was when she bought it, still don't know now
Bootees - they never seemed to be the right size and mine have never worn them
Changing bag; never found one that was really amazing. The Boden one came close but then someone made me a big shoulder bag with sling rings and it spreads the weight really well so I always use that now.
Changing table

On The Fence:
baby bath we found useful with dd1 but didn't use it with dd2, just used the bath
Bumbo; thought it was great with dd1 (she was the kind of baby to just sit with a toy though) but dd2 hasn't used it, she can get out of it and doesn't like it

When buying a play mat make sure the arches aren't too high. The one we got with dd was so high she couldn't reach anything and so had no interest in it. With dd2 we got a different one and she loved it.

our bouncy chair was a lifesaver!! one of the best things we bought overall.

nappy wrapper I've quite liked too - doesn't smell great but not terrible, and saved me having to go out in the rain plenty of times!

my steriliser was well used as girls wouldn't BF and I expressed for a while instead.

Tommee Tippee sippy cups - slow flow and much better than any of the no-spill versions which my girls found far too hard to suck!

Agree with IKEA plastics - or Asda or Tesco - don't bother with Melamine, there's enough other washing up to be done already!

Total waste of money:
Top n tail
Baby bath
Fabric bath seat thing for lying babies
Moses basket
Thing you put half way down cot to stop babies wriggling down under sheets
Tiny clothes
Tiny shoes
Buggies you cant push with one hand
Expensive highchair with lots of nooks and rannies to harbour food and germs
Mini blender for pureeing food
Baby einstein dvds
Baby monitor in a small house
changing tables
muslins
disposable nappies except of big long day trips
Wipe warmer
Insulated bottle carrier

Partial waste of money:
Bumbo

Did not need Grobag 0-6 months old as my DS was not wriggly at all, used well the ones for older babies until he refused it at 18 months.

But you never know until they are out and would show their character. I'd say the best advice is try and buy just the essentials for the first weeks (like sleepsuits etc) and then figure out what other paraphernalia you may need. Also try and get those from secondhand places or friends if you are fussy (and lucky to have friends who give away things!) Big stuff like prams and cots need to be bought in advance though and you may be one of the unfortunate mums who has to give in to her newborn's preference of a sling over pram etc.

Hard I know!!

Waste of money:

• Baby gym - ds rolled early and just used to get stuck in arches (but his cousin loved it!)
• Moses basket - would buy a raft that you can put on your bed if you are nervy about co-sleeping and in the cot to make it less intimidating
• A full on travel system with carrycot etc - just get the Maclaren you can use from birth and you can transfer the carset into. Everyone Maclarens from 3+ months. Or get a lightweight pushchair where the seat is reversible if you want to chat to your baby
• Baby bath - might work for some who don't like a big bath but otherwise it takes up too much room
• Changing table - just get a good chest of drawers that you can put a mat on top and a few mats for around the house. Would not get cot top as an explosive poo or large wee would mean washing all the bedding!

Useful:

• Black and White mobile for early days
• Vibrating chair - good for babies that don't like being put down to sleep
• BT Monitor (digital so you don't get the irritating hiss, talk back so you can shush them, thermometer for room temp and lullaby function that hopefully will send them back to sleep if they stir). But wouldn't get an analogue
• Breathing mat -helps you sleep to know that they are on it!
• Carseat base - stressing about whether the seatbelt was secure would not be good
• Mothercare toweling thing that you put in the big bath for them to lie on - saves your back as you can just support their bum if they wiggle down
• Grobag for wiggly sleepers - couldn't wait for him to get to safe weight to use
• Muslins!

Would agree that one persons clutter is another persons lifesaver so best to get the basics and work out what type of baby you have before buying too much!

Great buys:

A great, no frills baby monitor is the Fisher Price 'Light n' Sounds' analogue monitor. About £35 from Amazon.co.uk for the version with 2 parent units (have also seen a since parent unit one), has a night light on the base unit. It never drops out / loses the signal and base unit has a very sensitive microphone.

Sleeping Sacs / Grobags. If you're lucky and have a TK Maxx close-by, they may have some for c. £13 (half RRP) {conversely - flat sheets and cellular blankets for the cot have gone unused; DD went from swaddling wraps straight to gro-bags}

Widgey pillow for b/feeding

Tommee Tippee bottles & steam steriliser - DD was combination fed from 4wks and we didn't have the luxury of a dishwasher (have since moved and bottles, dummys, etc. still go in steriliser)

Baby Bjorn carrier and bouncy chair (££, but was present from MIL ). Carrier was a godsend for the 4wks early on when being upright and held close was the only way to sooth DD to sleep. Bouncy chair has been great from the start, but is now coming into it's own that DD is 6mths and can bounce herself.

We live in west London, and while I love my iCandy Peach travel system for everyday walking, I also got an OBaby Sport stroller for travelling and those days when tube travel is necessary. DH thought £80 was mad for a 2nd stroller, but this was the same cost as the iCandy travel bag, and after a week's holiday in NYC he agreed with me

Useless purchases:

Cot-top changer. Never even took it out of the plastic wrapping

And DD hasn't had as much use of the Bumbo as I thought she would. Always seems happy for the first 5mins, then gets whiny and frustrated - and transferred to the BB bouncer

Best buys-
Changing bag (I invested in a Pink Lining bag - it has sooo many inside pockets it's amazing! I like being organised ;) )
Bouncy chair
Moses basket - we used ours for 7 months before putting our baby in his own room :)
Grobags - amazing! THE best baby realted thing we own!

Worst buys-
Top/tail bowl. Total waste of money. Didn't even use it once
A bath chair - baby hated it so only used once
Travel system - I walk everywhere so ended up selling it and buying an off-road pushchair.
Tummy time play mat - just put toys on top of a blanket?

Baby dam - what a mug I am

Tummy Tub - the big bath would have been fine from the start or I could've just bought a bucket

The car seat base with the leg (Mamas and Papas). The standard one would have been fine.

My best value for money buy was the breastfeeding cushion - I still use it now 9 months later for the night feed as she gets hot and sweaty if I hold her.

Our we loved the bumbo, DS used it until he was 18months old (he is very small). One of our best buys.

Top and tail bowl now sits in wardrobe having been used once.

Change bag - £55 down the drain

Door bouncer, DS hated it.

Hundreds of clothes - most of which still have the tags on, I'm such a sucker!!

Wipe warmer - now that's funny

Moses basket - daughter hated being in it, so I wore her in my left arm and shoulder for the first few months (make that two years, that's just where she likes to be).

Microwave steriliser - only used it once. It says it keeps everything inside sterile until you take the lid off. Well as I never used 6 bottles at the same time, that means you open the lid to take one out, and voila, everything else inside is contaminated by Outside Air, so what's the point?

Mothercare Night Garden highchair with IgglePiggle on it. Tray doesn't lift up, so we had to poke baby in from the top and then lift her up past the tray when she'd finished. Sometimes she didn't want to go in/come out, and she'd hurt her shins when kicking against the tray. Instead bought a simple booster chair which we've used for the last 18 months.

Forgot to say, used cold water steriliser instead! Much simpler and quicker and easier.

Waste of money

Sleeping bags ? she hated them, screamed the place down

Baby Bjorn sling ? she loved it in the shop but hated it when we spent a fortune on one!!!

Bed warmer ? heath visitor said ?oh, you shouldn?t have bought that one, we don?t recommend that one for small babies?? even though it said on the packaging that it was aimed at small babies. Erred on the side of caution and never used it!

Anything my husband?s aunt bought! ;)

Glad I bought

Muslin cloths (101 uses ? we needed extra support for her hips so used it as extra nappy layer, folded it double and put it under her head so drool etc doesn?t go on sheet and mattress underneath, plaything, emergency clean up cloth etc etc)

Gym

mobile

playpen

plastic bucket with different shaped blocks - she loves it!

On the nursery furniture/changing unit debate, we bought 3 Ikea drawers, put them in a row, there is room for the changing mat, bottle warmer, nappies, wipes, creams and lotions etc.

Biggest waste of money: A BED

as if I got any sleep for the first six months

Not good/waste of money:

Vibrating colic cushion - DD hated it
.
Huge all singing all dancing chair - she liked a much simpler one that she could bounce herself.

Too many clothes!

Endless socks, bibs, hats and bootees that people bought for us - do any babies these days wear bootees? Hers were so big they looked like mini Uggs.

Electric sterliser - hardly used as bf. I wish I'd waited to see if we would need one.

Widgey bf cushion - found this uncomfortable, used small cushion from sofa instead.

Value for money:

Sleeping bags/Grobags - wouldn't be without them (although DD was too small for them at first, had to start with sheets and blankets).

Icandy travel system - expensive but fantastic.

Bath support seat - used this for months as DD was small, made bathtime so much easier.

Muslins

Changing table - I have had bad sciatica in the past so this was a must for us to save my back, and can be used for general storage as well.

Lansinoh (although I went a bit overboard and now have about 3 unused tubes of the stuff).

Grobag Egg thermometer - our house has very different temperatures in different rooms, so has been very useful. We just put it where we can see it, but DD can't, so it doesn't disturb her.

Agree with SweetApril, one person's white elephant is another's best friend. Until you meet your baby, don't rush out and buy everything you think you need.

With the ease of online shopping now, you can get virtually anything you need delivered within a couple of days. John Lewis is free delivery for orders over £30, and though they're not always the cheapest, they stock most of the baby/child guff you'll ever need.

This is a really useful thread

Question: did anyone buy a glider/nursing chair with matching footstool thingy? Is it worth spending the £140?

I like my baby bath and top and tail bowl. I find it back breaking leaning over the big bath with a newborn, the bby bath goes right near the kithchen sink and we have a shower tap so filling it is a doddle, and the top and tail bowl is great for reusable nappy changing.

MadAboutQuavers Personally I think those chairs are fugly and look a bit like they belong in a nursing home.
I bought an Ikea (possibly poang) chair and footstool, it has a bit of give if you want to rock, you can buy extra covers - a must if you have a vomatron baby, it looks ok once you are no longer nursing.

Worst buys

Nasal Aspirator (gross and distressing for the baby) - put some Olbas Oil in bowl of boiling water, by the cot.

Bags and bags of cotton wool for changing nappies (was on to wipes by week 3...)

Newborn sizes - DS was 4.8kg at birth

Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby book - just about drove myself to despair trying 'fit' baby and myself in with her routines.

A baby hairbrush

Best buys

Sleep suit/sack with elasticated bottoms (make changing nappies day and night a breeze; poppers are a nightmare when you're tired and its dark) John Lewis and Green Baby do them.

Kamilosan ointment for BF'ing, smells lovely and much easier to apply than Lanisoh. Can be used on nappy rash too.

Tigex nipple shields (saved me from giving up BF'ing many times)

Metanium cream - gets rid of proper/nasty nappy rash in one application.

High-waisted cotton 'granny' knickers - comfort rules in the weeks post-birth (just be sure to throw them out at some stage!)

I bought a steriliser but ended up giving it away as too bulky (and v.expensive @ £50) I Bfed and bought milton sterilising tablets for the occasional bottle, just steeping things in a plastic bowl. Just as effective, and no unnecessary gadgets to clutter the place up :)

Couldn't have done it without:

Grobags
Fabric bath support
Car baby-view mirror
Maclaren Quest
Cheap bouncy chair
Baby gym

Waste of money:
Bumbo
Baby bath
Changing table
Bootees

Re: sterlisers, midwife at Portland told me that there is no need to sterlise bottles etc that only come into breastmilk - just a good wash/go in the dishwasher will do.

I followed that advice and all was fine with DS - so no need to buy sterliser for bottles of expressed milk.

I got a glider chair for dc2 and love it. The footstool is a bit of a waste though (but was handy when pregnant). I wouldn't get one if you already have a comfy chair, but I used an Ikea chair with dc1 and the glider is soooo much better.

Thanks notso and hobnob

Might go and test drive a few at the weekend