The Baby Show

Yesterday we went to the Baby Show at Earls Court, London. Once we eventually got there - we had a bit of navigational trouble - we wandered around looking at all the stalls, trying to work out what we needed and what we just liked the look of :) Seriously, we know what these shows are like and how easy it is to spend money so we went with a list of the things that we wanted to look at and set about investigating in a "Lytzen" systematic way.

So the main things we wanted to look at were reusable nappies, baby wipes, changing bags, bottles and equipment for expressing and storing milk. The bottles and related products were easily sorted. Tommee Tippee have their Closer To Nature range which I really loved the look and feel of. The teats on the bottles seemed to me - the expert - to be a much more natural shape than the others we looked at as well as having some other features that both Frans and I felt were important, especially since we only want to bottle feed occasionally. We bought two bottles and a breast pump kit (which had a bottle in it) so if breastfeeding doesn't work, we can at least feed the baby then go and buy more bottles when needed.

As we were walking around we found lots of stalls selling changing bags. To be honest, I was quite disappointed by most of them. A lot of them were trying to be something other than what they were and weren't really my cup of tea. I did see one which I had looked at before the show - the Wallaboo - but didn't like it in the flesh. That's been crossed off. The bag that Frans quite liked was the Baby Mule. A great design and seems to be quite practical but again I'm not sure that I can see myself carrying it around. Something to think about though.

For the baby wipes and nappies, Frans and I again both agreed that we wanted to use resuables as much as possible. The plan is to use disposables until we get the hang of things and also when we're out but to use the reusables when we're home. Before we went, I found Cheeky Wipes online and knew they were exhibiting at the Show. To be honest, what they sell is just flannels and tupperware boxes but the cost of us putting the kit together ourselves wouldn't be worth the hassle. The Cheeky Wipes kit all fits neatly together and also comes with two bags so you can take the resuable wipes out and about with you and baby. It gives us options in the future. Sold!

The nappies were much harder to decide on. There was such a vast amount of stalls selling resuable nappies, all of which seemed to be a little bit different. We narrowed the contenders down to two - Bum Genius and gNappies. We sat and discussed the pros and cons of each system and eventually decided that we wanted to go with the Bum Genius nappies. They had a good deal on at the show so we bought what we needed there. Sorted! Now we have twenty nappies and forty liners to wash. Oh joy!

Lastly, we had brief look at the Pourty. It's really just a fancy potty but it's going on our 'still to get list' anyway.