8 Products Your Baby Doesn’t Need
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By Lyz Lenz
When my daughter was three months old, I had to be talked down from buying her yet another play gym, because I was concerned that the first one wasn’t stimulating enough for her. “You’re the only one who cares,” a friend told me. “Your baby is happy with or without that play gym.” She was right.
Three weeks later, my daughter started playing with the play gym more often and I was glad I still had that extra money. So I could spend it on something else, we probably didn’t need, like a baby jumper! As a new parent, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with baby clothes, baby gear, and just general baby stuff, that it’s hard to see the baby for the baby gear.
While baby gear is fun and sometimes useful, here are eight things your baby will live without:
1. Play gym
Play gyms are fun and useful for distracting babies, but so are a million other toys that are smaller and less expensive. Our baby has gotten more fun mileage out of her play mirror that we tied to the coffee table than the play gym.
2. More than one stroller
If you want to run, get a running stroller that works with your car seat. If you have no intention of running, then just get a normal travel system. No need to get both. If you want to pare down even more, use a baby carrier for your child when she is an infant and an umbrella stroller for when she is older.
3. Bottle warmer or wipe warmer
We put the bottle in a bowl of hot water and it’s ready in five minutes. For those times when we need warmer wipes, I warm them in my hands. Somehow my daughter has managed to fend her way through life without these items.
4. Shopping-cart cover
Cumbersome to put on and take off, the cleanliness of a shopping cart cover is more marketing than anything else. Even if you are a germophobe, just take some wet wipes and wipe down the seat before you set your baby in.
5. Diaper pail
I wish someone would have told me that I didn’t need a diaper pail. A regular trashcan with a lid would suffice and would be a lot easier to deal with. Also, finding the bags that work with the pail is a complete hassle. Now, we do cloth diapers and we just stick a wet bag in a trash can with a lid. If there is a problem with the smell, I sprinkle some baking soda inside.
6. Baby detergent
We used a dye-free detergent that was a lot cheaper and easier to find than the pricey baby detergents. Also, it made it easier to just wash all of our clothes with the dye-free detergent instead of constantly doing separate loads for baby clothes.
7. Changing table
A piece of furniture that does just one thing isn’t working hard enough for you or your family. Put a changing pad on top of a dresser and voila! Changing table. We also kept a changing kit in a bin in the play room. In emergencies or when I feel lazy, we have a changing pad, diapers, wipes and bag all ready to go.
8. Full-sized high chair
In homes where space is at a premium finding a spot for a full-sized high chair isn’t always practical. Using a portable high chair you can stick in a chair and push up to the table accomplishes the same task of giving your baby a place to eat and/or throw cheerios on the floor, without taking up extra space. Plus, your child will get to sit at the table with you and, despite the drool and mess, that is a little more fun for everyone.
What baby gear did you go without? Is there any gear on this list that you’d keep?
About the Author:
Lyz Lenz is a writer, a mom and a midwesterner. Although, not in that order. She lives in Iowa and on the web at LyzLenz.com
Just gotta try this Creamy Avocado Dip recipe via Momables.com - love how you can spread it on a sandwich in lieu of Mayo! 
Comment by Tracy on Sep 26 2011 07:27:15:
I could go through a very long list of things that aren’t needed – in fact, it seems just about everything out there being sold for babies is a “want” not a “need”, and realizing that will save you a lot of money for future “needs” as baby gets older. That being said, we were gifted several of the above items as hand-me-downs and found them to be very useful, including the play gym, an extra stroller (we keep one in the back of each car so my husband and I don’t have to swap out), shopping cart cover, bottle warmer and (cloth) diaper pail. I might not have dropped money for these items if I had to buy them myself, but I’m glad we have them. I consider the wipes warmer essential. We use both cloth diapers and cloth diaper wipes. The warmer allows us to keep wet cloth wipes next to the changing area rather than having to run to the bathroom to wet them each time. The anti-bacterial pillow in the warmer keeps them from molding.
Comment by grace on Sep 27 2011 12:29:27:
We could have done without baby bath towels, baby shoes, gym, baby photo album… but not without our inflatable high chair, our play yard with the MamaDoo Kids mattress topper. We travel a lot and the play yard and the topper, which folds in 3, have been the best investment.
Comment by Matthew on Sep 27 2011 06:00:47:
The only things we found necessary were a crib, clothes, rattle, mirror, baby powder, baby detergent, diapers, slow flow vent bottles, formula, blankets, changing table, baby monitor and burp clothes (we used old wash clothes).
The baby detergent is a safety must. Many infants are super sensitive to regular and non dye detergents.
The changing table was a necessity as we did not have a dresser. We bought a few plastic bins and used them on the shelving to organize our son’s clothes.
What we could have done without from the grandma is the play gym, baby einstein stander, the 20 or so stuffed animals, the diaper genie (which costs a lot more in the long run), a projector that also plays music, a brand new bouncer chair (already had one given to us), a baby swing (already had one given to us and we don’t even use them), and there is probably a huge list of other things as well that I can’t name of the top of my head.
Comment by Lyz on Sep 28 2011 04:35:50:
I think cloth diaper pails are a pretty bug scam. It’s so much cheaper and easier to buy a trash can with a lid and use wet bags inside.
Comment by Julie on Sep 28 2011 05:38:52:
My changing table is really just where my breast pump sits!
Comment by Jennifer on Oct 03 2011 01:03:04:
I use our changing table alot. I didnt used to, but as my belly grew with pregnancy it became impossible to change my 1 yr old on the floor anymore. Now with the new baby I use it at every diaper change. Although it is not in the nursery. We keep our changing table in the playroom, so that probably is another reason why it’s used so often.
Comment by Mariam Girgis Hanna on Oct 14 2011 05:55:14:
I totally disagree with most of the items on this list. The changing table and diaper pail are so helpful and make things very efficient in our house. And the wipes warmer….what baby wants a freezing cold wipe on their tush at 3 am?
Comment by Sherry on Oct 18 2011 04:02:58:
I was given most of this stuff as hand-me-downs, and I have found most of it quite useful. Our baby loves his play gym and rolls and scoots all around it to get to each hanging toy. Our diaper pail does not require special bags, we just use a regular trash bag. It keeps the smell inside and is easy to use. I don’t have a wipe warmer, but the baby doesn’t seem to mind. I do use a bottle warmer and I find it very helpful to have a bottle warmed up in only one minute. It takes five minutes just to get hot water out of the faucet let alone wait five more minutes for it to warm the bottle! We use Tide Free for all laundry and the baby has had no problems with this. My husband would never change diapers if we didn’t have a changing table in the living room, his back is too messed up to do it on the floor.
I think the least useful item we have is the playard. We just don’t travel anywhere long enough to need it. I find the crib mobiles to be more of a distraction than useful. Another money waste are all the specialized wipes. They have diaper wipes, toy wipes, booger wipes, hand and face wipes. Just diaper wipes and a dry wash cloth are all that is really needed.
Comment by clayre on Oct 20 2011 09:17:33:
Sometimes when we get to excited about baby stuff, we forgot to think which is really needed. There are lots of baby products which are so inviting to buy because they look really cute and adorable. Thanks for this great article
it’s really helpful that we know which items might not be needed, this way, we can save a lot and we can use that extra for some other things which may be more important.