Denise & Alan Fields are writers that collected parent reviews of baby related products for Baby Bargains.
Stand Out Nuggets:
This book is a great guide to baby products that lays out the best options for your individual lifestyle and budget, so you can personalize each purchase. I used this book to make decisions on my stroller, car seat, carrier, baby monitor and to get ideas about baby furniture.
There are also "nuggets" of information in this book that I had never known before. For example, did you know that Walkers are so dangerous (not to mention bad for development) that they are actually banned in Canada?! Reading that totally surprised me, but I was happy to find another place to save money!
Another great tip from the book is to join Amazon Mom - it's basically Amazon Prime tailored for moms, and it's been essential for me!! Baby Bargains also has lots of tips of products to avoid, ways to save money, and reminders of things you might not otherwise consider (like baby proofing items) spread throughout the book.
What I Think:
This book is great! I found that researching & buying baby products can be so overwhelming and this book helped give a general picture of what products would work for me. Don't get me wrong, I definitely needed Amazon reviews, too. However, I found going straight to Amazon to be too exhausting in the beginning of my research. It was great to have side by side comparisons of products for items like infant car sets and strollers, and explanations of what companies have done to improve their products since the last Baby Bargains book review.
My only hesitation in giving this book a perfect review is that there isn't much on non-toxic products - not just house cleaning products but things like lotions, soaps & shampoos. For non-toxic research, I generally refer to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database, which rates individual products' toxicity levels. You can easily to Google "EWG Burt's Bees Baby Lotion" and find a direct link, or go straight to their website and search all "baby lotions."
The Takeaway:
I would definitely recommend this book - even if you have a lot of pregnant or mom friends who are dying to give you advice on the products they used, because your lifestyle and budget may be different from theirs. I was lucky to be able to borrow my sister-in-law's copy of Baby Bargains from 2011 (the newest is 2013), but the book is fairly inexpensive and may save you thousands in the long run. I can't imagine searching for baby products without this book, but I also combined my product research with Amazon reviews and ratings from EWG.
Did you find Baby Bargains helpful? Would you recommend it to a newly pregnant friend? What would you change or add to this book?
I hope you're enjoying my parenting Book Review series! Please comment and let me know what you think! I love hearing from you! :)
xo kristen genevieve
Sounds like a great book…I wish I had known about it at the beginning of my pregnancy! :) Definitely have to look into amazon moms, I heard good things about it too!
ReplyDeleteI've bought 85% of my baby products online, and Amazon Mom is especially great because you can subscribe and receive 5-20% discounts on things like diapers, wipes, lotions...whatever! When I signed up, I got free 2-day shipping for 3 months before having to purchase Amazon Prime. It's awesome!
DeleteBaby Bargains may still be worth a look if you are still in the process of purchasing. I'm also curious to read Baby 411 & Toddler 411 by the same authors, which focus on baby advice. Let me know if you end up reading any of these!
I love, love, love this book. This book is not overwhelming and it really helped me narrow down the entire registry search. I just like the format as it was easily digestable. It was also helpful with safety and what to save on. I had never heard of Amazon moms….how different is it from Amazon prime since we already have that? Anyways, I appreciate this book series so much. It's really helped me navigate these books I haven't had a chance to read.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! Baby Bargains helped cut out the clutter.
DeleteI'm not sure if there is a huge difference between Amazon Mom & Amazon Prime. As I mentioned to Nadine, I signed up for a 3-month trial of Amazon Mom and received all of the Prime benefits (except streaming videos) for free. The website says that Amazon Mom offers "exclusive discounts & deals" for members, so maybe its a more tailored promotional program. The great benefits are the free 2-day shipping and discounts when you subscribe - but you probably already have access to those with Amazon Prime. :)
This book is a great guide to baby products that lays out the best options for your individual lifestyle and budget, so you can personalize each purchase. I used this book to make decisions on my stroller, car seat, carrier, baby monitor and to get ideas about baby furniture.
ReplyDeleteReal wood Crib |
Crib made in USA
I used this book to make decisions on my stroller, car seat, carrier, baby monitor and to get ideas about baby furniture.
ReplyDeleteNursery furniture made in the USA |
Real wood crib