When buying stuff for a baby, let's say your own to make it simpler.

Do you buy the most expensive branded out there or the cheap nasties?

What buggie is best. 3 wheels, 4 wheels? What car seat, nappies etc.
I get with car seats it's best to buy new but are the cheapos as good as the super expesive?

I don't want this thread to go down the route of calling people cheapscapes and to make people feel like bad parents. I just don't know if n when it comes to it what I should buy.

 

In my experience, I find theat your first baby you end up over doing everything, where as realistically you can do things on more of a budget.

For example, my first (girl) had her "to-be" room plastered, carpetted, painted, £50 worth of M&P border around the walls, and £900 in M&P baby furniture. Where as my 2nd child (boy) didnt get near as much financial value spent, yet had just as good set of gear.

I dont think there is a specific better pram between 3 and 4 wheels, its more of a case of wheel size. The larger the wheels the better it is to push etc. Dont bother with those quinny pram style things, there good for holidays etc as they fold flat, but there poor to push.

Re car seats, for a new born you can get prams that have built in car seats strapping, so that you dont need to unsettle the baby when putting them in the car. As they grow up you'll learn what right and wrong.

Rob

 

IMO people who buy designer label clothing for little babies need their heads examined.
A woman I know just recently spent over a hundred pounds on one pair of shoes for her two year old boy. Madness.


As for the car seats - they are all different and the one that fits best with your cars seat and belts is the best buy, never mind what the label says. (assuming its non ISO fix?) Dont buy one without having tried it in your car first, preferably having been shown how to fit it properly by a staff member who knows what they are doing.

 

If she can afford it, why not, buying expensive normally suggests quality. (unless she can't afford it)

Hand-me-downs for the win. The baby grows so fast, ***** to wasting money, everyone throws all their old crap at you when you have a baby, make sure it's cleaned and use it for the three months it fits. (baby clothes too )

 

When our first was young my wife offered some clothes to this woman. Didn't really know her that well so perhaps shouldn't have bothered but some of it hadn't even been worn. Stupid cow was actually offended that the clothes had been offered!

We wasted loads on our first (now 11) and we have an 8 month old now. Only thing we've really bought clothes wise is vests and baby grows. Suits and stuff have been given by family members. We've got 6 bags of clothes that are now too small! All from donation. We've got loads of toys mostly donated, some new and some bought from car boots. The pushchair we use is from the first which we kept just in case. My wifes sister is expecting so the clothes will go to her and she will probably move them on to someone else when she is done.

It also depends on the mother and whether she wants to play pushchair top trumps with the other mums or who can buy the most clothes from Next (which I find pretentious and over priced). You do see the mums judging each other which is a bit like blokes and cars.

To be honest, until they are old enough to have an opinion all they really care about is being fed, clean and what time Pepper Pig is on.

 

I can say i am a seasoned pro at this. My kids varied in items but now i'd class myself as tights as two coats of paint. Kids grow that fast, the styles never really change.
In terms of prams / buggys we bought a three in one thingy from John Lewis, it probably was overkill but its been used for two kids & might be used again.

In terms of spending £100 on a pair of shoes for a two year old ....

 

We can't be doing with the "keeping up with the joneses" mentality.

Our son has had all sorts second hand from clothes to toys and a bit of furniture too. He's always had a brand new car seat and mattress (and fitted Clarks shoes) as they're things that are most important safety/comfort wise.

We've never bought clothes from Next as its overpriced crap which looks the same once worn through.

Isaac has never gone without as we were not ashamed to accept hand me downs or use charity shops/cheaper clothing places He's two, doesn't know the difference

 

Not now, he doesn't.

But wait until he's at school.

I told you about my youngest coming homeat six years old, on non-uniform day, in his absolute favourite Man Utd shirt and being really upset because one of the other kids called it a fake...(it was).

The other kids can be very cruel. And their mockery can be hurtful and last a LONG time if nowt is done.

 

Mumsnet will be getting scared now NSR has it's own dadsnet

A baby only requires two things:



and



(I don't have any children....)

 

this question/answer is often driven by the mother, the father has little say in the matter

for the first, it is natural to go "new" and "quality"

but then a sliding scale

believe me, when you get to no's 4 and 5 any old tat will do

 

very true, I made the mistake of buying my son some "cheap" football boots

he wore them with pride at school and was then teased -- he never wore them again

it broke my heart that he was made to feel ashamed - i still feel angry about it and that was over 5 years ago

 

Consider yourself lucky...they cost allot to maintain! lol

 

Any old hand me downs and second hand stuff is fine by me, the only things he has new are school shoes and uniform, and not all of that is new, i'll take anything i can get, one of his grand mothers runs the jumble sale for the local school in a posh village in derbyshire so we get quite a few good bits from that.

If you want designer stuff a friend of ours buys it secondhand off ebay and then puts it back on when the kids have out grown it, which doesn't take long.

He's in India at the moment with his mum and she is buying his school stuff for the next couple of years because it's as cheap as chips, and when we're done with it all we'll pass it on to someone smart that's not too stupid or proud to take it.

 

We didn't bother with the whole 'decorating the nursery', my twins sleep in what used to by our bedroom, which remains decorated exactly how it was when we used that room. There are some pictures on the wall now they are 3, of things like fireman Sam, peppa pig, Characters from Ra Ra etc.

I was astounded by the generosity of friends and colleagues when our kids were born. We were given things that would have cost us hundreds of pounds. I bought some things like high chairs, car seats (bought four of these as it was a nuisance swapping seats between cars regularly), pram, cots, steriliser etc. The two I recall vividly were the high chairs, I wanted something sturdy and stable, those came from Mothercare at £90 each, the other was our pram, this had to be a three wheel double pram with inflatable tyres, the brand was totally irrelevant; those were my requirements based on it needing to be easy to push, easy to steer, able to cope with off-road terrain, folded down and up with minimal fuss. Pram was £350.

Just today, I have donated one set of my kids stuff from up until they were 1 year old, to a female colleague who's baby is due in 3 weeks. I hope she will make good use out of it, and pass the items that remain in good condition to someone else when she has had her use from them. Based on how pleased she was to recieve this stuff, I will offer her some of the other things needed as kids get a bit older. I previously did the same for one of my contractors, he and his wife were also very grateful and pragmatic about the cost of buying new balanced with the duration for which things would be used.