 |
| Not only was Baby Led Weaning easy, it was FUN! |
This week's Listicles topic was '10 Dumbest Purchases', which reminded me of all the things I thought I'd need for Sprout before he was born. The marketing gets pretty intense & unless you've got some practical advice from someone else who's been there, it's hard not to end up with a mountain of unnecessary baby gear. So I thought I'd spin the 10 Dumbest Purchases into 10 Things You DON'T Need To Buy For Your Baby.
Some of the items are things we bought & didn't need, some we avoided buying due to good advice (generally from my sister--thanks, Wem!). Some of the things we were given as gifts or loaned--we really appreciate the thought behind it! Some of my list is also just things that made me say, "What the..?!?" when I saw them advertised. One further caveat--this list is obviously just my opinion & not meant as judgment of your shopping habits. You may have bought, used & loved many of these things & if they worked for you, that's fabulous! There's no one-size-fits-all baby gear list, of course.
- Shoes for newborns. They can't walk, sit or even roll over yet. Why in the world would you try to keep shoes on their feet?
- Jeans for newborns. Unless they are super-stretchy jegging-style jeans, I doubt having a thick denim waistband under a baby's back is all that comfortable. Plus, considering the frequency of diaper blowouts that happen at this stage, the jeans are likely to be on for about five minutes before being tossed in the laundry pile.
- Bumbo or Jolly Jumper. It's really cute to see babies propped up in these long before they can sit or stand on their own. However, pushing babies into upright postures before they've developed the strength & coordination to do it on their own doesn't seem like a good idea. Also, they're kind of expensive.
- Food mill or Baby Bullet. I had the former on my baby shower registry & by the time Sprout got to six months old, I'd discovered Baby Led Weaning, which involves absolutely no purees. Most babies are perfectly able to pick up chunks of steamed veggie or fruit or bread & stuff it in their mouth, then gum it & actually swallow some at six months. Sprout fed himself from day one, so we didn't need any of those special long-handled spoons, either.
- Baby bathtub. We were loaned one of these & used it about three times. I found it a lot easier just to use the sink or the bathtub or just have Sprout in the bath with me.
- Baby perfume. This one totally baffled me. Why in the world would you need to spray a baby with artificial scent?!? Babies naturally smell awesome already!
- Padded car seat head support. We were loaned one of these too & the thing was too low for Sprout, so we just used rolled up blankets instead. Cheaper, much easier to customize & a the time that he needed it, he couldn't really move enough to dislodge them anyway.
- Scratch mittens. I bought some of these in one of my prenatal mini shopping sprees. We used them a few times but Sprout got them off every time. Socks stay on better if needed--I didn't find Sprout scratched himself all that much anyway.
- A big expensive high chair. My sister suggested we get a Fisher Price Healthy Care Booster Seat, which is a portable seat & tray that straps to practically any chair. It was under $40 & is adjustable enough to use for years. No cumbersome wide-legged high chair taking up a quarter of our kitchen--it's just strapped to one of our four kitchen chairs. We've also used it as restaurants & when travelling.
- A change table. Considering how long you really use a change table--maybe two years, max, if you have a compliant child that will lie down for diaper changes?--it doesn't seem worth it to invest in one. With a relatively small bedroom for Sprout, we just didn't have room for it either. We just got him a low, wide dresser & put a change pad on top of it.
Linking up with NorthwestMommy's weekly Listicles!
Click on the button to the left & visit some of the other blogs participating this week.
Like what you see here? Subscribe to The Sprog & don't miss another post!
I agree with you on most of them, but the baby bathtub. Jonah loved his bathtub, and used it for 9 months. The girls - not so much. Mostly because the one NOT being bathed would scream blue murder while she waited her turn. I laid them down together in the big tub when they were fairly little to bathe simultaneously instead.
ReplyDeleteI remember Jane giving me two pairs of Robeeze for a shower present, and saying that she bought 6-12 months because no babies need shoes any earlier. And she's right! The girls wore those little ones for about 12 months of their life, to keep their socks on. They wore them so long, the soles ripped holes.
I hate scratch mittens...never put them on any of my children. Seems too straight-jacketish to me. Of course I never swaddled either..
We're still using the booster seats-one has been in constant use for nearly 6 years now, as it went from Jonah to Natalie.
Yeah, Sprout wasn't a big fan of baths until he got more mobile, which was when that bath would have been useless anyway. Robeez I liked--they stayed on & kept his feet warm when he wasn't wearing a bunting outside, anyway. Sprout still has a couple pairs that he wears once in a while. I sort of consider them slippers, not shoes. :)
DeleteYours is one of the most practical lists I have ever read. You are so right with everyone of your assessments.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wayne!
DeleteAs a grandmom explaining to my grand babies mother that just because a car seat is 200 bucks does not make it the best has been like beating my head against a wall. He will be out of it in less than 6 months the way he is growing, it is big, cumbersome and a waste of good money. She could have gotten on just as safe for less money. Name brand clothes is another stickler. Like an outfit made by Tori Spelling that was ugly as sin.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we went with a carseat from Costco that cost $60 on sale because they're all safety tested & approved. It also happens to be light & easy to install which is important for us as we don't own a vehicle. I feel for her though, there's a lot of pressure to buy the best for your kids & the marketing really wants us to think that expensive means safer.
DeleteI totally agree with this list!! Especially the food mill/bullet. With my first I spent way too much time puree-ing because that was the wisdom of the day, that was what the nurses preached at the mom and baby rec centre drop-ins, that was what the other moms I knew were doing. It was such a relief with #2 to not have to waste any time pureeing. And freezing little cubes. And laboriously feeding a 6 month old with a spoon (pure folly). Also - baby bath. We had one loaned to us with #1, used it a bit, it took up half the bathroom and was just this ugly purple plastic monstrosity. For #2 we had one of those $5 little mesh things to prop her up in the bath. Easy peasy. Done, and that left room for her sister in the tub too! I agree on no shoes, but I will say that those woolly slippers made in Lynn Valley (Padraig) that are sold at Whole Foods and many other local places, were fantastic, durable, warm and fairly waterproof and indispensable for hikes on rainy cold west coast days.
ReplyDeleteWe were given one of those little bath rests too & used that more than the tub. I've seen those Padraig booties--those are great. I probably should have clarified that I meant shoes that look like converse or fake gumboots or loafers that are purely for fashion. Soft booties or Robeez to keep them warm makes sense & they stay on well.
DeletePutting shoes on infant feet is just wrong. It feels like trying to force stiff mashed potatoes into a mold.
ReplyDeleteI wish they would make perfume that smelled like new babies so I could spray it on my kids now. :)
GREAT list! Ellen
Ha! Mashed potatoes! LOL. & fake new baby scent... like 'new car smell' spray?
DeleteI cannot believe they have baby perfume...that is CRAZY.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting list. Thanks for sharing.
I found your blog today through Monday Listicles.
Have a great day!
http://artpark78.com/blog1
Welcome & thanks for stopping by!
DeleteDefinitely found myself nodding along to a bunch of these!! Wish I could have all that money know that I wasted on some of that baby stuff!
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I got a percentage of it back by consigning what wasn't loaned to us. We were pretty lucky though, with generous friends & family, many of whom already have kids a bit older than Sprout, we didn't have to buy much.
DeleteDo you mean Mum-mums? I always thought of them as wallpaper paste wafers... They were INCREDIBLY sticky & actually had a fair bit of sugar in them too. I think we bought a box or two, but relized that the 'normal' rice crackers would be as good or better, since they didn't dissolve into paste the moment they got wet.
ReplyDeleteGreat take on this list. They really make baby perfume??? Ew!!!
ReplyDeleteWe had a food mill and we did actually use it...when we went up to a remote Lutheran retreat center up in the Washington Cascades...it was family style eating, so we were not making our own food. The food mill (manual, not electric) allowed us to feed our little buys whatever the rest of us were eating. But I think it's a "buy-if-you-need" purchase. I went to a baby shower on Sunday, and all of us were laughing about the extensive list of items they are telling new parents they need nowadays. Ridiculous. The new mom said that she thought that weddings were a racket until she got pregnant...baby stuff puts weddings to shame!!
Breast pump. I am a stay at home mom. Why on earth did I think I ever needed one??! I gave it away in a completely unused condition a year later...
ReplyDeleteGreat list! I was glad to have scratch mittens when Em was newborn, because she had crazy long nails and she would have been scratched to shreds. But of course socks would have worked just as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, what a racket.
Thanks!
DeleteAgree. Didn't get any of that stuff. Not a one. Boil veg, mash with fork - DONE! Shoes are the dumbest things ever. Someone tried to give us a wipe warmer! We used cloths at home anyway. Ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the wipe warmers should be on this list!
DeleteMy baby had GERD and as a result, gags and vomits when eating solid foods (for some reason GERD babies take issue with solids). The baby bullet has been very useful and store bought purees of course, which are all that he'll eat at 11 months old (still) so it depends on your child. I also found the baby tub quite useful when he was a newborn - especially the temperature gauge. The baby tub saved my back from constantly needing to bend over the adult tub, supporting him up. Also, my little guy LOVED the Jolly Jumper. He was ecstatic to be able to dance to the tunes we would put on and his energy was infectious, getting all of us to dance with him. Before he could walk this was quite the novelty. We picked it up for $15 off Kijiji. So all in all, I guess there are as many products on the market as there is because different people find different items useful.
ReplyDeleteThe other items you listed I have to agree on, although on a cool spring day, I was putting my newborn in a light jacket/sweater and shoes to keep his feet warm. I didn't own slippers for him quite yet and the ones I wanted were costly so I'm glad I didn't buy them at that point. Although a rare occurrence, I did find the shoes to be useful for that purpose.