When it came to shopping for Elle’s arrival, we were very careful not to go mad and buy all the pointless things, but it’s REALLY HARD not too – especially when every shop and blog offers you an easy to tick-off checklist of stuff you can’t get through the first six months without (and trust me, with a lot of it, you most definitely can)…

We’ve shared our own version of newborn baby essentials and I know I’m probably biased, but it’s actually quite a sensible list of things you will find truly useful. However today is all about the ridiculous things we purchased that weren’t remotely helpful and that still sit in our bathroom cabinets or chest of drawers gathering dust.

For me there’s two…

Scratch Mits – You’ll find them on every single newborn essentials list. They DO NOT stay on. Newborn babygrows have integrated scratch mits that you can fold down anyway. Don’t bother buying them – however cute they might look.

The Snot Sucker – For those lucky enough not to have encountered this vile contraption, it’s like one of those little pipette things you used in Science class at school to suck bugs into a little chamber. Except now you get to do it with snot. Hooray! Let’s just say I attempted this once. It was gross, totally ineffective and I never did it again.

So, did you purchase anything pre baby that you didn’t use at all once your bundle of joy had arrived? Any weird surprises for things you ended up using loads that you never thought you’d need? It can be completely overwhelming shopping for a newborn baby, so let’s help the RMF readers who are about to have their first…do join the chat in the comments box below the post!

Image by Carrie Lavers Photography