Changing mats?

[CBhope]

This might be a daft question but is there a major difference between changing mats? I see some for £8 and others for £40+

I’ve seen some that are more expensive which are memory foam but does that matter when baby won’t be on it for more than a few minutes? Not sure if I’m missing something here..

No advice but following with interest!

Personally don’t think there is any difference! You want one that is wipe clean for obvious reasons. We had ones from John Lewis that were about £8 for upstairs but often changed my son downstairs on his portable one which has no padding whatsoever and he didn’t mind. In the early days we’d put a Muslin down so his precious little skin didn’t touch the cold mat 🤣

I bought 2 cheap ones (£3.50 each) from morrisons for DS, one has cracked corners and one is fine. DS is now 3 years old. I have bought 1 new one for new baby's arrival for £5 from Asda, its nice white with grey clouds.
Mine sat on top of a chest of drawers for 3 moths for changing, then was on the bathroom floor, once he was good at standing up it was standing up changes. The cheap ones have been fine. I have bought good quality other things such as pushchair and car seats which I feel are worth spending on.

My parents bought us one for £45 and we’ve ended up stripping all the fancy bits off as it’s more a hinderance than help. We could have bought one for a fiver and it would have done the trick

The expensive ones are a rip off. Buy a cheap padded one with a wipe clean surface. They all do the same thing.

I bought my PFB a special baby bath sponge - like a normal sponge but 3 times the price and with soft rounded curves instead of corners. I was genuinely worried that the so so sharp corners of a normal damp sponge would hurt him. A sponge! A lot of women go slightly insane about what their baby needs and there are all kind of products designed to exploit you!

After 3 babies, the first I spent a fortune on all the top of the range stuff, baby 3 has had cheap stuff 😂 I can honestly say just get one which is nicely padded and the ones with sloping sides are handy when they start rolling. They're called 'wedge' shaped.
Boots do them for about £12 I think.
Also don't be drawn in to these 'washable' folding changing mats. Unless you want to buy a whole heap of them because in the first few months explosive nappies will mean you'll be washing them every 5 minutes x

Personally I wouldn’t spend more then £8/9 on one - plenty of other things to spend the money on and the baby really won’t care.

Once she could stand she absolutely refuses to lie on her back to be changed so we have to do it standing up now

I have two - one mamas and papas and one Asda. They're muchly the same but I put a puppy training pad down before I put DD on so it absorbs any leaks (also she was a Xmas baby so we didn't want her to get cold from the mat).
I really can't see what difference there could be that would require £40!

Wipe clean is ESSENTIAL. Whether you care about padding depends on what you’ll be lying it on - if you have a tiled bathroom floor, I’d get a nicely padded on or get in the habit of laying a towel down first (my DD went through a phase of trying to sit up and then banging her head back down sometimes), but if you’re going to be lying it on carpet then it doesn’t need to be padded. If you have a specific changing table, I’d stick a towel under it for comfort if it’s not padded. You really don’t need an expensive one.

The best ones I've ever bought are from Mamas and Papas. Not the extravagant ones, I think the ones I have cost £16-£20. I've had others but these are honestly the best I've found.

Also, get one for upstairs and one for downstairs! You won't regret it!

I think even £8 sounds fairly expensive for a changing mat! A cheapy one will last the 2-3 years that you'll need it for!

Don't bother with the ones you clip onto your cot bed. Ditto dedicated changing units etc. Unless you have a CS, you will just change baby on the floor.

We were gifted a patemm one which was lovely but cheap ones are fine. Check the sizing though as some are quite small.

Ours is still going strong as a mess/glue/paint mat for craft activities!

I bought 2 from matalan! Ended up taking them to the charity shop and bought roll up ones of eBay!! They are to big to leave sitting around

This kind

How can a changing mat cost £40?? Ours was £5, it’s still in good condition over two years on.
Memory foam changing mats... sounds like something from the dragon’s den reject pile.

We had a Mamas and Papas one like this: www.mamasandpapas.com/en-gb/essentials-changing-mattress-rainbows/p/4155a5200

Sorry I don't know how to do links. It's still going strong three years later. It's very durable, I had a cheap one at the grandparents and it split open.

Im going to come across a bit odd but i've just spent £30 on a beautiful one from the gilded bird - shes my third baby...i bought cheap for dc1 & 2 . They spend a lot of time on changing mats and I figured itll be nice to have a good quality anti roll one this time round....the cheap ones end up splitting I found over time.

Thanks everyone! A £5-15 changing mat it is. Im a FTM with not the easiest pregnancy to date so I have been super paranoid about everything! Honestly if I went into a shop and was told ‘every baby needs atleast two of the £40 memory foam mats’ I would have been walking out of there with them! Definitely right about retailers exploiting worried mums