Key Post: Worst buy for baby?

Just following on from the 'best buy for baby' thread, thought it might be interesting to have a 'worst buy'.

2 items spring to mind for me straight away:

* Hippy chick carrier. This is a contraption you tie around your waist with a little raised area that acts as a 'seat' for baby to sit on. Think I used it once - it just wasn't practical and wasn't very comfortable. Waste of money.

* Play pen. Never used - she would not stay in it. I know these can also be used as portable cots but I bought it as a play pen and it wasn't used.

Anyone else?

Re: Worst buy for baby?

1 - Bottle warmer - take too long to heat up a bottle -
2 - Activity arch to put on the car seat - Keep falling off no matter what Grrrrr!!!
3 - Dungaries without buttons on the leg - look great but was a pain when baby need to have nappy changes as you have to take off the whole thing.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

We received a gift of a 'musical' mobile that was suspended over his cot. After a few weeks, my wife found a small piece of sharp metal that had fallen out of the mobile on the mattress of the cot beside his head.

Can't think of anything worse than that.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Fisher Price do a musical mobile(fish theme), that while very nice for baby (complete with "Timothy Leary"esque light effect) was a real pain. Firstly it ate batteries (and you could only use the expensive heavy duty ones with it- the cheaper ones were worse than useless. It was actually tricky enough to assemble- I thought, and I love putting stuff together! Lastly to change the batteries you had to remove about 5 screws to gain access to the battery compartment- I know this is probably a H & S issue but nonetheless. However I will concede that junior loved it and so did Mrs C.!

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Argos portable stair gate - impossible to fit on our stairs.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

A babywipe warmer. I kid you not, it is possible to buy a unit which keeps the
babywipes warm.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Samantha said:

1 - Bottle warmer - take too long to heat up a bottle -

Click to expand...

Yeah - I use the microwave but herself is wary of it and uses a pot of boiled water. I haven't scalded baby yet so hopefully social services won't be knocking on my door later today...

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Door bouncer ... neither of my children would use it.

Travel system ... what a con ... you buy a buggy because the car seat will fit on it ... then you have a 10lb baby and find the combined weight of the child and the rock-a-tot thing is too heavy to take out of the car. Also the buggy part takes up all the space in the boot of your car!

Hospitals advising you do use cotton wool and water to clean baby's bums ... when everyone knows it'll take more than water to shift poo!

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Agreed on the baby sling. We got one and must have used it 3-4 times. You need lessons from houdini on how to get in and out of it.
My pet hates are....
Tesco nappies. Cot soaked after using. Similar experience with huggies. Best brands we found were the lidl and pampers. With lidl selling at practically half price, the decision is made there.

Babygros that need to be fastened at the back. Hate them.

Bottles that dont have a wide aperture so that when youre spooning the feed into them half the feed goes all over the counter grrrrrr. Found the wide avent ones best.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Henny Penny said:

Hospitals advising you do use cotton wool and water to clean baby's bums ... when everyone knows it'll take more than water to shift poo!

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Works fine for me (i.e. me doing the baby's bum that is!). Meconium was one thing (that stuff is like Marmite - to look at, not to taste!) but bottle fed poo shifts OK with cotton wool and water. Maybe it gets more difficult at weaning time?

Re: Worst buy for baby?

I am laughing looking at this thread!!!

I too found the bottle warmer useless and a jug of water better. Used the microwave on second baby (standards slipping?!)

Baby carrier - just never used it.

Sangenic nappy wrapper - easier to throw out nappies as required rather than a full container (it DOEs still smell IMHO)

Ditto on the cottonwool malarky - only wipes will do th trick without getting cotton wool stuck to their bums!

Breast pads,breast pump - didn't breasyttfeed and got tablets to stop milk so didn't need these.

Car seat from the M&P pliko system - made babys head tip forward so ended up buying a britax one instead.

Any clothes that don't have poppers on them or wide necks so don't strangle baby.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

The sister in law insisted on buying us a set of baby monitors in spite of us not wanting them and the house being small enough that we're hardly going to need them. She thought that c. €50 was too little to be spending and was almost inclined to buy the ones with a built in camera! My main worry was that they'd interfere with my 2.4GHz 802.11 wireless gear or video senders but it turns out that they operate on 49MHz (not 49GHz as Tomy informed me initially). Oh - and yes - they're still in the box.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Cotton wool and water are fine - many babies get nappy rash due to the chemicals in the baby wipes.


I found a sling one of the best buys ever - we used it exclusively for the first three months and very often up to a year. It helped that it was a great design and did not put strain on the back. I even used it a few weeks after a C-section without trouble, so don't discount it completely. It did take a while to get used to the Houdini arrangement (it was a Wilkinet) but well worth it.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Fully agree about the portable bottle warmers - We never used the play pen as a play pen, as our little girl just refused to read the instructions to understand her role. It was handy as a downstairs crib/changing mat (via the extra bits that fit into the top).

Disagree about the sling - We had the Baby Bjorn one and used it up to 18 months or so, though our little one is quite little for her age. She really enjoyed being up & close & part of the adult conversations.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Monitors were also our worst buy. The ones we bought picked up one of our neighbours' house with startling clarity ( they had the same brand ) but refused to pick up V Jnrs room next door.


We were given a sling as a hand me down, but V Jnr objected vehemently to usage of same, and was therefore discarded shortly thereafter ( the sling, not V Jnr).

And I thought cotton wool & water was fine!

Re: Worst buy for baby?

The sling (mothercare version) was probably our most useful purchase of all. With slings, design and ease of use matters an awful lot. We got a few second-hand ones from friends and they were hopeless.

Portable cot was also very very handy.

Re: Worst buy for baby?

huskerdu said:

A babywipe warmer. I kid you not, it is possible to buy a unit which keeps the
babywipes warm.

Click to expand...

This morning (about 6am) was particular chilly, the look of shock on our little fella's face was priceless when I cleaned him with wipes that were left in the hallway overnight!

Re: Worst buy for baby?

What do you expect, waking him at 6am?

Re: Worst buy for baby?

Baby walkers - you know, the ones on wheels where baby sits in it and tries to drive/do wheelies/take corners at 60kph. These things are supposed to help 'train' babies to walk. Our GP said most injuries he sees on babies are caused by these walkers. They don't need them. Babies will learn to walk in their own good time !

Re: Worst buy for baby?

This had turned out to be a good laugh and very insightful.

I shall have to tune in more often to 'askaboutmoney' to find out about products such as baby wipe warmers? Really? that one is definitely new to me!