Baby Product Regrets – And What I Wish I Bought Instead

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of baby products out there. And you quickly learn that baby product regrets are just something you’re going to experience in parenthood!

There seems to be at least five items in every single category — but usually way more — that sort of leads to information overload. You almost feel like you might as well throw a dart and just take home whatever it lands on and hope for the best.

Through trial and error you’ll eventually find what kind of things you and your baby prefer. But hopefully by sharing some of my regrets, I can help you skip a lot of that error and land immediately on the product you’ll love.

It’s not that most of these products are bad (some are, but I’ll explain later), but they just didn’t work for our family, our lifestyle, and our preferences.

In hindsight, there are products I wish I had purchased instead that I know I would have preferred.

In general, I don’t like to over-purchase things and try to make informed decisions on what I actually what to buy that will work best for me. But I don’t always get it right! And these are some of those times.

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Baby Product Regrets For My Newborn

Regret: Dock-A-Tot and Boppy Pillow

Oh boy. I feel like it’s controversial to say the Dock-A-Tot wasn’t for us. We used it off and on for a couple of weeks but it just ended up sitting in the closet.

I don’t think it’s a bad product. I just think it’s incredibly expensive for what it is. It’s ultimately just a baby lounger and I found that there were only a handful of times where we didn’t have a safe space to lay our baby down.

I can see how it would be useful for a lot of people (especially if you have a two-story home) but for us it just didn’t work out.

Instead, I would consider the Snuggle Me Organic instead (it’s more snug and less expensive) or the Boppy Newborn Lounger which is a similar idea but far more affordable for the times when we do need a safe place to set the baby down.

Also, I intended to use the Boppy Pillow for breastfeeding but really it was just awkward and a regular pillow worked better for us. I might consider trying the My Breast Friend pillow in the future.

Regret: The Joovy Foodoo High Chair

This high chair is TERRIBLE and I absolutely do not recommend it. Like at all. It’s horrible for posture for eating. Not to mention it takes up a lot of space. I’m not entirely sure why we ended up buying this high chair but there are so many better options out there.

We ended up with the Ikea high chair with the wooden footrest from yeahbabygoods. Which by all means is a really great option and I highly recommend it!

But what I wanted from the beginning was the Stokke Tripp Trapp High Chair. Yes it’s more expensive but it’s meant to grow with your child and support them as they get older.

It’s great for baby led weaning and having your baby sit with your family during meal times. I still might buy it for my son when he outgrows his Ikea high chair. With any future child we have though, I’ll definitely buy the Stokke.

Regret: Fisher Price Sit-Me-Up and The Rock’n’Play

First of all the Rock’n’Play was recalled but before that happened we didn’t use it very much. He really just preferred to be in the baby carrier or held when he was smaller and by the time he would sit in it, he had outgrown it.

We bought the Fisher Price Sweet Snugapuppy Swing when he was around a month old and that was a big hit for us.

It has a pretty big footprint so it’s not a space-saver by any means but it turns three different directions, has six different speeds, three adjustable seat positions, and 16 songs and sounds.

Plus it has a little mobile that’s fun to look at:

Regret: Tons of Bottles

I produced a lot of milk so we always had so much and nowhere to put it. So naturally we bought a lot of bottles. And now we have a ton of them and they’re just sitting in storage waiting to be used again.

Looking back, I would just buy what you need. As long as you keep on top of the washing (or use the dishwasher) it’s really not a big deal and leads to a lot less clutter in the house.

We also switched bottle systems around 4 months old so those bottles went into storage pretty quickly.

Regret: More Than One Baby Body Wash

It takes forever to go through even one bottle of baby shampoo. Honestly it does. You’ll probably be using the same bottle for at least the first six months of your baby’s life, if not longer.

Start with something gentle and if you run into any skin issues, then try something else. It just leads to a lot of clutter otherwise.

We really liked the Cetaphil Baby Wash and Shampoo with Organic Calendula. Most frequently we use this one from Aveeno, though.

Regret: Swaddles

My son liked being swaddled but we could never quite get a tight enough swaddle with velcro swaddles.

We had a couple of velcro swaddles like the Halo SleepSacks gifted to us but I never felt like they stayed tight enough. He was always able to wriggle out of them easily or they bunched up too much near his face.

I actually found that the Aden and anais swaddle blankets worked perfectly. Getting the swaddling technique down took some practice but soon it becomes second nature. Plus they come in so many cute prints!

We learned our preferred swaddling technique and how to calm our son down from The Happiest Baby on The Block video. It’s an hour long but will save you from nights that feel endless with crying. I highly recommend it!

Regret: Tula Baby Carrier

I love babywearing so much. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of motherhood. I just loved having my son so close to me, especially during that first year.

At home and when my son was small, I used the Boppy Comfy Fit carrier. It was perfect and so easy to use. As my son got bigger and as the weather got warmer, I needed something with a little more support but that was also cool so he wouldn’t get overheated when I was wearing him.

I bought the Tula off of a recommendation and I do think it was nice but I ultimately decided to by the Lille Baby Complete Airflow Carrier. It’s mesh and grows with your child so you can use it for a long time. I use this now as my primary carrier and travel carrier and I adore it. It takes so much pressure off of my lower back, it’s seriously a game-changer.

Regret: Owlet Baby Camera

We used the Owlet Smart Sock and I have no regrets about using that at all. It gave me so much peace of mind as a new parent.

I do, however, regret buying the Owlet Baby Camera. Since we used the sock already, we thought the camera would be a good pairing. But it was nothing but issues.

It had so many connectivity problems and errors and constantly was trying to update, it just wasn’t worth the hassle. Especially when so many issues would come up right when we were trying to put our son to sleep.

Instead we purchased a pretty simple and straightforward camera to use. We even take it with us traveling! We have this one from Anmeate. It’s about $60 and is compact. I highly recommend it!

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Buying things for babies can really add up quickly. There are a lot of great products out there (and some not so great) to choose from which makes it even more overwhelming.

Even if something was a baby product regret for me, maybe it won’t be for you, and that’s okay! We all have different preferences and lifestyles that different products work best for.

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