Saturday, October 20, 2007

Things you should live without!

I have recently read some great baby product reviews from various bloggers. Thanks to one, Poor Way Cooler went to about 4 different stores looking for Foogo Thermos Sippy Cups while in the States because we don't have them here and I wanted one. Turns out, they don't appear to be in California either. Sorry babe. Anyway, it got me thinking about doing my own little review for all you expectant mommies out there, both physical and paper pregnant. Seeing as how we do things a little differently in the land of Geek, this will be "What NOT to buy".

See, both Way Cooler got sucked in a tiny bit by all these cool looking (or on-sale) products before we actually had kids and well, we've bought a few duds. So, here's a few that I wouldn't recommend to anyone, (except for maybe the blonde skinny-minnies who got back to their pre-pregnancy weight in 4.5 hours and who always have their make-up on.)

1. The Jeep Double Stroller. Do not buy this unless you like the sensation of pushing a tank around with their bare hands. It weighs as much as one, and steers much like a tank would should you have to push it. I often fantasize about the day we no longer need it and then I can drive over it. Repeatedly. However, I do like my van, so I will probably just sell the thing to some other poor unsuspecting soul.

2. The Evenflo Simplicity Highchair. It has a CLOTH seat cover. What the heck was I thinking? It does not wipe clean, you have to throw it in the wash. Every Single day. Sometimes twice. DO NOT BUY A HIGH CHAIR YOU CANNOT WIPE CLEAN. I cannot stress this enough. As well, I don't think it is possible for a high chair to have any more cracks and crevices for food to get trapped in. Cleaning it after a meal of baby food was often a 10 minute job involving a dust-buster, cloth, toothpicks (for hard to reach areas) and a washing machine. As if feeding a baby wasn't fun enough already!

3. While we are on seats for eating, while the Safety First portable booster seat can be wiped, it also has more holes than Swiss Cheese for food to fall into or be shoved into. It can also break apart should your child take a screaming tantrum while strapped into it. Not that I know this from experience or anything.

4. Last but not least, should you have more than one child you will probably need a snugli or sling to carry them in. This is not an area you want to be saving money in as there is a difference. Spud spent a total of 3 hours in a Snugli, Sprout was in one every single day for 6 months. Cause with #2, I actually had to do stuff, not just sit and hold a crying baby. My back will never ever be the same. I would borrow a child to test-drive various ones if necessary. Even the queen of cheap so desperately wishes she had blown the wad on this one.

So, there you have it, in my humble opinion various baby things you should live without! What about you, what do you have that you'd like to take a hammer to?

5 comments:

Catherine said...

Thanks so much for the heads up! Great suggestions!

I'm ok for the double stroller. 1 baby = single stroller unless mommy descides she needs to carry more stuff than a pack-mule to the mall. I-will-learn-to-downsize...I hope!

High chair: An amazing and generous friend is passing hers down to me. I saw it last week and am very thankful that it's not a cloth seat. Plastic...yeah!

Booster seat: I'll keep your recommendations in mind in the future. First order of business..sometime next year is a full size carseat. Mommy has expensive taste when it comes to this so I'm hoping a large group of people may want to go together and purchase a group gift. If not, will have to downsize my wishes.

Snugli? Check! Same generous friend has given me her Baby Bjorn. I hope to carry Hannah in it for a good amount of time. It's great for bonding. I also have a baby sling on my wish list for same reason as snugli.

Thanks for all the tips. Looking forward to reading what others write.

Char said...

If you are buying an infant car seat with a base, if at all possible fit the base into your car before assembling the rest. All the easier to return it if you need to.


The base has a spot to thread the seat belt through, that holds it securely into your vehicle. But on some vehicles the snap and release part of the seatbelt (you know, the latch part with the red button on it?), is longer. If so, the buckle comes up into the threading area and then the car seat cannot clip into it's base. VERY annoying and really unsafe, as the alternative is to leave it loose!! Not gonna happen.

Anyway, I don't know if that was understandable at all. I set my clock wrong after the last power outage yesterday and have been up for way too long already!!

Also, Don't buy sippy cups with the hard 'no drip valve'. They are impossible to clean. All it takes is one time forgetting it in the car, or finding it in the toy box and it's history. Waste of money.

Must keep thinking on it. God bless, loveya

JCK said...

Oh....let me count the ...CHA CHANGE spent on unnecessary items. The top of my dumb and dumber list of purchases was one of those fancy smancy double jogging strollers. It was very nice, but we used it a total of maybe...20 times in 2 years. A sad, sad tale. We would have been better off buying a used stroller through Craig's list!

Oh, I HEAR you on the cloth seat cover for a highchair. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? I ended up tossing the cloth cover in the closet and having my GIRL sit on the hard plastic seat with no cover. Hey, she had a full diaper most of the time anyway...extra padding.

Praise and Coffee said...

Great advice!
These are things that new moms don't usually think about, but oh so important.

Blessings,
Sue

manny said...

The jeep stroller thing is so true, we had one for 2 months then got rid of it!!