Skip to content

Cart

Your cart is empty

Article: The Top 5 Worst Baby Shower Gifts

Baby Gifts

The Top 5 Worst Baby Shower Gifts

worstgift

I've been trying to steer you toward awesome choices for baby shower presents for expecting friends (aside from Rockabye Baby! CDs) for a very good reason— I've been on the other side of the coin. Here are five of the absolute worst things that you can get expecting parents.
  1. Age 0-3 Month Onesies. Yes, these are the smallest size clothes available for kids. No, your kid will never wear them. Ever. Why? Because they're too damned small. Doting relatives will purchase them because they are just so cute and tiny, and they will sit, gathering dust, in the back of your closet until you throw them away.
  2. Baby High Heels. Okay, this is just demented. These are soft-bottomed baby shoes with little fake plush stiletto heels stuck on the back. How many bad messages do these things broadcast? And why would you buy something that would make it even harder for a baby to stand up?
  3. Pee-Pee Teepees. Yes, baby boys make urine, and yes, it sprays all over Creation. But this gag gift, a small cone that rests atop the willy when you're changing the diaper to catch the splash before it hits your face, actually does more harm than good - instead of arcing in a spray that you can catch with a diaper (which you should have handy), it ricochets off of the nosecone and drenches everything in its vicinity. Poor trade-off.
  4. Baby Wipe Warmer. Seriously, people? You can just hold them in between your hands and warm them up in a minute or so. Instead, some idiots buy (or gift) a device that uses electricity to heat your wipes so they won't shock a tender bum. Unsurprisingly, many of them were recalled for safety reasons.
  5. Soft Toys. Every little one needs a cuddle buddy, but to be quite frank, what they pick is going to be absolutely inscrutable to even the most plugged-in parent. By filling a young baby's room with stuffed animals and other soft toys, you just clutter up your living space with stuff that they probably won't form any kind of emotional bond with. And without that bond, they're just funny-smelling, ungainly pillows.

18 comments

I doth protest! In reference to number one, I have a three week old baby that is wearing the 0-3 onsies right now. They fit perfectly! In reference to number 4, I can’t imagine too many things as bad for a newborn that has been in mom’s warm uterus for 9 months than an ice cold wipe at 3am. I will agree with number 2 though. My mother in-law bought a pair of the soft high heels for our newborn and I think it is ridiculous and stupid!

Adam

I completely agree except with the onesies, every baby is different when it come to clothes. My 7lb 8oz baby was wearing premie sized stuff his whole first month, newborn sized stuff till he was 4 months old and 0-3 month sized stuff till he was 6 months old. Now at 1 year old he can still wear his 6 month stuff or up to 18 month sizes. That said, I think clothes in general are a bad gift, gift cards to clothing stores are much safer!

Jessica Jones

Good job making the effort to get the word out on useless gifts. As a mother of two I agree almost completely. We did in fact use 0-3 onsies and other outfits quite a bit…as for everything else you are exactly right!

Donna

Ok, I would agree with everything you have on here except for the 0-3 month onesies. Now, if it said newborn onesies, I would have agreed with everything. The 0-3 month onesies are still being used by my 11.5 lb baby girl but the newborn were only used a couple of weeks, along with newborn diapers. You might as well use the size 1! Anyway, great list and keep them coming!

Rebcca

You speak the truth!

December

A lot of response in re: the wee onesies. I have to say, not one parent we know (and we know a LOT of parents) used them, but I guess you’re out there.

K. Thor Jensen

heated baby wipe warmer.. thats just dumb.. hell 90% of the stuff people are convinced they need * for a baby, they really dont. I feel bad for the parents that insist on carrying everything they own over to Gramma’s house for a half hour visit, convinced their kid might need it. give them a peice of paper from an old newspaper and they can be happy for hours. My son just turned 1 year on the 10th, and we didnt get hardly any of the so-called *must haves. and he it a super happy kid who has been walking and talking for a few months now.Heck, I dont even own a real diaper bag. I found my old whinne the pooh back pack in the attic, and washed it :D Oh… and if your little hiney was wrapped up in a thick layer of cotton batting then had 2 layers of clothes on it..and was sometimes wet… wouldnt a nice cool cleansing cloth feel pretty nice?

Lydia

I don’t agree with number one. My 7lb 6oz baby had to be in preemie stuff the first month or so of her life… all the 0-3 month onesies were WAY Too big.

Michelle

I really do agree with you. I’d also recommend adding “Anything the couple has asked you NOT to get”. It sounds silly to remind people of that, but here’s my story:

Sad to say when we were expecting our first, a friend of ours had the whole nursery ready (they had been trying for a while so they searched everywhere for things on sale), including clothes for the first year, and not only did she miscarry she had to have a hysterectomy as well. So she had a lot of clothes just sitting around and she gave them to us. In addition to things we had already got on sale or came with a few maternity outfits, we were set on clothes but needed things like a diaper pail, baby brush and comb, etc., and we explained to our friends and family that we do not need any clothes (and we did have a registry set up and we let people know how to find it). What did we get at the shower? A ton of clothes. And a rocking chair from my mother-in-law who watched us put together a rocking chair months before the shower. Keep in mind I was giving birth the next week one way or another, so having to run around getting things exchanged in hopes we are given atleast credit to get the practical things we NEEDED (the Cracker Barrel rocker was a massive pain to haul around in winter in our tiny Accord), then as people asked about their gifts having to either lie or explain why we took it back wasn’t fun either. (We were barely making ends meet due to all the bills and medication that can come with a high-risk pregnancy, so in order to be sure we were prepared for our child, the money to get necessary things had to come from somewhere.) Guess who got hospitalized just days after the shower stressed from trying to get everything together (high blood pressure just added to the complications of my pregnancy)?

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but if you are going to give a gift, make sure it is something they need, and if you’re not sure, a gift card is great – it doesn’t clutter and they don’t have to hunt you down for a receipt and stand in line at 8.5 months pregnant waiting for customer service to make a return.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Mama C

[…] Because there is an infinite number of Websites, there is, of course, the “Top 5 Worst Baby Shower Gifts.” […]

I Own All of These Things | DADWAGON

I had a baby wipe warmer and it scared me! It used to dry out and turn the wipes on the bottom brown, as if they were cooking them! LOL It broke after a few months and I started using COLD wipes on his bottom and he would SCREAM for every diaper change. I went through TONS of onesies when my baby was born. I didn’t get enough when I had my baby shower. =[
baby high heels? NO WAY! As for the soft toys, my baby didn’t have ANY toys! My husband and I had to spend a fortune on a ton of baby toys to stimulate him b/c no one bought us any. As for tee-tee pee pees go, I got pee’d on at least 5 times a day. I wish someone would have bought me that too! hahaha

Jaclyn

[…] The Top 5 Worst Baby Shower Gifts […]

Baby Shower Gag Gifts

Yup, babies, like bears, come in all shapes and sizes.

Mama C, we agree! The last thing new parents need is a bunch of unasked for stuff, no matter how great the intention. Gift cards always work, though checking the registry is better. That way you know your gift will go to good use and not just be an under-the-bed dust-bunny buddy or regifted back to you when you are expecting!

Does anyone have any favorite baby shower gifts they received?

P.S. Lydia, you are so right and you totally cracked us up!

Rockabye Baby!

I don’t get it about the 0-3 onesies… My daughter wore them until she was like 3-4 months lol. We got a lot of use out of them. I do think though it’s a bad idea in general to give clothes in nb or 0-3 because new parents end up with sooo many. I think most people would rather have a big box of diapers than yet ANOTHER tiny outfit. :)

StormsMomma

I love number one unlike all the others. However, in my case, I bought all the newborn clothes for my daughter while my mother sat by warning me not to because 1. I would get a ton at the shower and 2. she would outgrow them immediately.

So true, so true. My daughter was wearing 2t by 9 months (massive girl, born 1 week premature but 8lbs 2oz) lol great post

lexi

Thanks for making us laugh today, dd! That really just might be the worst/funniest baby shower gift ever.

Rockabye Baby!

my girl loved her wipe warmer, but she was born in the winter so those first few months of diaper changes were some seriously cold wipes, which made her scream bloody murder. i would warm a wipe in my hand, but those are always pretty cold, too. we also used those 0-3 mo. onesies, until just about 9 months. But the worst baby shower gift I received was from well meaning grandma, who gifted sparklers. I’m going to assume we were supposed to light them and wave them around away from the baby…

dd

Thanks..very nice tips..Good info..Keep it up to date..Bookmarks ur site now.

Renato Maratre

Leave a comment

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

All comments are moderated before being published.

Read more

Austin City Limits

Summer Jams: Music Festivals for Parents & Kids

Summertime means outdoor music---Here are four of my favorite festivals to go to with your young one.

Read more
Cool Blogs & Sites

Totlol.com, Hulu for the Diaper Set to Close Shop July 1

TotLol.com, Hulu for the diaper set is closing shop July 1. Check it out while you still can!

Read more