Baby shopping list

dizziblonde

*max* wrote: »

Not a mum myself, but after seeing my 11 month old nephew projectile-vomit at the dinner table...the plastic bibs that "scoop" at the bottom are a must! Forget pretty things - practical is the word! You wouldn't believe how much can come out of such a small body.

See as an example of how different babies are - my daughter screams blue murder if I use those plasticy bibs on her and goes ballistic - she can't stand the feel of them around her neck! (Bought one trying to reduce the laundry burden for going away, then realised it wasn't going to happen and have since been sending my mum to the pound shop to buy disposable bibs for out and about instead).

Likewise the swingy chair we borrowed - the child we borrowed it from loved it and it was the only way he would tolerate being put down so mum could do anything... our girl - hated it with a passion! In contrast the bouncer he loathed - we loved!

Sizes vary insanely across stores as well (and ranges within stores in some cases) - I found Primark babygros at first had me scratching my head at the sheer length of the arms and legs on them... they later proved to be an utter godsend when I ended up with a baby that was all arms and legs like her father... M+S came up huge fit, apart from some of their Autograph range vests which came up teeny tiny... just really random differences like that (in the end I gave up on babygros fairly early on as her flipping legs grew out of all of them at a rate of knots so she went into pyjamas).

Muslins we rarely used when she was little (she wasn't a very sicky baby) - but now she's teething drooling/on solids we use them a lot more and have about a drawerful of them. I just bought packs from whatever supermarket I was in at the time - although our local Tesco were sneaky and had the coloured ones in with the baby clothes and the much much cheaper and larger packs of white ones over by the baby feeding, sippy cups and maternity pads stuff in a completely different bit of the store. Aldi also sell packs of the nice coloured and patterned ones on occasion if you're really desperate to inject some colour into your life on that front (although I just recommend feeding a combination of broccoli, sweet potato and something red like strawberries for a cheaper and much more unique tie-dye effect that you'll never get out with any stain removers).

Bottles and sterilisers - watch the big baby retailers and you're bound to get a starter set on special over the next few months - just budget in for changes of teats as baby gets older (I cynically exploit Boots doing a baby 3 for 2 when it comes to replacing things like those).

Baby wipes - regularly on special - once you've got an idea of what brands do/don't disagree with you (Huggies in particular are like Marmite - I love them... other people loathe them) then I just stockpile whenever they're on 3 for 2 or a pack for a £1 or whatever... also quite often can be got cheaply in places like B+M, or Wilkinsons (branded ones as well - not some obscure make).

Nappies -again people tend to find one brand that they like and stick with it (although careful if you fall in love with Huggies cos they're stopping selling them in the UK) - Asda's Little Angels usually come out quite favourably, I quite like Tesco own make ones, or if I'm organised I tend to buy the big boxes from Kiddicare for a month (but they only start from size 2)... once you know what's working for you then you can stock up on them when they're on offers. Things like swimming nappies you quite often find people buy too many of them, the child outgrows them before they've used the full pack up and they'll pass the surplus on to you - hence me having about four packs of size 3 little swimmers waiting for the new baby's arrival.

morocha

I am another one that bought for my baby a cot ( John Lewis £100) and a boots matress £36 excellent reviews, when on sale) And my Quinny buzz 4 and cabrio car seat. ( £180 all bidding on ebay from the manufacter itself).
Sleeping suits are great, and M &S and just a bit more than tesco, asda etc ... but the quality is far better.
I bought a baby bouncer, Kiddicare £15( kiddicare price match, rrp £45), i feel i really will need this to free my hands without puttinh baby in bed or on a blanket on the floor. BTW this is my second baby.
I bought a lot of clothes second hand in FB groups, mainly in excellent condition.
1 bottle of head to toe is all you need to give baby a bath and it will last months.. Weleda is an excellent brand.
To moisturize their skin, nothing is gentler than calendula oil, olive oil, pretty cheap.
I never wore breast pads, maybe only once so wouldnt buy tons of them.
Bought my Medela elec. breast pump for £35 with new parts again from FB page.
Stocked up with wipes and nappies with vouchers. ~they really do not need much and you will spend as little or as much as you want.

clearingout

you don't need to buy M & P - as others have said, there is loads of nice stuff in the supermarkets. I bought vests and sleepsuits in Asda and they washed and washed. Also, look on kiddicare.com which has got a lot bigger than when I used them when I was pregnant with my eldest (and I think they also sell through Morrisons now) as they have a lot of branded stuff cheap - I know I bought a ridiculously expensive baby monitor from them that was about £20 cheaper than Argos (and you don't need a baby monitor unless you live in a mansion!)

There are lots of mother/baby/parenting websites where members offer items for sale locally - try netmums and mumsnet. This way you could go and look at a cot to see if it's what you want rather than committing to buy like you do with ebay. There are also selling pages on Facebook and you could try preloved. I also recommend car boots for toys - total bargains and if you have a dishwasher and a washing machine, most things will clean up really well (just don't put toys that need batteries in the dishwasher!). We had tons of megablocks from carboots that came up new in the dishwasher!

My best money saving tip is watch clothing sizes. You don't need newborn as baby will be out of that size quickly, possibly within days. You don't need many outfits - I just used a babygro for days we were in the house as they are warm and comfortable and you don't mind if they make a mess of them. I also found that in vests and sleepsuits we missed out the 12-18 size and went straight to 18-24. Yes, they were a bit big for a few months but once they've been washed and tumble dried a few times, you don't notice.

Once you get your baby and know how he/she is sizing up, you will find that you can buy ahead in sales - I never pay full price for anything other than shoes. So we have winter coats from the Next sale last week for next year in next year's sizes. You need very average sized children to do this, though! I shop for vests, socks and pants in the sales (there are always some in the sale in Asda) as well and school uniform I do year round to spread the cost (just throw in a pack of shirts with my weekly shop once a month, for example).

Congratulations and enjoy whilst tiny as they grow much, much too fast!

clearingout

oh forgot - do consider reusable nappies and wipes. It's not for everyone but there is a cost saving to be had. Your local council might offer financial incentive so do check their website. You can also get reusable breastpads if you find you leak alot which will be cheaper than disposables if you feed for longer than the first couple of months.

msb5262

Hi OP,
I've got to echo so many posters here and say that it's really best to buy the bare minimum. Apart from anything else, you don't know what gifts you'll receive (which may include cash and/or vouchers) and you don't know what will be useful until your baby arrives. Also there are bound to be sales/events/promotions before the baby is born, so buying ahead of time could be a real disaster.
Best of luck and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy!
MsB

dizziblonde

clearingout - it all goes hideously to pot when they have a randomly-timed growth spurt though! My little girl recently decided to miss out 6-9 months almost completely (we're talking through it in under a month) in favour of hitting 9-12 month clothes! Thankfully(?) she's prem and the growth spurt's just put her bang-onto average size for a child of that actual age instead of me having to mentally readjust downwards constantly so in a way it was a help reducing the mental gymnastics required to buy stuff ahead.

I've got dresses, coats and trousers bought for the next year's worth of sizes though - I just have labelled boxes under the cotbed that I file stuff into.

lilymay1

zcrat41 wrote: »

I wouldn't like to wear supermarket clothes and we're lucky enough to be able to afford not to.

But you don't ruin every set of clothes you wear Seriously, everything baby wears will get stained with food, milk, poo...something will mark it. They grow so, so fast it's not worth spending vast sums of money on expensive clothes!

I also confess to having a box delivered from Mothercare this week with a cot bedding set (including bumpers - I didn't know they were bad!) and some uneccessary nursery decoration that serves no practical purpose

My son is 14 months and we have just given him a duvet. Before that he was always in a sleeping bag. Small babies should not be using bedding of any description.


We did intend to have baby in a moses basket for 6 months

Baby will not fit in a moses basket for 6 months. 6 weeks if you are lucky

I supposed I'm just wanting to say that although lots of stuff is unecessary, we only have babies once and as long as you aren't getting into debt or problems then the odd nice cute thing isn't going to do any harm. Interesting reading some of the practical stuff though - I havent bought a breast pump yet and didn't know you could hire them - that sounds like a great suggestion.

I totally agree with you about spluring on nice things isn't doing anyone any harm. But, I also wish I had listened to those who already have children about some of the do's and don'ts and things that I really wouldn't need.

clearingout

dizziblonde wrote: »

clearingout - it all goes hideously to pot when they have a randomly-timed growth spurt though! My little girl recently decided to miss out 6-9 months almost completely (we're talking through it in under a month) in favour of hitting 9-12 month clothes! Thankfully(?) she's prem and the growth spurt's just put her bang-onto average size for a child of that actual age instead of me having to mentally readjust downwards constantly so in a way it was a help reducing the mental gymnastics required to buy stuff ahead.

I've got dresses, coats and trousers bought for the next year's worth of sizes though - I just have labelled boxes under the cotbed that I file stuff into.

the trick is to leave the labels on - then they'll go on ebay if they never fit. I have done that a few times and have a load of Next stuff for this summer that should have been worn by the youngest last summer but never was! I have a coat I bought for my first child (who is now nearly 9) in age 4 - 5 when he was still a baby . It cost 99p in a Woolworth's sale! It got put in a suitcase and forgot about - found it when I moved a couple of years ago. It is now waiting for my third son for next winter! That's one of the beauty of boys, they don't seem to change the fashions for them.

So yes, your trick of labelling is probably a good idea - I'm organised but not organised enough!

Gillyx

It's never happened to me, as for some reason nappies have never been that bad, but I have heard of some babies have such explosive violent poops that the parent has thrown out the vest as there was just no hope for it I'd rather do that with a 75p Asda vest, than anything more expensive!

katiechoc_2

I think most things have been covered but I'll echo the votes for supermarket clothes - most of what my 8month old is in is either supermarket new or passed on to us second hand. eBay is great for bundles of clothes too. Deffo don't go too mad on first size clothes, its easy to send daddy out to tesco for a couple of packs of the right size vests than mess about returning stuff that might be the wrong size.

Kiddicare is great for pretty much everything I've found, their nappies are good value too and we've used them from a couple of weeks old with very few "incidents"