Used baby gear

When it comes to baby products, sometimes I wonder if recommendations about buying new isn't based solely on concern for safety, but with increasing company profits. First it was only car seats that experts were telling parents had to be purchased new, then when the law went into effect banning the manufacture of drop-side crib, suddenly all second-hand cribs, even if they hadn't been recalled and met current safety specifications, were a no-no.  I've even seen some sources warning parents that used crib mattresses are a SIDS risk and others saying that a car seat shouldn't be reused for a younger sibling because new safety features are being added all the time.  I obviously support strict standards of safety for products used for or by children, but what frustrates me is the blanket ban of classes of used products without either an explanation of why a second-hand product is unsafe or education about how to evaluate whether a product could be safely reused.  Sure it's easier to just say, don't reuse such and such, and buy new instead to guarantee safety.  (But given all the recalls, buying new simply for safety's sake can be a false sense of security.)  But parents are going to continue to seek hand-me-downs and honestly, buying new for many parents is not an option. 

Like many expecting parents, Chris and I were overwhelmed with everything we needed to prepare to welcome home a new baby and we bought as much second-hand as we could to save money.  I thought I was being thrifty when I bought a barely-used double-electric Medela brand Pump in Style Advanced breast pump from an acquaintance.  After I delivered Oliver, a nurse offered to show me how to use the pump, but was horrified when she found out it was used.  She explained that the way my pump was designed, there was the potential for milk to pass through the pumping mechanism, meaning that if my friend had a disease, it could be passed on to my baby.  I was frustrated that Medela is forcing every women who wants or needs to pump into buying an expensive new pump just because it designed a pump in such a way that it could potentially cause a transfer of disease, even though the company makes hospital-grade pumps whose design isn't a health risk for the pumps' multiple users.  I wasn't about to demand a medical history from the woman I bought the pump from, and Chris and I decided it wasn't worth the risk, so we threw it out, despite the voices lingering in my head of my mom and ueber-frugal maternal grandmother exclaiming, "That was a perfectly good pump!"

Turns out I didn't need that expensive pump.  Like so many other baby products I bought because everyone else said I needed them, I didn't evaluate the need for a double-electric pump based on my particular circumstances.  I was a stay-at-home mom who spent little time away from my baby and I didn't have time to pump anyway. 

But going back to work after Soren's birth made me look into breast pumps again.  I almost considered not pumping at all, given how unappealing it seemed to me, and then the prices of new pumps were stressing me out given all the other expenses I was incurring to get ready to go back to work.  Breastfeeding is touted as being cost-free, but that's only if you breastfeed on demand and never leave your baby, which really, how many can logistically pull that off, or want to do that?  So then you have the cost of bottles, the pump and a myriad other accessories associated with storing milk or cleaning bottles and pump parts.  But I had a supportive office environment and I didn't want to jeopardize my milk supply for breastfeeding outside of work, so I decided I'd give pumping a go.

When a friend offered to sell me her also barely-used Pump in Style Advanced pump during search number two, I told her I'd been down that road before.  Even though she assured me that her pump had not been "contaminated," and she's someone I trust greatly, I realized I wasn't going to consider buying even her pump if I didn't finally examine one and see for myself what the big worry was concerning milk getting into the pumping mechanism.  I happened to stop by another friend's house the next day, and I asked to look at her pump and have her explain to me how it worked.  I'd always assumed the milk passes through the two, long thin tubes that connect the breast shields and bottles to the electric pump, so as soon as that nurse in the hospital after Oliver's birth said that the pumping mechanism couldn't be sterilized, I never questioned the actual potential for contamination..  But once I saw that only air passes through the tubes and the expressed milk drips straight into the bottle and that it would take a major malfunction for milk to backup through those looooong tubes to reach the pumping mechanism, I completely trusted buying my friend's pump off her. 

And then I got really mad that so many women are being scared off from buying affordable, but used, equipment.  As a parent-to-be and then a new parent, I had no idea what to look for half the time.  I couldn't tell a useful piece of baby gear from a worthless, albeit, still safe, piece.  I trusted something just because it was new, even though I had no idea how to eveluate if the product would prove to be safe, (or eventually be recalled) and avoided everything I heard from whatever source, regardless of credibility, could be unsafe.  After being entrenched in the world of baby gear for a few years now, I feel like I have a better handle on evaluating used items.  There are many things I will buy off Craig's List or from consignment sales, and there are a couple of things I'll only buy from trusted friends like car seats and breast pumps.

Even if I threw one perfectly good pump away, I'm happy I didn't end up buying a brand-new one like I'd thought I would have to.  My friend has some extra cash for something she'll never use again and I'm keeping one piece of baby gear out of the landfill.