10 baby things I regret buying… and 10 you’ll never regret buying!
In this series, I will share with you the top 10 baby things I regret spending money on, followed by the next article that details the 10 best baby things you can invest in.
1. Moses basket / Bassinet
That idyllic picture of the blissful sleeping baby in a Moses basket or bassinet that mothers-to-be dream of? That doesn’t exist. The truth is that during the (very short) time that your baby is small enough to use a bassinet, he most likely will not end up in there. Firstly, you’ll probably be so exhausted and saddened by the idea of not being close to baby that you both just fall asleep together in the arm chair. Even if you summon the strength and will to place baby in the bassinet, it is highly likely that you will be taking him out within 20 minutes as he will begin fussing because he is too warm / cold or he just plain doesn’t like it.
A car seat I have discovered, is an excellent bassinet / Moses basket replacement. Not only is it lighter than a bassinet, most models are able to rock back and forth like a Moses basket when placed on a flat surface, and it comes with an excellent sunshade. Oh and it is a car seat too! (duh!)
TIP: Skip buying a bassinet for the stroller and simply get the adapters to clip your car seat into your stroller.
2. Steriliser
I know this may seem like a controversial choice but honestly, I find that pouring boiling hot water over my breast pump parts and baby bottles saves time and effort because it washes AND sterilizes at the same time. To use the sterilizer effectively, you have to wash everything extremely well before you can sterilize. I tried just rinsing out the bottles and parts with warm water and then sticking them in the steriliser, thinking it would do the rest of the job but noooo, there were visible ‘milk droplets’ residue even after sterilizing. This really raised the question of how clean are our ‘sterilised’ bottles and parts? Unless you get those fancy schmancy UV sterilisers, you can never be sure. With my suggested alternative, I can just hear the germs dying as I pour boiling hot water over them. Bwhahahaha.
3. Infant insert for Ergo Baby Carrier
I fell deeply in love with the Ergo Baby Carrier from the minute I saw my best friend using it to carry her little girl around. So when my turn came, the Ergo Baby 360 Carrier (the latest one that allows baby to sit facing outwards when he’s older) was on the top of my shopping list. For a newborn to use said carrier, you need to get an infant insert which is basically a thick blanket bundle to hold their neck up in the carrier. I used this once, and my baby sweat through the thing like mad. So did I, because he was pressed up against me. Since that time, I switched to using a sling until he could hold his head up better recently, before I switched back to using the Ergo Baby WITHOUT the infant insert.
4. Too many baby bottles
Back when I was pregnant and baby shopping, I knew I wanted to get Tommee Tippee milk bottles because of the larger, supposedly ‘more natural’ nipple. (Plus their brand name is fun to say!) But I never knew how many I needed, and what kind. Just to give you an illustration – there are slow flow teats, anti-colic bottles, 4 oz / 12 oz bottles, glass bottles etc… I finally decided on 4 4oz bottles with slow flow teats for newborns, and as a last-minute buy at a Mothercare sale, I got a 12oz anti-colic bottle as well.
Now, I am exclusively breastfeeding and as of 9 weeks into baby’s life, I have taken a few half days off baby duty for work or a much-needed massage. On those occasions, daddy or a close friend of ours babysits and that’s when they use a bottle to feed baby my pumped milk. A bottle. As in one. And it’s not the anti-colic one that they use.
Maybe for mothers who are back to work full-time, I can understand that whomever is caring for baby might not want to wash bottles often so you might need a couple. But really, I say that 2 milk bottles is enough. They aren’t cheap after all.
5. Baby socks for below 6 months
They are such a pain to put on and take off and you will keep losing just one of a pair! Plus, in Singapore, unless you live in a freezing cold shopping mall, you really don’t need it. If you really worry about baby’s feet being cold, wrap them in a light swaddle.
6. If you’re cloth-diapering, get more tops than onesies!
Or get slightly larger onesies from the next size up so that they will fit around the cloth diaper. For the onsies that baby outgrows, you can cut off the bottoms and wear them as tops instead!
7. Baby laundry detergent
Being fearful of all the evil chemicals in normal laundry detergent, I switched my husband and I over to Tide Free & Clear, and bought Seventh Generation eco-friendly detergent for my baby’s things.
Big mistake.
All of our things don’t look or smell clean after hours of washing and drying. Sometimes, they even smell exactly like they do when they went into the wash.
Seventh Generation may not be a baby-specific laundry detergent, but I’ve heard the same thing for those specialty baby detergents and soaps. They basically don’t clean. We’re switching back to using Tide Original, the ingredients of which only ‘Fragrance’ is of concern to me. But I’d rather have clean, possibly slightly ‘chemicalized’ clothes than germ and dirt-ridden clothes that have no chemicals.
8. Portable baby changing mat / travel wipes case
There’s no such thing as being overprepared right? That’s what I thought when I researched the best portable baby changing mat to buy, and then bought it online, only to find that there is no such thing as the best portable baby changing mat. They’re all the same. And pretty much every diaper bag gives you one.
I also bought the Skip Hop Travel Wipes case that I thought would be such a good way to have ‘easy, one-hand access’ to baby wipes on the go. The case is bigger than the regular size box of baby wipes.
9. Baby wipes
Okay I don’t regret buying baby wipes perse. They are a huge convenience, and a must-have for bringing baby out. But I WISH there was a less expensive and less wasteful alternative. We do manage to reduce our use of wipes by using a warm cloth at home, but I have yet to find a feasible alternative for replacing wipes while we’re out. I might try making my own wipes, so I know exactly what goes into it, and it won’t be as expensive. If you’re keen to join me, I’m following the directions from this website.
10. Baby sunglasses
Don’t be fooled by how cool the idea of your baby wearing a funky pair of sunglasses seems. They will not stay on his head. And they will not look cool. Case in point, check out the photo below.
Look out for my next article to find out what are the top 10 baby items you’ll never regret investing in!
