have you bought anything that was a waste of money

[pud1]

i am now 23 weeks and am having to start to think of all the things i will need and the cost. has any one got any tips on things they thought they would need but didnt. i feelt hat there are so many things that you could be fooled into buying.

Also, should i get a bouncer, swing, both or neither or wait 'til baby is born and try 'em out in the store? (can you try 'em out with baby in store??)

neuroticlady - i have a couple of pages in a note book going!!
don't know if you^ve found this, but i have a lot of items that ended up in all 3 columns; useful, not useful, and mixed opinion!!!

I guess we won't find out 'til we get there ourselves.

i suppose its inevitable to buy a few items that, either mum or baby, won^t actually like when put into use.

cot bumpers, expensive bouncer, swing all non-essential - by the time they're in the big cot they're quite mobile and usually unstick themselves.
make lots of friends with older babies and test dd in their swings etc to see if she likes them before buying. Or, even better, just swipe theirs once outgrown.
The really cheap light chairs thus have the best bouncing action.

The other thing worth buying is a really nice 'grown up' mobile ie not wind up light up musical thing, just a few floaty things on threads that's easy to put up with a pin in the ceilng over cot / basket / bouncy chair / changing mat / travel cot when away etc and will last till they are much older.
Ours is from here

a door swinger that hangs from a door frame where the baby sits in it and bounces, only when they are old enough. My two hated it. complete waste of money.

we had this i liked it cos you could make it go flatter than any of the chairs.

oh and we had this instead of a swing.

could put the carrycot on it to get little one of to sleep and not have to worry about lifting him out of a chair or swing without waking him.

didn't bother with baby towels with hoods, just used normal ones.

put baby straight in big bath so need for baby bath.

don't get a bath support - most babies like to be able to kick about in the water. someone bought us an inflatable neck support thing which was great cos it kept his head out of the water but the rest of him was in it. no idea where they got it from though cos i've never seen one before.

we did find scratch mitts inevitable but you need the tiniest ones. also the only socks ds would keep on were the trumpette ones.

Playpen - neither child would countenance getting in it. Anything nappy-changing related beyond most basic mat and wipes. You will also be pressured into getting a cranial osteopath if your baby so much as hiccups - utter and complete waste of time and money.

Most fantastic things I spent money on (couple of quid) was Chicco cooling breast pads - absolutely wonderful if you can find them - and you can never have enough muslin cloths.

thought of some more:

waste of money -

sit in walker - ds had a wooden trolley with bricks in and he still plays with it now.

door bouncer

bumbo

change bag - just had a few normal big bags that i could pick and choose with a fold away change mat. i got the free huggies bag from boots and used the change mat out of that.

sheepskin - ds nearly choked on one

steriliser - just wash the bottles in hot soapy water and air dry.

bottle warmer - used microwave

changing mat liner - just use a towel

however i did use:

baby comb - ds was born with a lot of hair and your going to need one eventually anyway

baby gym

muslins - ds wasn't sicky but he has them as comforters so if you lose one or need to wash one it isn't the end of the world.

v pillow - used it as a support when pregnant then for breastfeeding

whoever it was that mentioned freezing sanitary pads did you mean normal ones or washable ones?

bump

bump

this was good

I haven't read the rest of this thread, but was just having this conversation with DH the other day and these are the things we came up with, which we wish someone had told us not to bother with...

Nappy wrapper - cartridge costs about £5 and only lasts a week and you do not end up with little sausage shaped nappies they lead you to believe!!

Sling - worn for an hour three mornings running when DD was newborn (just over 8lb, so not really a heavy baby) and got really bad back ache so never got used again.

Cot bumper - apparently shouldn't be used until 6 months and DD didn't go into her cot until 6 months anyway, but then shouldn't be used when baby is sitting up and DD was sitting up by 6 months - complete waste of money.

If breastfeeding and planning to express electric breast pump instead of manual. we bought a manual one and ended up buying an electric one after 3 months - if you get a good make you can then sell it for a good price on e-bay afterwards!

Car seat that attaches to the pram. sounded a great idea to move her from car to pram without waking her up, but just not practical. We did it twice when she was first born and it was just too heavy to carry around and awkward getting it in and out of the car. would have been better off getting just a car seat. and newborns shouldn't be in car seat for longer than 1 hour at a time anyway so by the time you've driven whereever if you leave them in the seat whilst shopping for example and then they are in it for the drive home - it's well over an hour.

Blender for making purees!!! if you wait until 6 mths to wean and then do BLW absolutely no need for a blender (ours is still in box untouched, wish someone had told me this!)

Cot bedding - we got loads before DD was born and she didn't go in her cot until 6 months and now just has a sheet over the matress and wears a gro bag - maybe we will get some use out of it further down the line, but totally unnecessary so far!

Travel arch for the pram - just got in the way when trying to get DD in and out of the pram and annoyed me. currently on car seat and still annoying me.

Think that's it - HTH and good luck with pregnancy/birth!!

I loved my nappy wrapper!

Waste: top and tail bowl.

don't buy a pram before the baby arrives, the instant you do you'll want a different style. just found out i'm pregnant with 2nd baby and i'm not buying one till its older just gonna use a sling. i have mai tai style ones which are much more comfortable than the ones with clips and buckles.

I disagree with so much of this... problem is it is all so personal! For me one of my proudest moments was the first walk out with my daughter in spanking new pram (still using it now as buggy and love it). And the car seat could fit on it in the early days which was handy on a number of occasions (though did have stupidly small car back then. Couldn't live without my muslins. Bought a cot bumper about six months because daughter had habit of flinging her head at the end of the cot and used it for quite a while. Still using changing table now, saves my back. Still using changing bag and skiphop fancy change mat thing. Maybe I am a sucker for advertisers but think all these things make my life so much more pleasant and simpler! The one mistake I did not make was buying a lot of clothes in 0-3 and everything I had a gift receipt for I took back and bought the same in 3-6, which I was very glad of!

saturn what you need is something like this, this, this or this

also found this medicine dispenser a godsend

this thread saved me so much money!!!
my dh wanted to buy everything in prep for baby.

ended up with a good list of yes, no and maybe. the maybe's could wait until aftr baby to see if we really needed or wanted it.

but, as said, its all personal.
i use the car seat on my pram wheels loads.

a must for us was a fisher price flask (£9-£10) instead of a bottle warmer. it meant making up fresh ff at night or when out.

oh and the thread stopped us buying stuff just because it had a cute picture on it!!

eg.. bought a bundle 4 towels and 2 flannels £10 instead of 1 hooded baby towel for £20.

I've bought something recently which I wish I had had before - it's hardly an essential but i have found it useful.It's a baby towel that you can wear like an apron and then wrap round baby. It came from Boots and was £15, B is 11 months now and it is plenty big enough. It suits us because she loves coming out the bath and cuddling up to me for a minute or two. With an ordinary towel I always got wet - this is much better!

I've bought something recently which I wish I had had before - it's hardly an essential but i have found it useful.It's a baby towel that you can wear like an apron and then wrap round baby. It came from Boots and was £15, B is 11 months now and it is plenty big enough. It suits us because she loves coming out the bath and cuddling up to me for a minute or two. With an ordinary towel I always got wet - this is much better!

puppydogeyes - how do you cool it down when you are out?

NappyAddict- I bought this flask too and I used to boil water, let it cool for a bit and then put it in flask so it holds the warm not boiling temp. Did this before bed too and took it upstairs and it lasted the right temp until the early hours.

ah i see.