6 Baby Products You Shouldn’t Buy Second Hand

When you are having your first baby, there are a lot of things you have to buy. You will need plenty of supplies, clothes, and several pieces of potentially expensive equipment. You want to spend as little money as possible, but you also do not want to jeopardize the safety of your child. Feel free to buy or accept free items (like clothes and toys) to offset the cost, but there are some things that you should definitely buy new. Here are six:

1. Play Yards

Safety standards put in place over the last few years have changed the way play yards and play pens are constructed. Older models have top-rail hinges that can collapse. A collapsing play yard can potentially injure your child. If you’re kid manages to break down the play yard without being hurt, he’s now free in a place you didn’t expect him to be.

2. Nursing Bras

Why spend the money on a nursing bra that you’ll only wear for a short time, right? In reality, bras can become loose, misshapen, and stretch with frequent use. Consider how your own bras reshape after a few months. Save your back and by purchasing a new, quality nursing bra, ideally with a pocket for a warm or cooling pack.

3. Crib Mattress

Two words: bed bugs. They’re impossible to get rid of and they bite you in your sleep. Be wary whenever you receive a mattress from a stranger. Even if you’re sure the mattress is insect-free, it may have misshapen spots from its previous user jumping up and down. Unseen dips and valleys can cause spinal troubles and pose falling risks.

4. Soft Infant Carriers

In the same way, your clothes stretch and tear after many uses and washes, so will a soft carrier. Eventually, threads, fasteners, and adjustment pieces will wear out, especially with a growing baby inside. Many of these have been recalled over the years. Even if it looks and feels sturdy, don’t trust something old to keep your baby up.

5. Car Seats

Even if it looks sound and functions properly, you can never be entirely sure that your used car seat hasn’t been through a crash. Like many baby products, technology changes rapidly and many of these have had safety recalls. Statistically, driving is dangerous. It’s important that you have the best piece of equipment available protecting your child.

6. Cribs

Countless cribs have been recalled or banned over the years. You might find second-hand cribs with drop-sides for sale, but those are actually illegal to sell in this country after numerous injury reports. Your baby will be spending a lot of time in his or her crib, so make the investment and buy new. You can save money by purchasing a crib that turns into a toddler bed.

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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventors of the Zipadee-Zip

The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.

When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.

Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!

To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!

For more information, visit sleepingbaby.com.

Interested in writing a guest blog for Sleeping Baby? Send your topic idea to pr@sleepingbaby.com.

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