I have also come across several products that aren't exactly awful, but are either not very good or a waste of money.
Mom 2 Mom products at Safeway:
I received a package of diapers and a box of wipes from this brand for my baby shower. At first I thought they were from some mom's club but it turns out they are Safeway brand. The diapers are purple, so they aren't very unisex. Also they are really stiff and it's hard to tell when there is pee in them. The worst thing is that they leaked numerous times, once memorably all over my cousin, who questioned my diapering technique in front of many relatives. I haven't had any leaking problems with Pampers Swaddlers. The quality of the wipes is pretty good and they are nice and big. However the lid on the box broke almost immediately and I had to transfer the wipes to a box from another brand.
Baby nail clippers
It's very hard to cut tiny baby nails with clippers. I use sharp manicure scissors, while he was sleeping, and have had no problems. Many of my friends tell horror stories about the clippers, involving loss of skin and lots of blood :(
Breast Pumps
The Medela Pump in Style Advanced backpack runs about 280.00. The Pump in Style Advanced in the metro bag runs about 330.00. For $50.00 you basically get two upgrades: the soft cups (breast shields) that go on your breasts and a carrier that can be used as a diaper bag. I went with the backpack. I thought the metro bag was too big and ugly to be used as a diaper bag and just bought the soft breast shields separately. I am sorry I bothered. In my experience the hard breast shields work much better. The soft ones fold up and pinch the breast on the sides. They are also harder to clean and stick to the breast more. On another note, I found a lot of Medela breast pumps on sale used on craigs list. I should mention here for propriety's sake that a Medea sales representative told me that it is not safe to purchase a used breast pump because it's possible that breast milk can get into the pump mechanism and germs/ diseases can be passed on to future users. This prevented me from buying the pump used. However, now that I have one I cannot see how cross contamination can occur, since breast milk doesn't come near the actual pump mechanism and all other parts can be purchased new (and cheap). Just food for thought.
Clean Well Hand Sanitizer
I am always looking for green and natural products to use for the baby and around the house. I wanted an alternative to Purell to keep around the house and in my diaper bag. I bought a whole bunch of this stuff because it comes in multiples on amazon. To my taste, it smells just awful. It has this weird, piney odor that stays on your hands for hours after. I returned all of it.
Showing posts with label baby products. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby products. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Things That Suck
The world of baby products is full of every gadget you can possibly think of. As a new mom, I tried to be wise about what I was buying, preferring to have minimal quantity of items with maximum use and quality. To that end, I watched, listened, researched and queried my friends as to what I would really need. Still, I have found myself with several things that are just pure crap or totally useless. I thought I would post them here so that my experience could possibly benefit some future moms...
PeePee TeePee:
http://www.amazon.com/Peepee-Teepee-Sprinkling-WeeWee-Airplanes/dp/B000EBQ8DI
This is a very cute and clever-seeming item. Unfortunately it is completely useless because babies squirm when you change them and the teepees simply don't stay on. As a side note, I have found that very few things actually work to prevent getting sprayed by pee when changing my son. The best method is just to go as fast as possible, which isn't easy when you are trying to get poop off a very small yet sensitive scrotum.
Prince Lionheart Wipe Warmer:
http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Lionheart-Ultimate-Wipes-Warmer/dp/B00008ODBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266845193&sr=1-1
This seemed like a very useful item to me. It's cold upstairs in my house and I didn't want to startle the baby at night by using cold wipes. The warmer does warm the wipes as promised. However the cushion that you have to put in to keep the wipes from drying out has several issues. First, it has a weird smell. Second, by the time you get to the bottom of the wipes, with several still left, they are all dried out and so is the cushion. Third, you have to throw the cushion away when it gets dry and funky, which happened to me after I ran out of the very FIRST set of wipes in there. Finally, when I got down to the cushion at the bottom of the wipes I found that it had left some kind of weird orangey liquid at the bottom of the container. I don't know what that liquid was but I don't want it on my baby. I gave this thing away to someone who's about to have a baby.
Mobi Digital Thermometer:
http://www.amazon.com/MOBI-70119-Digital-Ultra-Thermometer/dp/B000HZF0W6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1266845558&sr=8-1
Probably my worst experience was with this crap thermometer. It seems pretty neat- you place it on the temple or in the ear and it pops up with a temperature reading super fast, which is great for squirmy babies. It also tells you the room temperature, has a convenient light, and even speaks readings aloud. However, you can take 10 temperatures from the same location in the space of a minute and get 10 different readings. Here is a fun experience: it's about 2am, the baby feels a little warm and is fussy so I take a temperature. It reads 102.5. I take it in another location, it's 99 something. I take my own temperature and it's normal. In a panic, I run the baby downstairs and take a rectal temperature with a cheap hospital thermometer and it's 98.2. I tried resetting the thing, read all the directions (which are written in script so small you need a magnifying glass to decipher them), and finally put it in the bin with the diaper warmer for give away.
Adiri Natural Nurser:
http://www.amazon.com/Adiri-Natural-Nurser-Ultimate-Bottle/dp/B000VUN41G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266845899&sr=8-2
This particular type of bottle was recommended to me as being "most like the breast" and therefore least likely to cause nipple confusion. I don't know about confusion, but the nipple is so short, the poor baby could hardly get a grip on it and just drooled precious breast milk all over himself. Into the bin it went.
Boppy Changing Pad Covers:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_11?url=search-alias%3Dbaby-products&field-keywords=boppy+changing+pad+liners&sprefix=boppy+chang
I really liked these but they roll up on the sides. Nothing I did could stop this from happening. Also they roll up when you wash them and then do not get dry in the dryer for anything. You have to unroll them and pin them down with something at both ends for them to dry. Even then they do not lie flat and continue to roll up on the ends. This is just too inconvenient and too much work. Disposable liners are much better for covering changing table surfaces.
Sleep Gowns:
http://www.amazon.com/Tadpoles-Organic-Cotton-Sleep-Months/dp/B001DLYRTU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266846086&sr=1-1
I don't understand the functionality of these at all. You put a baby in them and then what, have to add pants, socks? Otherwise you have naked baby legs sticking out all night. How is this useful? Footed pajamas (especially with zippers!) or sleep sacks work much better.
These are all that come to mind right now but I am sure I will think of/ come across more later. I hope this helps someone! If nothing else it's nice to rant about this stuff!
PeePee TeePee:
http://www.amazon.com/Peepee-Teepee-Sprinkling-WeeWee-Airplanes/dp/B000EBQ8DI
This is a very cute and clever-seeming item. Unfortunately it is completely useless because babies squirm when you change them and the teepees simply don't stay on. As a side note, I have found that very few things actually work to prevent getting sprayed by pee when changing my son. The best method is just to go as fast as possible, which isn't easy when you are trying to get poop off a very small yet sensitive scrotum.
Prince Lionheart Wipe Warmer:
http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Lionheart-Ultimate-Wipes-Warmer/dp/B00008ODBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266845193&sr=1-1
This seemed like a very useful item to me. It's cold upstairs in my house and I didn't want to startle the baby at night by using cold wipes. The warmer does warm the wipes as promised. However the cushion that you have to put in to keep the wipes from drying out has several issues. First, it has a weird smell. Second, by the time you get to the bottom of the wipes, with several still left, they are all dried out and so is the cushion. Third, you have to throw the cushion away when it gets dry and funky, which happened to me after I ran out of the very FIRST set of wipes in there. Finally, when I got down to the cushion at the bottom of the wipes I found that it had left some kind of weird orangey liquid at the bottom of the container. I don't know what that liquid was but I don't want it on my baby. I gave this thing away to someone who's about to have a baby.
Mobi Digital Thermometer:
http://www.amazon.com/MOBI-70119-Digital-Ultra-Thermometer/dp/B000HZF0W6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1266845558&sr=8-1
Probably my worst experience was with this crap thermometer. It seems pretty neat- you place it on the temple or in the ear and it pops up with a temperature reading super fast, which is great for squirmy babies. It also tells you the room temperature, has a convenient light, and even speaks readings aloud. However, you can take 10 temperatures from the same location in the space of a minute and get 10 different readings. Here is a fun experience: it's about 2am, the baby feels a little warm and is fussy so I take a temperature. It reads 102.5. I take it in another location, it's 99 something. I take my own temperature and it's normal. In a panic, I run the baby downstairs and take a rectal temperature with a cheap hospital thermometer and it's 98.2. I tried resetting the thing, read all the directions (which are written in script so small you need a magnifying glass to decipher them), and finally put it in the bin with the diaper warmer for give away.
Adiri Natural Nurser:
http://www.amazon.com/Adiri-Natural-Nurser-Ultimate-Bottle/dp/B000VUN41G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266845899&sr=8-2
This particular type of bottle was recommended to me as being "most like the breast" and therefore least likely to cause nipple confusion. I don't know about confusion, but the nipple is so short, the poor baby could hardly get a grip on it and just drooled precious breast milk all over himself. Into the bin it went.
Boppy Changing Pad Covers:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_11?url=search-alias%3Dbaby-products&field-keywords=boppy+changing+pad+liners&sprefix=boppy+chang
I really liked these but they roll up on the sides. Nothing I did could stop this from happening. Also they roll up when you wash them and then do not get dry in the dryer for anything. You have to unroll them and pin them down with something at both ends for them to dry. Even then they do not lie flat and continue to roll up on the ends. This is just too inconvenient and too much work. Disposable liners are much better for covering changing table surfaces.
Sleep Gowns:
http://www.amazon.com/Tadpoles-Organic-Cotton-Sleep-Months/dp/B001DLYRTU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266846086&sr=1-1
I don't understand the functionality of these at all. You put a baby in them and then what, have to add pants, socks? Otherwise you have naked baby legs sticking out all night. How is this useful? Footed pajamas (especially with zippers!) or sleep sacks work much better.
These are all that come to mind right now but I am sure I will think of/ come across more later. I hope this helps someone! If nothing else it's nice to rant about this stuff!
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