New Vs. Secondhand

K

keninhk

Registered User
Slightly budget conscious for our first newborn. What items would/did you buy new? What would you recommend getting secondhand?

thx

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Anything you only use for a few months (like bouncy seats, swings, bumbo seats etc.) I would recommend getting secondhand if you're more on a budget. Crib wouldn't be a problem either (although I had the IKEA white crib which was simple but lasted for 3 years with the side taking off later), get a new mattress though and there are plenty ways to dress up the room with fun and cheap stuff without breaking the bank. IKEA does have some good options. A stroller is probably worth it unless you can get a good deal for a good condition stroller, same for a high chair, depends on type too. Can't hurt to look, you don't have to take it. I would say the majority could be second hand. Only things I can think of now I would get new are mattress, bottles, changing pad / covers, and other mostly hygienic items ...
 
Thanks for your reply, Ikea's got a few colorful toys I definitely will get later.

The stroller I brought was a display the sales assistant said they opened it new just this week.

Still looking at cots, they all look similar however it seems there are 2 main sizes - normal and extra large, the latter being able to turn into a kids bed a few years on.

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when looking at cots, check to see how the sides drop. do you need to use your hands? or is it hands-free, and you can use your knee? is the matress height adjustable or just the sides?

lastly, try picking up and putting down a pillow into the cot when it's on it's lowest setting.

one of our cots, was great, the sides came down just with a push of the knee. so, if i was by myself, i could easily lower the side while carrying the baby. also, this same cot had an adjustable height for the matress, so i wouldn't have to bend so far over the sides of the cot. fantastic.

the other cod we had, was awful. the matress height wasn't adjustable and the sides were too tall for my arms, so, if i was carrying the sleeping baby, i could only reach down to about 2" from the cot.... which meant, i had to 'drop' the baby the last 2"!!! woke him up every time!
 
Latest recommendations from US Consumer Product Safety Commission prohibit drop-side cribs entirely. Seems sensible to me.
 
I got almost everything secondhand and have faced no problems:
1. Clothes - so useful having a range of secondhand clothes to choose from as it's impossible to know what will suit your baby. Both my babies were smaller than anticipated. Baby 1 used mostly clothes that buttoned up the front as his milk would come up if he was moved around too much (thus the regular onesies were a no-no). Baby 2 took well to the regular onesies and barely used the button-up stuff.

2. Stroller - glad I bought a secondhand one because actually I wasn't that happy with it. I would have been annoyed if I bought it full price. Buying secondhand gave me the option to ditch it and buy another. Though I haven't done that yet. Also did not end up using stroller for first 3 months

3. Baby carrier - turned out both babies didn't like it. So glad I didn't spend a fortune on it.

4. Cot and mattress - bought secondhand, being used by my second baby. No problems and looks nice also.

5. Breast pumps - These I got from my sister and sis-in-law. The great thing was that I have two pumps for the price of zero. I can leave one at work and one at home. The US authorities do not reccommend sharing pumps though. Please note that even if you share a pump, you can buy the the plastic thing that touches the breast separately.

Actually, it would be easier to say what I didn't get secondhand:
1. Diapers and wipes (obvious reasons)
2. Lotions, soap etc.
3. Bathtub
4. Steriliser (you can just boil in the pot, but I found the microwave steriliser more convenient)
5. Bassinet
6. Baby rocker (needed only later when baby can sit up)

For 3,4 and 5, I bought new stuff only because I got tired of searching for secondhand options. I would have been happy to buy those secondhand too.

I can think of very few things that shouldn't be secondhand. Maybe the nipples of bottles?
 
carang said:
i guess it would depend ENTIRELY on how they are designed whether or not it is sensible....
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Not really - the more moving parts, the more chance to go wrong. Same for any device.

You can read their report on it - if I remember correctly there were thirty US deaths in the last decade due to drop side cots. Of course, the chance of this happening to any of our children is minimal but seems a no-brainer to me to follow sensible current safety recommendations from reputable agencies who have studied the subject it a lot more than us.
 
30 deaths out of how many babies? (ctually there are on average just over 4,000,000 babies born in the usa each year... and while i agree safety should be a concern.... 30 out of over 4,000,000? that's 0.00075%)

as i said, it depends on the design.
surely making the matress too low and the sides too high, so someone with shorter arms has to "drop" their baby into bed isn't an intelligent design?
 
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remember, the usa is also the place where they now have to print on the side of take away coffee cups: "caution: hot"
 
carang said:
as i said, it depends on the design.
surely making the matress too low and the sides too high, so someone with shorter arms has to "drop" their baby into bed isn't an intelligent design?
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Nope, that's a stupid design. A better design is a 3 level adjustable crib without drop sides.

As I said, the chances of this affecting any single baby are low - but if a simple design change can save any lives then I'm happy to support it.

I certainly don't think your argument "this is a stupid idea because only a few babies died" holds water better than the one the Consumer Product Safety Commission is making.
 
2010-NewDad said:
Latest recommendations from US Consumer Product Safety Commission prohibit drop-side cribs entirely. Seems sensible to me.
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Whenever a new rule is proposed by a group who stand to gain huge amounts of money from the said rule, you should really think about it and examine it very carefully:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-cribs_18mar18,0,1578820.story

There was nothing particularly sensible about this ban. Profit motivation drove the whole process from start to end.

Anyone who gets seriously upset by a couple of dozen baby deaths over a period of a decade should look at pedestrian and traffic death&accident statistics for kids...
 
2010-NewDad said:
Nope, that's a stupid design. A better design is a 3 level adjustable crib without drop sides.

As I said, the chances of this affecting any single baby are low - but if a simple design change can save any lives then I'm happy to support it.

I certainly don't think your argument "this is a stupid idea because only a few babies died" holds water better than the one the Consumer Product Safety Commission is making.
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yeah, so what i said, 'depends on the design' is right.....
 
which do you think is more dangerous:

drop side cot

or

dropping your baby into a rigid sided cot because you can't reach the matress
 
2010-NewDad said:
Any drop-side design is slightly more dangerous than any non-drop side design.
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You are 100% correct, every so slightly more dangerous just the same as a regular car being slightly more dangerous than a 7 seater people mover. But we dont go around banning normal cars and forcing people into bigger versions for safety sake...

Also, it is worth noting that this product was extremely useful to parents and the number of deaths were tiny. More kids died from choking on HotDogs (about 50 per year) than this. This turned out to be cause-de-jour for the media so they hyped it along.

That's why the manufacture of drop side designs is now prohibited in the US.
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Incorrect;
Fact : Manufacturers had already stopped producing these couple of years before the ban due to recall and liability issues
Fact : ToysRUs, biggest seller of cribs had stopped selling them for almost 2 years previous to the ban.
The ban was helped by the manufacturers themselves for profit reasons. If families were stopped from lending/selling these beds to one another they would have to buy a new and approved crib which made manufacturers huge amounts of money.
 
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No offense Cara, but I don't think it is worth continuing this conversation. I'll leave the intelligent readers of Geobaby to decide which advice is most suitable for them.
 
you know they banned walkers in the states, not because they were unsafe in and of themselves, but because parents weren't blocking stairways and kids were falling off the stairs.

they banned bumbo seats in the usa because parents were putting the seats on the top of tables....not because the seats were dangerous.
 
Thanks all for their original comments and replies! Very helpful.

Re. baby carrier, I have my eye on a real expensive one (Only one that is comfortable) HK$13xx. Hesitating as reading past posts mention their baby's didn't take to being carried this way. Have posters found the baby carrier more used vs. stroller?

We are public transport takers, so imagining in future will go to the baby friendly malls of IFC, Elements and KowloonTong.

thx again!

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We use baby carrier far more than stroller. Our baby is much happier being carried than strolled, and there are so many stairs and crowds in Hong Kong the stroller can be unwieldy. You might be able to pick up a cheaper carrier from the 2nd hands - have seen Ergos going a lot cheaper than new there.

Carrier definitely easier on public transport too - we also don't have a car and it's much easier on MTR/bus/taxi with a carrier.
 
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