8 Baby Products Your Mom Didn’t Have and You Don’t Need
Way back in the day, your own mom made it through those baby years without a professional-grade infant surveillance system installed in the nursery. You clearly survived too. Some advancements in baby-focused technology have made everyday life much safer for the tiny tykes. But some of these supposed baby-shower-registry must-haves aren’t entirely necessary. Hey, your own mother never had any of these — and you probably don’t need them either.
1. Fancy-Pants Video Monitor: Newborns sound like… well, like sirens. Their distinctive, crazy-loud cry does one thing awesomely, amazingly, absolutely well: It gets your attention. Seriously, there’s no way to ignore it. Unless you live in a mega-manse, it’s more than likely that you’ll hear your baby in the next room cry when they need a midnight snack. Those over-the-top video monitors that surveil your child’s every move are less of a necessity and more of a crazy-maker.
2. All-Terrain Stroller: The umbrella stroller was your mom’s go-to when she didn’t feel like carrying you. She grabbed her Walkman, fit the earphones over her Aqua Net-ed hair, strapped on her high-top Reeboks, and took you for a walk around the neighborhood. Yeah, there were bumps, lumps, and dips in the sidewalk back then too. But she didn’t need a four-wheel drive, multi-terrain, studded-wheeled stroller to make it through. If you’re not all about those deep woods walks, you don’t need the stroller version of an SUV. You just don’t.
3. Changing Table: You need somewhere to change your baby, but you don’t need a special table to do it on. If you have a pad or a towel, you’ve got somewhere to do your diaper duty on. There’s no reason to buy an entirely new piece of furniture that you’ll quit using in a year when your baby is too big to fit on it.
4. Wipe Warmer: Your butt wasn’t warmed to a balmy 80 degrees every time you pooped. Your mom probably didn’t even have a handy-dandy tub of disposable wipes to use when she changed you either. Don’t stress out over your baby’s bum temp. No one actually needs warm wipes. There’s no way your baby cares whether their backside is wiped at room temperature.
5. Pee-Pee Teepee: Yep, boys are gonna pee. When you change them and when you bathe them, they’re just going to pee. It happens. You really, truly don’t need to spend your hard-earned money on a little cone thingy to cover his lap. A washcloth will do… or you could just learn how to duck quickly.
6. 1,800 Thread Count Sheets: Your baby isn’t the princess whose delicate regal skin bruised from a tender little pea hidden under mattresses galore. Your kid shouldn’t sleep on straw, but they don’t need sheets with a higher thread count than yours.
7. Baby Detergent: Your baby is super-sensitive. (Many of them are.) So you invest in a special bottle of everything-free baby detergent. After all, that’s what you NEED to wash their clothes with, right? Babies with sensitive skin existed long before anyone ever made an infants-only detergent. There are tons of dye- and perfume-free options out there, and the regular ol’ adult ones are often just as dermatologist-tested as the baby-specific ones.
8. Baby Food Maker: Aww! That cute little food processor is just for baby food. It’s got an adorable little picture on it and is designed specifically to process foods for babies. Sure, some are specially made to steam, blend, mix, or do some other sort of baby-food-necessary procedure. But, for the most part, a normal adult food processor will work just fine.
What baby product do you think is completely unnecessary? Tweet us your pick @BritandCo!
(Photos via Getty)