Free and cheap baby products are not hard to find. Parents just need to get creative and not always give into the pressure of buying expensive baby products that will get little actual use. Find a free baby product alternative to that baby item everyone says is a “must-have.” Here is a simple guide to help you find free and cheap alternatives to common baby products and baby gear.
Free and Cheap Baby Products
Product: Clean Shopper Shopping Cart Cover
Purpose: Use in the top of a shopping cart to protect baby from dirty, wet or unsanitary shopping carts.
Price: Around $20 and up.
Don’t Buy: I could never bring myself to buy one of these, as they just seemed too expensive for our very limited budget. If I had received one as a gift, which would have been free, I would have surely used it.
Free Baby Product Alternative: Rather than buying a shopping cart cover, the best free baby product may be one you already own. Bring a blanket, or a big beach towel, one you will only use for this purpose, or for outside of the house, and line the seating part of the shopping cart with the blanket before placing baby in the seat. Bring a couple of wipes with you to wipe down the handle. Also be sure to bring baby’s current favorite toy, cup or bottle to keep little hands busy and less likely to grab the exposed parts of the cart or items off the shelf.
Don’t Buy: Buy jars of baby food only as supplements to the food you can make at home. The best baby jars of baby food are simply cooked foods with water including non-combination jars of fruits, vegetables or Gerber Simple Recipe.
Cheap Baby Product Alternative: Make your own. Yes, it takes time, but it also a lot less expensive. It’s not a free baby product, but it costs a lot less to buy a bag of carrots or two (about $1) than it does to buy pre-made jars.
Boil any cleaned and peeled vegetable like carrots, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes or use apples. Use a blender and some of the water used to cook the vegetables to blend the food to the right consistency for baby. Keep some out in a covered container in the refrigerator. Pour the rest into a clean ice cube tray, cover and freeze. Once the food is frozen, take the food cubes out and store them in freezer-safe bags or containers.
Don’t Buy: The baby bathtubs available are bulky, hard to store, often leak, and are more trouble than they are worth.
Free Baby Product Alternative: Infants may be sponge-bathed, or washed in small dishpan type tub that they sometimes give you in the hospital. Parents have successfully used the kitchen sink to bathe babies. When using the sink just be sure to move any nearby electrical appliances or kitchen utensils, or any dish washing soap. To make it more comfortable, place a couple of face cloths on the bottom of the sink. The other obvious and free baby alternative to buying a baby product for bathing is to use the bathtub.
Purpose: Originally crib bumpers were made for safety reasons, for cribs that were considered unsafe due to having more than 2 3/8 in. between the rails. Now bumpers are mostly used on new cribs to make baby’s crib pretty and more comfortable.
Don’t Buy: Skip the crib bumpers, as they are not considered safe for an infant, and in newer cribs and other cribs meeting the current safety guidelines they arenecessary.
Free Baby Product Alternative: Instead of buying bumpers, spend the money on purchasing a higher quality crib mattress, especially if you have a convertible crib. Also consider purchasing a crib pad and a couple of extra high-thread count fitted sheets.
Product: BabyBjorn Baby Active Carrier – Sporty Black
Purpose: To be able to walk around anywhere and everywhere with baby attached to your body.
Price: $120.
Don’t Buy: While this carrier is made to carry babies, the nursing mom will not be comfortable with this baby carrier. It is also not that easy to continually put on and take off, especially if there is not another adult present. Also, unless you live in a warm climate, or baby will be a certain size during the months when neither of you need a coat, the timeframe of when you can use the carrier is limited.
Cheap Alternative: Touch and proximity to mom are extremely important to the infant. Rather than using a baby carrier to keep baby close while mom is on the go and so busy with her hands, mom needs to slow down sometimes and just sit and hold baby. I returned my baby carrier for all of the above reasons. I spent many hours sitting quietly with my baby sleeping on me, putting him down when I needed to. It is possible to maintain a close physical relationship with baby, and still get things done at home and out. It simply takes a little more planning and a lot more flexibility to let certain things go.
Purpose: To dispose of diapers in a sanitary, odor-free and easy way.
Price: $20 for the Diaper Genie, $14 for refills.
Don’t Buy: While the Diaper Genie is nice in theory, it is not better than simply throwing out the diapers. The price of the replacement bags is outrageous. The Diaper Genie would only make sense if it actually compacted the diapers in some way.
Cheap Baby Product Alternative: No expensive product or free baby product will make soiled diapers smell any better. For those very messy diapers, simply keep some sandwich-sized plastic bags that zip at the top nearby. The best free solution to stinky diapers? Take out the garbage at least once a day.
Before you buy a baby product, whether it costs 50 cents or $120 determine if you really need it, or if there is a free baby product which is better.
