Baby items you should borrow, not buy

When we asked you guys, “What’s one baby item you’d advise a new mom to borrow instead of buy?” there was one clear winner: The Swing.

I had a swing baby as I like to call her, and she slept overnight, swaddled, in the swing many times. Oh yes she did. But I can imagine that if I bought a swing brand-new, and then learned that my baby hated it, I would want to return it. Borrowing from a friend who is in between babies or done with baby-making is the easiest way to learn on-the-cheap if a mechanical swing will be a miracle drug for your child.

Other items with short shelf lives named by rookie moms as good candidates for borrowing (or Craig’s List):

Snap n Go stroller
Baby gym
Bouncy chair with fancy features
Bumbo
Infant insert for the Ergo carrier
Breastfeeding pillow
Double stroller depending on the spacing of your children
Shopping cart cover-thingy (Heather discovered an easy way to make a cheap one out of fleece and a few strategic scissor snips.)
Exersaucer or Jumperoo-style entertainers
Moses basket/basinette/co-sleeping device
Infant bathtub

Baby carriers are another story. If you can borrow some for a few weeks to see if you like it, that’s great. A Moby wrap is wonderful to have in the very early days and a friend with a two-year old is not going to miss it. But an Ergo carrier, or similar styled device, can be used with an infant and a toddler, so you might want to splurge on it — especially if you scored a bunch of these other items from a friend or consignment store.

How about travel cribs? Many of you called these out as short-lived, but mine got tons of use. I think this depends on whether or not you travel (we do!) and if you host a nanny share (we did — and our baby guest slept in our Pack N Play every day.) I think it’s a must-have for a baby registry list, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t accept a hand-me-down from a friend!

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Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.