I’m sat here on the train, on my way home
from not only my first time in Birmingham, but my first Baby Show. Before going, I really had no idea what to
expect. I’d decided to leave Squidge at
home with his daddy as I didn’t fancy being a single mummy for the day, and I
didn’t think daddy would want to come along too J Plus, it gave them some nice baby/daddy time
which they don’t often get.
What I didn’t expect was to feel really
quite lonely there. Don’t get me wrong,
the show was fab with loads to see (more on that in a bit), but almost everyone
there was either pregnant, or had their baby with them either in a pushchair or
sling. And there I was, with my baby and
hubby at home, 2 hours away. This is why
I’m now heading home, 2 hrs earlier than planned – I’d covered the show quicker
than expected and didn’t want to sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting for my
train.
So – the show itself! There were SO many
different brands there, ones I wanted to see, ones I hadn’t heard of and of
course, big names like Maxi Cosi, Mothercare, Stokke etc. While wandering around, I actually avoided a
lot of the bigger brands, and sought out some of the smaller ones I hadn’t
heard of.
One great product I found was the Fill n Squeeze. I very nearly bought one, but
without anyone to help carry stuff, and having my laptop in my backpack, I
didn’t want to carry anything unnecessary.
What I loved about this (I still might buy it!) is that you make up a
wholesome meal as usual, put it in the little tub with the plunger, and squeeze
it straight into an empty pouch! That
way you don’t have to faff about with Tupperware etc. They also have an attachment where you fit a
spoon straight to the pouch and the food squeezes straight onto the spoon. Each pouch is reusable and washable and can
be reused up to about 50 times.
Another interesting brand was called Zippy,
they made bibs. But not just any bibs –
they were the dribble bib style, which you can also use if bottle feeding, but
they’re ultra absorbant, and even when soaking wet on top, the underneath
remains dry. Again, I was very close to
buying some of these, but Squidge has SO many bibs, I didn’t feel I needed to
pick up any more.
I didn’t find much in the way of freebies,
MAM and another brand were there giving out free baby bottles (but level 1
teets, no good for us). I must admit, I
did expect to see a massive Tommee Tippee stand, and unless I missed them
completely I don’t think they had any stand other than one to promote milk
drinking (not really featuring any of their products). Cow & Gate were also there giving away
little pouches of puree’d broccoli – at Squidge’s stage, we’d add this to other
food he’s having, and not give it alone as he’s all about flavour!
One other stand that was great to see,
albeit a very basic stand, was Water Wipes.
I’ve seen loads of people talking about these, and since discovering the
Huggies ‘Pure’ wipes we’ve been using contain Phenoxyethanol (a faux paraben)
I’ve been on the lookout for new wipes free from such preservatives. While there, I bought a single pack of their
wipes, and a pack of their makeup remover wipes to try (didn’t even know they
did these!?). If they’re good (the water
wipes) I may well buy a box on Amazon – if I had hubby and baby with pram with
me, I’d have bought a box J
Anyway, I think I’ve rambled on about The Baby
Show enough now – a big thank you to the lovely people over at Aldi Mamia for
sponsoring me to go – they also had a great stand with a big Mamia tree of
nappies and products to be won :)
