How not to regret unnecessary purchases when you have your first child

It happens most of the time.

A couple discovers that they are expecting a baby and immediately begins the preparation process and with it the search for information.

And the more the better.

“This overinformation, or

infoxication

, is precisely one of the causes that lead us to make mistakes because we lose our analytical capacity,” says Belén Marinone (Buenos Aires

,

38 years old),

baby planner

,

that is, an expert in advice for future parents, and founder Babyplanner Academy (an academy for training future

baby planners

present in nine countries).

“When new parents, with many doubts, and at the same time desire to do the best, are exposed to constant stimuli for solutions, but do not have the ability to evaluate and analyze what their needs will be, they must trust external opinions or recommendations ”, adds the author of the book

A Mom is Born.

12 keys to planning the arrival of your baby: The practical guide to pregnancy

(Goodreads, 2022).

Although the expert, with a decade of experience in the sector, emphasizes that most of the time these suggestions are biased, either by the opinion of a family member or by an economic interest (advertising, sales).

The normal and expected inexperience of first-time parents, according to Marinone, serves for sisters or friends who have been mothers to give their opinion.

“But the advice of someone in the environment is sometimes not well received because it is taken as interference,” acknowledges the expert in breastfeeding with a postgraduate degree from the Blanquerna University of the Faculty of Health Sciences, in Barcelona.

“However, when a professional tells us how to proceed, we seem to be more willing to listen.”

More information

With the arrival of children, married life is no longer what it was.

Being realistic is essential to be able to advise and to allow yourself to be advised.

"The future mother has to have objective and verified information that will allow her to make her own decisions that will affect the characteristics of those products that she will need, such as parenting methods, routines, development, sleep, breastfeeding and feeding, etc."

Also, take space into account;

tastes and interests, the durability of use of the products, who and when they will be used, are questions that must be asked in order to then offer the best solutions.

“The key to my advice is personalization, because a person with a 60-square-meter apartment does not have the same needs as someone in a 300-square-meter house.

And he gives another example.

“There are women who cannot leave aside certain things about their job and they telework.

It will probably be very good for that mother to know the baby carrier options for the first months because she will be able to keep her baby

close

and with her hands free to do whatever she needs.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Belén Marinone |

BabyPlanner (@tubabyplanner)

Marinone also explains that there are a lot of typical purchases that new parents later regret: “A bathtub for the baby that takes up the entire bathroom;

a cuckoo that will use very little, to say nothing;

bottle sterilizer when they are breastfeeding beyond six months…”.

How to avoid this?

The expert recognizes that it is impossible to give a list that is suitable for everyone.

For her, the ideal is to make a list that manages to combine and analyze all the situations and that adapts to the specific needs of each mother and father.

In any case, she does dare to list the products that, according to her professional experience, first-timers regret the most for not doing a prior analysis and not taking into account personal circumstances or parenting methods.

Specific safety controls for a healthy baby: such as those that alert heart rate, temperature, blood oxygen.

“These can cause the opposite effect and generate distressing and stressful over-alertness in parents.”

It is not necessary to have five thermometers at home, one good one is enough: “Therefore, it is not necessary for the bathtub to have a thermometer, for the baby monitor to have a thermometer, etc.

These extras in the products can make the original much more expensive with a solution that is not really needed.”

A closed playground when there is no specific need: “It is much more beneficial to delimit a safe area on the ground that allows free movement for their neuronal and motor development.”

Electric hammock: "It is a product that can help us a lot on a daily basis, but if we want to think about the good development of the baby, the ideal is the floor, so with a more basic hammock we will be more than fine."

Changing table for the room with bathtub or bathroom bathtub with changing table: unless conditions demand it, it will always be more practical and easier to bathe the baby in the bathroom at home and change him in his room where his clothes and all the changing items are .

“Every family is different and, of course, there are many types of finances, but for the vast majority I always advise that, in order not to waste but perfectly satisfy needs, they look for options that can cover several things,” he explains.

“Like, for example, a stroller with a soft carrycot that is also a light seat (this way you would save on buying a carrycot and a light seat when you grow up),” he continues, “or the child restraint system for the car (group 0 +1) that covers from birth to approximately four years (avoiding the purchase of group 0).”

The emotional part of the arrival of a baby

The baby planner Belén Marinone recognizes that the doubts of future parents are very consistent with the times of pregnancy.

“The first few months, doubts mostly appear like where do I start?

or what do I need for my baby?, questions more related to material things.”

As the months of pregnancy pass, according to the expert, doubts about breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and sleep are recurrent: “Issues necessary to cover the role of mother.”

At the end of pregnancy, doubts focus on the birth process and the care of the first days.

For Marinone it is notable, and she would like to emphasize this, that from her experience and, according to several surveys carried out, what new parents do not usually ask is about the postpartum and the emotional change that being a mother means: “And this must be “doing it because it is fundamental in any motherhood and fatherhood process.”

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