Let me start.
Bell peppers. Slices of bell peppers big enough so that they don't pose a choking hazard for a baby who cannot bite through them. These are the best teething devices money can buy. My baby likes the yellow and red ones over the green, it was a mistake introducing her to the more expensive breed of pepper.
My daughter can be amused by hours with a tupperware container that has about ten dry beans in it. We call it baby boggle. Super cheap, you just have to make sure she doesn't open it and eat the beans. Our container is pretty hard to open and of course, we only play with it supervised.
The diaper genie. I've heard differing opinions on this. My opinion, is that I love it. I'm too lazy to take a plastic bag out every time I have to change a diaper/toss a poopy wipe. Also, I feel like getting a bag per diaper is wasteful. You can cram a ton of diapers and wipes into a diaper genie before you have to empty it. My husband and I experimented in ways of folding the diapers down to the smallest size we could, and this made it even more efficient. Some people don't like just throwing diapers in the kitchen trash as well. I don't like my kitchen smelling like poop, call me a snob if you will.
The good old Bjorn. The Sweeds really got this one right.
Wipe warmers. I had one on my registry, and I've given one to a friend before. I even considered buying one when the shower was over and it was left on the list. Then my sister let me in a little secret, hold the wipe in your hand for a couple seconds, same effect!
Baby bath towels. They're cute, but whenever I reach for one to dry my daughter off, I wrap her in it and it feels far too thin. The one that is thicker is too rough. Normal towels work just fine. They lack the little duckies and hoods that make the baby look like a cute woodland animal, but they're functional and most likely you already have them. Unless you like to drip dry outside with the real woodland animals. In which case I cannot help you.
Equate baby wash/shampoo. The pump breaks very easily and despite its claim, it is not tear free.
Biggest waste of money for us, the Sophie giraffe (or whatever the hell her name is). Not because it's a bad toy, she likes it well enough. I bought it at Sam's with the stuffed version of the toy. The package was a whopping 25 dollars. I got it home and my husband mocked me for buying something that resembled a dog toy so closely, even the dogs thought it was for them. After being washed so many times it no longer squeaks. It just wasn't worth the cash.
Jingly toys that hang from the car seat. These are not totally a waste, but I have one that I thought she'd love, but is now nowhere to be found because every time she'd fall asleep in the car I'd have to nimbly take it off while keeping it quiet and tuck it somewhere where it wouldn't jingle on my waddle into the house juggling a sleeping baby, a diaper bag, and whatever else we got while we were out.
Pacifiers. Some kids love them, I wouldn't suggest spending a fortune on them until you know your kid is one of them. My daughter did not, and I wasted so much money trying the nuks, the avents, the razabu things that are kind of like pacifiers but not.... She turned her nose up at every last one of them.
CLOTHES
- A ton of newborn clothes. They outgrow them in less than a month, and some never even fit in newborn sizes.
- A ton of any size clothes, you get them tucked in the closet and before you realize they're back there, POOF! New size time.
- I would like to interject that buying second hand baby clothes is the best idea under the sun, as they hardly have any use, and they haven't gone through anything that your baby won't do all over again.
- Carters usually makes really durable, comfy baby clothes. However, their jammie head holes are a little off around six months. You might want to buy up a couple months/sizes, jammies are made to be snug fitting so your baby won't catch their clothes on any open flames. I'm glad they've taken my baby's fire safety, however, I don't plan on holding my daughter over any flames, and she's still too young to be starting any bonfires on her own (once she gets crawling down, then we'll talk). Buying her age makes the jammies very snug and I worry that they might be uncomfortable for her, so we buy a few sizes up. Just a suggestion.
Footie Pajamas, be careful here. I love them, but it's very hard to gauge what size you need at what age with the size of your kid's foot. You don't want them to have curled up toes to fit in their jammies, and some companies are totally crazy with their foot to age size ratio.
On the footie subject, baby shoes. Babies don't wear shoes. Babies don't need shoes. MUCH less the baby heals they have these days. Putting your baby in shoes can actually be bad for their feet. They're cute, but not needed. Save your money.
Walkers, they cause hip problems, even if you supervise like a hawk, even if you live in a house with no stairs of hazards. Our pediatrician told us, and research proves, that they teach the child to walk with crutches, they're not really helping them walk at all.
IN MY OPINION luvs diapers. They are indeed about ten bucks cheaper when you buy in bulk at Sam's, but they do not provide the protection of Pampers, and give WAY more diaper rashes than cloth.
- I prefer the all in one cloth diapers, such as made by thirsties and just ordered a bunch of fuzzibuns. I don't prefer bum genius, but my sister used them almost exclusively with no complaints. I didn't care for bum genius because they fit my daughter weird, and there is Velcro that rubs against the baby's back side in the one that we have.
- In the way of disposables, I prefer Pampers, because as my mom pointed out, the straps on Huggies are less forgiving on baby legs. Both Pampers and Huggies are far softer than Luvs, which, other than the price difference, aren't better by any means.
Speaking of diapers and changing....
Those diaper changing pad covers. They get peed on every time you put them on clean. We have one that is constantly in the wash, instead, we use receiving blankets to cover the changing pad. For some reason my daughter doesn't see the challenge and doesn't pee on them as often, I'm not a scientist, but I do observe. The blankets are also cheaper, and both faster and easier to throw over the changing pad one handed than the fitted covers that are super expensive for what they are.
Don't buy formula in bulk, because no matter what brand you want to go with, your baby will pick, and reject what they don't like/can't tolerate.... all over your nice clothes.
Nice clothes, big waste. Won't keep.
Nice things, big waste. Won't keep.
Cheap things, big waste. Won't keep.
Anything really, big waste. Won't keep.
Please contribute your baby product likes/dislikes!
