MSE Parent Club

LilMissEmmylou

hey Rosey, i 2nd the reuseable nappies (id have to wouldnt i? lol) and home made food (although im a bad mummy using jars at the moment). babies ae as expensive or as cheap as u want them to be really. Enjoy being at home with ur little girl, i go back to uni in sept when my little girl will be 9 months - hate the thought of it, but well needs must and all that.

Also have a look around for some free mother and baby groups, it will get you out meeting other mums and let ur LO have some fun making friend too

roseycozy

Thanks for the warm welcome and advice! :beer:

I already use cloth nappies (they really are great aren't they) and even made a couple of my own, and wipes too. Still using disposables at night though cos DD feeds loads due to 24hr milk bar.

She doesn't eat puree much though cos she is way too stubborn! :rotfl: So I'm saving a bit there already as she mainly eats what we eat, but obviously no salt & full fat. I've seen lots of people suggesting weekly meal plans though which I think I might try next week as our shopping bill is getting out of hand.

As for clothes, I'm lucky enough to have a big sister who gives me all her DSs cast offs so she wears blue trucks and things at home and I only have to get a few girly outfits for out and about.

Heather, I couldn't agree more about them being a handful My DD has only just started to backwards commando crawl this week but I'm getting scared. :eek: So do any of you guys have any ideas for cheap childproofing? Obviously safety is not something I want to really scrimp on, but things like my mum told me - put bricks on bookshelves so they can't get the books out. Not that I actually have any bricks!

And LilMissEmmyLou, must be really tough to have to leave you LO so soon I will too eventually, as no way we can stay on DHs salary for long, but at least I get to put it off a bit longer.

Becles

I never childproofed anything with my boys, apart from a stairgate. Everything was left where it was when they were born, including ornaments.

When they touched something they shouldn't, I tapped the back of their hand and in a stern voice "no, naughty hand", then moved them back to their toys, put one in their hand and stroked it while saying "good hand" in a more soothing tone. It worked well and I've never had broken ornaments, sandwiches in the video and all the other tales you hear.

In time they learned that just a "no" and a firm stare meant they shouldn't be doing what they were doing!

Snaggles

Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't 'childproof' things - I thought it was just me being a bad parent!

I use a stairgate on the stairs, and that's it.

My thinking is that, yes, you can make your own house safe, but if you take them anywhere else, they could do something dangerous, simply because they've never been faced with it before. I just teach them 'fire - burny' and 'plug - go BANG', lol.

heather38

i bought a childproof pack from tesco as it was reduced to £2 to clear. it has plug covers, toilet latch, fridge latch and corner cushions for a table. but i will only use the plug covers as our plugs in the living room don't have any switches on them.

purplepatch

I like the things that go over the top of doors to stop them shutting their fingers in it. Also got stairgates and now toying with the idea of getting a playpen as now DD2's getting proficient with crawling it seems that she's a total nightmare for trying to get things you don't want her to touch :rolleyes: and as I'm often tied up with DD1 it could be pretty handy.

Thing with playpens is they take up so much space. Have seen one advertised in local paper 90x70 odd cms and it folds flat. Tempted, but wonder how simple it is to fold flat as if too much hassle I know I won't be bothered. Anyone got any experience of them?

Another question - anyone know where you can get cots v cheaply? We've got a travel cot she can't stand, so thinking of getting a wooden cot for when she stays over with my parents - not much available secondhand at the mo and we wanted it for next weekend. Probably left it a bit late now.

Snaggles

Oh yes, we use the door thingies too but we've used them for years to stop the doors slamming shut in the breeze if we have front and back doors open - I'd forgotten they were actually for babies!

purplepatch

Snaggles wrote: »

Oh yes, we use the door thingies too but we've used them for years to stop the doors slamming shut in the breeze if we have front and back doors open - I'd forgotten they were actually for babies!

LOL same here, we've been using them for the past 4 years since DD1 was born, very useful

Snaggles

Purplepatch, have you tried Ikea for the cot? I haven't looked recently but I noticed they had some very inexpensive ones last time we went up there.

Snaggles

Found a link for the cot we saw - it doesn't include a mattress though, but it's cheap and quite nice. It's HERE.

Edit - Mattress is HERE.