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Save Your Money: Useless Baby Item #3402953213
Amy Storch of Amalah.com | November 11th, 2008 - 4:52 PM
Admit it, we’ve all shelled out perfectly wonderful dollars on completely useless junk. Much of it baby- and child-related. Most of the useless stuff we’ve ended up with was bought in a fit of paranoia, (i.e. the baby won’t ever sleep a single MINUTE unless we buy a white noise machine, a top-of-the-line rocking chair AND at least three or four battery-operated baby containment devices with both rocking AND vibrating functionality), while the rest of it was bought in a fit of OMG LOOK AT THE CUTE.
At the top of that particular list? The pee-pee teepee.
There’s no denying that pee-pee teepees are cute. They’re adorable! Tiny little teepees for the tiny pee-pees and the little wee-wees and oh, it’s all so precious I could die or puke or both. And they (and all the other assorted pee-blocking devices out on the market) SEEM like a good idea, as anyone who has ever changed a baby boy’s diaper knows, baby boys are packing a loaded weapon in their pants. A weapon that tends to go off every time it’s exposed to air or sunlight or look! Mama’s mouth is hanging open in a sleep-deprived stupor! ReadyAimFIRE!
And so, the pee-pee teepee has become a HUGELY popular shower gift as well as a knee-jerk purchase by first-time parents who have just confirmed the presence of a penis on the ultrasound screen.
Here’s the problem. Actually, allow me to illustrate the problem:
At left, the pee-pee teepee. At right, the capacity of your newborn’s bladder, as portrayed by the now-famous Hospital Cup.
Now imagine the contents of that cup shooting out with the power of your average garden hose.
Now look again at that pee-pee teepee. (And stop ogling my rack.)
The first (and probably only) time I actually used one of these things, I set it in place with no small amount of difficulty (babies, like, MOVE and stuff, who knew?) and then reached for fresh diaper. I turned back just in time to watch the pee-pee teepee go flying through the air, propelled by a glorious arch of urine, until it hit a nearby wall with a wet, squishy thud, The pee continued for a solid minute afterwards, coursing down the wall like a waterfall while I frantically tried to find something more substantially absorbent to cover the…uh…source.
Take it from me, now a grizzled two-time boy-baby plumbing veteran: skip the dainty twee teepees. Get yourself a couple 12-packs of cheap cloth diapers or washcloths and use them instead. Gah. And for real. Etc.
And what about YOU, lovelies? What’s the most useless piece of baby- or child-related crap you’ve ever been suckered into?
The bottle sanitizer. Useless. It’s called a pot of boiling water, and then a dishwasher.
Wipes warmer would be a second, although I hear some babies cry when they get a cold wipe? My kids never seemed to mind, or maybe I’m just callous.
Too many to recall, but I’ll go with the floating duck water thermometer. I needed that thing, oh yes. Never used it once because you can pretty much just reach out and touch the water to see if it’s too hot. Imagine that.
Ours was a “close and secure” co-sleeper. It was basically a little padded box meant to fit between mom and dad in the bed, and provide a safe place for the baby to nestle.
The problem? Even my petite kid (who was a full month old before she even broke 8 pounds) grew out of it almost immediately, but yet it managed to take up way too much room in the bed. The thing was retired after, I think, two nights. It made a brief reappearance when we moved M to her crib at 4 months and needed something to make her feel closed-in and secure, but it was in no way worth the money we paid.
But will I be pulling it out again when baby #2 arrives in February? Yep. Maybe the laws of physics will have changed and the new baby will fit better.
The baby wipe warmer. Never used it. Not once.
Thanks! I had eyed them, but the hospital cup illustration, plus the flying peepeeteepee story will make sure it stays off of my wish list.
Well, lots of crap, really. But the first thing that came to mind was the ItzBeen baby timer, measuring how long it’s been since baby’s last feeding, diaper change, etc. When my daughter was a newborn I diligently set that timer every night before we went to sleep because ZOMG SHE SHOULDN’T GO MORE THAN 5 HOURS WITHOUT EATING!!!1!! Um, yeah. The number of times that she actually slept until the timer went off? That would be zero.
Oh, and P.S. The Diaper Champ is nothing more than a poorly-functioning trash can.
Agreed! Utterly useless. Sadly, with our son, the battery powered swings were also useless. Oh, well, we’ll keep them and perhaps baby #2 will be more susceptible.
nice rack! What was I supposed to comment about?
i sort of made my own pee-pee tee-pees out of an old pair of flannel pajama pants. they weren’t cone shaped though and come to think of it, they weren’t very useful either as i was never quick enough.
i’d have to say that the bottle warmer that plugged into the cigarette lighter was the most useless thing i bought.
How about the baby wipe warmer? Well, wait…we didn’t buy it but it was a gift. Nothing like yellowed, dried-out wipes waiting for your baby’s bum.
I must admit, (am obviously out of touch with baby accessories.. ) I had never heard of the peepee tee-pee, but I’m glad I have now!
I’m gonna vote for the entire baby grooming kit. You know, regular nail clippers seem to work just as well if not better than the tiny ones.
Pacifiers. Just not for us.
Bouncy seat. Baby hated that worse than death. (my death. not hers.) I hear some babies like it. Just don’t know any of them.
The diaper genie/diaper depot whatever nasty diaper pail thing there is out there. Take the diaper and put it in your trash can. We take our trash out daily. Really bad ones would get chucked in the outdoor can. All of those diaper pails smell, and smell HORRIBLE.
ditto on the baby grooming kit. i actually use my nail clipper for the baby. also our baby hates the swing. i never used the changing table, a thick towel does the job.
I don’t have any little ones, but I’m so glad to have some insight on if the peepee teepee worked or not. You see those things online or in the Babies R Us and think “Oh! that’s so funny and cute, my friend will love it and I will be the hit of the shower by being the clever one to have found it.”
Now I’ll just giggle and think of them flying through the air atop a urinary geyser and fell proud that I saved myself the cash.
I say the sleep positioner. They never worked out for us. I ended up using two rolled up receiving blankets for both of my babies.
Wipes warmer. By the time you get the wipe out of the warmer, it’s already cold. If you could somehow squeeze your baby into the warmer, then maybe, but otherwise, this thing is $20 worth of nuttin’.
I don’t have kids, but I’m wishing like hell I could have been a fly on the wall during the marketing meeting for this product.
“You see, it covers the baby boy’s penis and prevents the mid-diaper change spray of urine. But we need a name…”
“Let’s call it the Pee-Pee Teepee! BRILLIANT!”
We have so much stuff for newborns that my son couldn’t use past 8 weeks (OK, we could not have known that our 2 month old would weigh 18 pounds). But we paid a lot of money for newborn clothes (so cute!) and accoutrements (swing, Bjorn) that had a firm weight limit. Gah. Maybe the next one will be more waify, less linebackery.
I totally agree about the pee-pee tee pee! But I did one better. I looked at them at the store and thought “I can make that and save money!”. So I spent about 2 hours picking out the sweetest baby flannel cloth (in a few different patterns) and making a template and sewing them all up (I made about 12!). Tried to use them once and saw how worthless they are, just like you did. Pee pee covers are a total waste of time!
I currently have no kids, but I’ll make sure to remember that this is a gigantic waste of money.
(And you are looking GREAT! You only had a baby four weeks ago?! Unbelievable!)
Besides the swing that she hated? Probably the diaper bag. I hate big bags, so got this Skip Hop diaper bag that was on the small side, used it for about a month, then put it away. It was big and bulky! Yuck! I use the free lululemon small tote bag instead. If everything doesn’t fit then I’m packing too much.
Oh also the Cuddly Wrap. A big huge piece of fabric that’s “easy to use” … HAH. Got used approximately twice. Now sits on the closet floor.
well.. since I’m not due for another 3 weeks I dont know quite yet what is usless.. but i’ll sure be checking back to see what others have said they found useless!!!
p.s. …nice rack!
Check do not buy pee pee teepees.
Bumbo seat. I know some people swear by them, but babies just don’t look right sitting up before they are actually able to do so on their own…
Who knew there was such a thing?
I have never heard of a pee-pee teepee and your post has given me the giggles. Some lucky person was probably making millions with the invention until you just outed its uselessness LOL
We purchased a bottle warmer. Why? I was able to nurse for 11 months and then my son weaned himself. Never used it. Had no reason to.
I never bought these, but couldn’t believe they existed – baby knee protectors for crawling!
Stupid little baby socks that refuse to stay on.
-Burp cloths, totally freaking useless. Baby will miss it every time. Just use a recieving blanket and get some realistic coverage.
-Nursing covers. Unless you use them every single time you feed the baby, even in the privacy of your own home, the kid will freak and refuse to nurse and make a big akward scene that will leave you exposing way more boobage than if you hadn’t used the cover to begin with.
book about baby’s first year week by week. i probably read 3 total weeks. oh and the wipes warmer. as if the babies cannot handle room-temperature wipes on their little bums. please.
Baby wipe warmer
Any pacifiers purchased before your baby is actually born. IF they want them, it is guaranteed they do NOT want the ones you have on hand at 3 o’clock in the morning when they are screaming bloody murder. And those STUPID newborn gowns with the elastic along the bottom. My son just woke up looking like a mushroom every time. He would stretch out his legs through the whole in the bottom and then pull his knees up to his chest. WHOOOOOP up the bottom elastic went to his armpits. Useless. Plus they are about as wide as a straw and I felt like I had to lube my child up just to shimmy him into one. Also the proud parent of a large baby. 9 pounds.
I had the exact same tee-pee experience! It’s amazing how far they can shoot those things. In fact, once we figured out how much it DIDN”T work, we would still put it on sometimes to see if they baby could beat his previous distance. (It’s the little things, you know?)
Your boobs make my boobs hurt. I will never forget the feeling of “Let-Down.”
Bottle warmer. It either warms the bottle to a temperature that would baby’s eyeballs on fire or maintains a just below frozen ice cream temp. No in between.
Also wipe warmer. Just not necessary.
I received those pee pee tee pees too. It reminded me of a sprinkler I had as a child – it had a clown face and a hat that shot up in the air when you turned the hose on. Couldn’t help but think of that while changing my boy with the tee pee on…..
little bibs that match outfits. also bibs that are white (so little of baby’s puke is white when s/he starts eating food). actually, any clothes that are white, especially in the front or around the neck.
The wipe warmer…we received two as gifts, they dry the wipes out and by the time the wipe hits the bum, it’s no longer warm…useless baby gadget for sure!
The little cup with the lid with slits in the top for toddlers to eat out of. Small stuff spilled out anyway; bigger stuff, my kid couldn’t get to.
Ditto on the wipes warmer. I asked my good friend who had 2 kids for the list of “things you must have” when you bring baby home (you know, tiny big city apartment without much room for useless crap situation an all) and it was one of her top 3. WHA???
Those thin little hooded baby towels. After the peanut was bigger than 10 pounds or so, they were too short. Also, regular grown-up towels are warmer, more absorbent, and cover more than 4 inches or baby flub.
Ditto wipes and bottle warmers. In my defense, I knew I didn’t need either one, but they were foisted upon me by well-meaning loved ones. Also, all “those people” who say that you can never have too many receiving blankets are LIARS. They were useless in my home.
Wipes warmer! I had my mom ship me one internationally because I thought it was the most essential baby item. It still has the brand new instructional DVD inside. My baby is 3 1/2.
baby positioner? wth? I roll my eyes at myself.
i say the little boo-boo thing that you keep in the refrigerator. maybe i will become useful at some point but my 19 month old has always run from it. “i just hurt myself, mommy, why do you want me to freeze, too?”
a peepee teepee???
You Americans are so weird.
Hooded towels and the Diaper Genie. That thing was a total piece of crap and did NOT keep the smell out at all. Hopefully things have come a long way since 1995!
The bear/womb thing, supposed to make your baby feel like he or she is back in the womb. Scared the HELL out of my kid. It is still sitting in my closet 2 years later and I’m afraid to move it because it reminds me of the awful suspense sound effects in a horror movie.
Front carrier I used it once with oldest none with middle and once with youngest, I used the sling with middle and youngest and thought perfect when I found out I was having another but U/S showed twins soooo niether will work now and the wipes warmer SUCKED
A mobile. I know, I know, lots of families swear by them. My kids though would rather stare at the ceiling fan, and the music never lasted long enough, it would go off just as they were about to go to sleep, and it would wake them up when it did!
Also the monitor. I had some loud little boys. You really didn’t need that thing on unless you were watching a movie in the basement at full blast… and, it picked up the neighbors signal too, so we were never sure whose noises we were hearing!
After reading the other comments I am glad that I didn’t ever get a bottle or wipe warmer… I was tempted, but clearly I lived through two baby’s without one, and no one else seems to have been thrilled with theirs!
Mine are 21, 13 & 11 so it’s hard to remember. Last time I shopped for a baby gift, I was amazed!! They’ve made really simple things complicated in the name of convenience.
Definitely the wipes warmer.
I dunno, I loved my wipes warmer for middle-of-the-night diaper changes, but what I really want to say is OMG YOUR BOOBS! That’s some rockstar cleavage right there!
Most useless item we had: the Bumbo chair. It’s only useful for about two months. I should’ve skipped it.
The snugli. I had a nearly 10 pounder and the darn thing made him sway across my chest with momentum that twisted my body to and fro with him.
With my second, I bought a NoJo baby sling and that? Was used until he was nearly three years old.
Hmm, the couple that gave us the Snugli is expecting their first-perhaps I should send it to them, since it only got used three times.
wipe warmer- dried out the wipes and turned them yellow. completely useless.
Is it okay if I say “nice rack”?
Huh, I guess we did pretty well. The only thing that I haven’t been using as much as I thought I would be is my nice collection of baby bottles. I am breastfeeding, work from home, and wanted to have milk stored up in case I wanted to, you know, get OUT once in a while. Well, I didn’t plan the whole pumping thing so well and have ended up with arm-numbingly engorged breasts (yes, let down is painful!) and now the thought of pumping in addition to breastfeeding makes me want to curl up in a ball and die.
Maybe I’ll try again in a few weeks.
EVA–you have a Cuddly Wrap on your closet floor?? I’ve been looking for a baby carrier wrap but don’t have the budget for one, and the local baby consignment store has never had one in stock! If you really are looking to unload it, please e-mail me! msafiri.kATgmail.com (Oh, how embarrassing, I have turned into the Mommy Blog beggar. I’ve never done this before, I promise!)
Ditto the sleep sacks with the elastic hole at the bottom. Also, the 5,342,834 newborn sized onesies I received at my shower for my nearly-nine pound baby. She probably wore 4 of them before they were too small.
Ditto on the pacifiers, kid is 10 weeks old and will not take one… Also, the baby bath tub. He HATES that thing and the water gets cold before the baby get anywhere near it. I just put him in the regular tub and hold him with one hand and wash with the other. Good thing mine is a hand-me-down that I didn’t actually spend money on. Never bought a wipes warmer but sounds pretty useless…
That is a nice hospital cup!
Hooded baby towels are TEH CUTE, but ultimately useless. But still cute!
P.S. nice rack
Contour changing pad covers. My husband wouldn’t let me buy any because we have a large stock of old towels. He was right – I would have needed at least 5 (for those multiple middle of the night, mid-change blowouts) and at $14.99 each, old towels were just cheaper.
Pee Pee!!!!
Also – nice hooters!
Am I the only one who uses (and loves) the wipe warmer faithfully?? My daughter is 10 months old, and we always use it. The only way it dries out is if you don’t add water to the pillow at the bottom. Otherwise, I love it! As for useless products, I would say the Bumbo and the Bjorn. I know some parents swear by both, but my daughter HATED the Bumbo. She would just arch her back and scream. Ditto for the Bjorn.
Oh the wipes warmer. Luckily I didn’t buy it but I got it as a gift from a veteran mom. I didn’t understand because, yeah, what’s with the brown dry wipes?
And three words: Infant Bath Robe.
I too fell prey to the diaper warmer. It never worked. But I remember with my first it was THE must have before the baby was born!
Hmmm…I’d have to say the baby grooming kit. And most of those so-adorable infant clothes- starting with my 2nd child, we just put them in sleepers until they learn to walk.
Diaper genie/champ- a regular trash can works fine!
Oh my — the wipe warmer was an absolute must in our house. I have heard a lot of people hated it though. Our total waste of money — the baby papasan and any bouncy seat. Both my boys hated them. Oh and the excersaucers. Both hated those too. Never got the teepees — the 7001 baby washcloths you get, work too!
I hear ya! That’s a lesson I learned on day 3 of Jack’s life. Definitely not getting these for friends because they only offer a false sense of security.
We use a washcloth for the garden-hose moments. Pee Pee teepee… such a useless item!
The stupid diaper genie. Never quite worked right…nor did I care to figure out how/why.
Those spoons that change color depending on the temp of the food…they were completely useless for me.
hooded towels, yes and a diaper stacker – yes, yes, adorable matchy-matchy, but when you’re going through 1,000 diapers a day (so it seems), a ridiculous extra step!
I never bought wipe warmers, but I was soo tempted. The most useless thing I bought was the portable bottle warmer for the car. I really needed to keep bottles warm in the car, but the device was useless. Also, I bought way too many bottles. I kept trying out different varieties. And I nursed for over a year and waited until the very end to buy a nursing cover. Useless! I’m still buying useless stuff now that my kid is 3. I have 3 different potty covers, but my son is perfectly content to sit on the regular seat.
note to self, take the bottle warmer off the gift registry. I knew about the wipe warmer….
4 million little newborn frilly outfits. I was so shell-shocked after the new addition neither one of us got out of out PJ’s for 6 months!
Bottle warmer. That thing NEVER worked. I even got more than one! What was I thinking? Mug full of hot water + bottle = way better than the stupid bottle warmer!
I received the peepee teepee as a gift from a childless friend. I never opened the package. I didn’t bother with wipes warmers, bottle sterilizer, diaper champ/genie, nursing cover and so many other things. But like the peepee teepee we got the bumbo chair, hooded towels and way more newborn clothes than we needed as gifts.
I’d say baby food was the biggest waste of money. My son didn’t like it and it was just as easy to defrost a bag of frozen veggies or fruit and put it in the food processor.
That’s a lot of comments regarding teepees. Amy – if you dare the interweb they will respond. That being said, nice tots AND advice noted.
That is so funny you mention that…. I was all like WTF when I got one of those at my shower…I had little brothers I knew that the pee teepee wasn’t going to cut it. The other most useless thing I got at my baby shower was one of those rubber ducky’s that tells you if the bath water is too hot. First of all I’m not stupid and I can tell if it’s too hot on my wrist. Second…. it didn’t work!
The snuggle nest co-sleeper was a huge waste for us. We used it for a couple of nights with our second daughter and then got rid of it. Also the diaper genie we had with our first daughter (seven years ago) was also useless. I am sure they have had to improve by now but I hated that darn thing. I am now pregnant with our third child and we didn’t find out what we are having but having had two girls prior the thought of changing a boy’s diaper scares me and I was told about the pee-pee teepees. I am so glad that you told me about these before I went and purchased them… I was just looking at them last week. Since we only have a month and a half left until this little monkey arrives I am starting to feel that panic of purchasing absolutely everything anyone tells me I must have!
We also got the PeePee TeePee (from my childless MIL) and it was most definitely useless. I didn’t even open up the package, I just laughed and said thanks. The most useless thing I actually bought would be the Bumbo seat that I was told would be one thing I COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT. Guess what- I could totally live without it. Love my Diaper Champ though- even bought another for our 2nd.
bottle warmer, wipe warmer, and diaper genie.
ditto on the diaper genie.
A pacifier spray bottle cleaning thingy from OSA. I used it once when baby spit out paci at a restaurant – first had to dig for the cleaning bottle in diaper bag, and by then someone had dunked the paci in a cup of water and popped it back in screaming child’s mouth. The next time I went to use it, the valve had cracked in the diaper bag and it had leaked the cleaning stuff all over the bottom of the bag. Useless.
I would say wipes warmer, too. But also the monitor because our house is small and we definately hear the baby when she makes noise. We used it for a week (maybe) with the first baby and thing hearing ALL those little noises drove us crazy.
I TIA with the Peepee things, what a waste! I bought a package of cloth diapers and those do the trick perfectly!
for us, clothes that didn’t snap down the front were useless, since when j was a baby he had an ostomy & feeding tube. you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find snapping clothes for 12ish month old boys. they just disappear, and there are all these pink & lavender ones for you to eye jealously…
i never warmed any bottles. i pretended he liked the refreshing cool of the milk, & he really didn’t seem to mind.
Pee-pee Teepee? Gah! I got the Peepee Squee-gee.
Ditto on the pee-pee-teepes, the wipe warmer, the Bumbo seat (my kids just arched their backs and wiggled out!) Close 4th on the travel swing. Battery died in about 4.5 minutes and then it was no fun at all.
seriously funny I do not have kids (yet) but this really made my day !!!!vive le tipi pour le pipi(i m french sorry)
First, who is the woman in the picture that is all skinny/hot/big rack-ish??!! Didn’t you just give birth or something!!!! No Fair!!!! (OK – fit of jealousy over, you look absolutely smashing!)
I was the recipient of every item mentioned in the posts above, with the difference of the Wee Block instead of the Peepee Teepee. I hated the Diaper Genie, loved the bottle warmer (we have to deluxe one, zero to warm in 12 seconds!), and thought that the infant bath robe was the most adorable thing ever until I got peed, it does open in the front…! Bumbos are great for babies with itle-bitle skinny legs, mine has hamhocks big enough to feed a family, so it didn’t work at all!!
Can’t wait for the next post…..:-)
Thank goodness I was so broke when I was with baby that I didn’t get any of the stuff that was mentioned; but I always looked at it all wishing I could, now I am glad that I didn’t. The one thing I did get that I didn’t like was the bopi pillow, a regular old pillow worked much better and the bopi was never in the room I needed it to be in when we have pillows laying around our house everywhere.
Most useless? Oh, how to choose. How about the crib wedge. It went underneath the mattress to supposedly elevate the head when they have a cold or something. But my baby would roll down off the elevated ramp part and end up sideways on the flat part of the bed, completely defeating the purpose.
Oh, and the little rattle toys that velcroed onto the wrists and ankles? REALLY pissed my baby off. Nobody was amused by that sweet looking piece of trash.
Sorry, double posting here, I remembered the really worst item:
The bottle warmer that plugs into the car cigarette lighter. So you can sit there waiting for 20 minutes with your baby hungry and screaming, while the temperature of the bottle goes up, uh, 1 degree? Useless piece of crap.
All of the above PLUS the huge deluxe stroller that I HAD TO HAVE! I can’t even lift that thing into my car without getting a hernia. Why didn’t I listen to my hubby for once and get the lightweight? Now I’m stuck with it for the next kid. UGH!
I used baby washcloths in lieu of the pee-pee teepee and that was all the same.
The Diaper Genie. Plastic bags leftoverfrom shopping work way better.
BOOOOOOOBS! I can’t look away from the BOOOOOOOOOBS!
Fancy stroller. Hate. Bought a used Graco for 1/10 the price and LOVE. Bottle warmer, hand held breast pump, 3 of the 4 baby carriers I bought, changing table (the floor is way more convenient) and the 37 bottles that I bought that had silicone nipples. Of course it was the 98cent rubber nipple bottle that MY baby wanted.
I tried using the wipe warmer, but the wipe was instantly cold as soon as I took it out. so used, but not for long.
thanks for the heads up on the pee-pee tee-pee! I would have so bought some of those. now i’ll save the cash and get more wipes and shampoo. two things you can never have too much of!
The smelly piece of crap diaper genie was the most useless for me by far. Those plastic grocery bags worked the best for that particular problem…
1) Yes, any white clothes. 2) Lisa Marie’s description of the bottle warmer was RIGHT ON. “Just a few more minutes, honey!” 3) Velcro rattle ankle toys OR rattley booties. Annoying as all get-out.
This group definitely covered most of them.
I found a new use for my baby wipes warmer. I use it to warm up MY washcloths for a night-time makeup remover. I pour a little water over the washcloth to moisten it, and the next night it’s ready for a quick wipe. And, I don’t have to waste water waiting for it to heat up!
Take your pick. Diaper Genie: the nursery still smells like a freaking truck stop rest room. Boppy pillow: too high, too low. Gigantic high chair. Travel system car seat/stroller. Bought a new car seat as soon as the sweet darling passed 28 inches, or five months after we bought it. The stroller is huge! Unless we’re talking cross-country trekking, the umbrella strollers are fine and take up less space.
My vote is the same as Lisa Marie’s second comment- that stupid travel bottle warmer that plugged into the cigarette lighter was a useless piece of crap.
But I disagree about the Diaper Genie. We got one 12 years ago at my baby shower for Ryan, got a new one when Nathan was born, and another one when Kaitlyn was born. Just our personal preference I guess.
After the baby was born, a lot of the gifts from the baby shower were not what we needed one included the diaper genie and an extra baby crib.
We sold the items and then my hubby used the money to buy me a gorgeous diamond necklace from http://www.idonowidont.com since the baby had everything she needed and my hubby was being sweet.
I’ve never heard of the teepee but it seems also silly!
Maybe I am crazy, I like my wipes warmer – but I have two in diapers, so I grow thru the wipes faster than they can get dried in the heat. The thing that frustrates me the most are the 5 piece outfits with the matching useless bibs, socks, hair accessories, etc. I can never keep all of those things together, so usually parts 4 and 5 never get used.
Thank you so much for helping first time parents out there avoid the peepee blocking marketing hype!
Oh many things. But the Diaper Gene was a scam.
Bibs that tie. Big diaper bags, who wants to haul all that stuff around? A couple diapers, wipes and an outfit is plenty!
Crib — never been used. We planned on co-sleeping from the very beginning and told my parents we don’t need it but they insisted. Luckily, we got a lifetime crib so she can theoretically use it when she’s older. Theoretically. That, of course, would mean that she’ll leave our bed sometime in the next few years. Also, the bedside co-sleeper which we inherited from DH’s cousin who is also a co-sleeper. She never used it and soon we discovered, neither would we. Not as a co-sleeper at least. It did, however, make for a fine family room bassinet when she was a wee one but that’s it. Also — diaper pails are a rip off. Just toss in the trash and take it out every day. Done.
My friends and I lol at the pee pee teepees when we first saw them (we were expecting boys and were absolutely terrified of dealing with the p&nis!). But we never bought them, thank God.
As far as useless…I think the only useless item I’ve experienced so far are the hats that go with the baby outfits. They never fit my baby’s (huge?) noggin.
We tried the cosy sleeping “box” but took it back after one hour of testing it when we immediately realized that our small infant was now taking up more than half the bed. I received the peeteepee as a gift, but our son learned not to pee on mommy after a week or two of “don’t pee on mommy” conversations. I have never taken peeteepee out of the box.
The electric swing was pretty useless also, if not dangerous. It was expensive but very poorly made. I also have the wipes warmer (gift) which is nice to have I guess, but the bottom two inches of wipes are dry and yellow and beyond redemption.
What I would not do without? His play matt, front carrier, sling, moses basket and baby monitor. His favourite toy… playing with mommy.