Buying for Baby
The baby products industry is ridiculous – it is such a crazy mix of safety concerns, random product features (that you may or may not need), constant upgrades of models, and brand/style costs. It can be hard to determine good value, and more cost is not necessarily better. Here are some random reflections on how we navigated the baby products world.
* Our approach has generally been to borrow second-hand as much as possible. Anything within this generation (5 years or so) should be in good shape and shouldn’t have safety issues. You can always check for product recalls online if you are worried about anything. If you are lucky, you have older siblings or friends who have gone through the baby thing and are ready to start sharing their stuff. If you are the first of your peer group to dive into the baby world, consider attending a mom’s group or something similar at your church, etc. as an alternative to craigslist.
* Based on what we read, the most important thing to buy new is the crib mattress. Old crib mattresses have some correlation with higher SIDS rates, and crib mattresses get pretty thrashed with baby secretions.
* We would definitely buy/borrow a second-hand crib again, as long as it is in good shape. Assembly instructions for any standard crib can now be found online if you have the brand and model. Solid wood cribs are best, and the only thing we made sure if is that the crib met current safety standards.
* Second-hand carseats are fine, but check how old they are by serial number, and check to make sure there hasn’t been a recall. You really want an infant car seat with detachable base – this is huge b/c babies always fall asleep in the car, and being able to keep them in the carseat asleep is huge. We really, really liked our generic stroller carrier – we are using a Babytrend Snap-n-go LX. It accommodates infant car seats for many brands, and we use with our Graco Safeseat (step 1) and Grace Snugride. Consumer Reports recently came out with a big article on carseats, but their methodology was a bit suspect and so they said they would redo the study. The big news from the study was that more expensive definitely did not correlate with safer.
* Basically, in terms of general purchases, I would purchase as little as possible based on what you expect your initial parenting system to be. Then, you can make purchases on an as-needed basis. This will help to make sure you only have what you need. We used our bassinet relatively little b/c we ended up co-sleeping, but at least one bouncer comes in handy. I’d skip the gimmicky stuff like bottle warmers, diaper genies, etc. We ended up using the crib as a changing station with a $15 changing pad, but you might find a different system. It worked really well to use baby wipes as little as possible (basically when we are travelilng) and use water and cotton balls instead as wipes (my Mom’s suggestion). To control the smells, we aggressively obtain and use grocery plastic bags to wrap up the dirty diapers. I know this is probably horrible for the environment, but we already use disposable diapers, so we have no excuses anyway. The cotton balls and water have been very easy on Lily’s skin, and we haven’t had any problems with diaper rash. I don’t know if we are just lucky, though… You will need a portable changing station – you’ll use this all the time.
* When you do make purchases, the easiest way to save money is to go to a good non-chain baby store for research, b/c the salesfolks are really knowledgeable and patient. Then, buy what you want at Babies “R” Us (unless the non-chain store has something second-hand that works for you). This is kind of cruel as a consumer, but it is effective for value and time. Also, Amazon is very helpful for baby product research – check the reviews before you make a big purchase.
* Lots of diapers reallly help. Based on your baby’s size, you’ll be able to figure out how many you’ll need. If your baby is regular sized (7 lbs. ish) you’ll easily go through 200+ newborn diapers, and roughly the same number size 1 diapers. Diapers at sizes 1, 2, 3 make good gifts from friends, because you’ll definitely use them.
* One clothing article that was really helpful is the newborn kimono wrap with the long sleeves that fold over the hands (Laura may know what I’m talking about) – some are even integrated with onesies. The hospital may give you 1 or 2, but these are really nice b/c newborns have no limb control, but they can have really sharp fingernails, so they tend to scratch a lot if their hands aren’t covered. We also used plain baby socks with no grip adhesive as gloves – these worked a lot better than baby mittens.
Sorry this page is so disorganized, but the content came as an email in response to a friend. Hope you find some nuggets that are helpful to you!
