Baby Items You Don't Need: The Wipes Warmer

There are many different baby items on the market today. Manufacturers all try to make you think you need their specific item for your precious child. If you bought every one of these "must have" items, you would end up with a house full of stuff that you might never even use. Don't be sucked in by the marketing. There are many items that you and your child don't really need.

One item that I would not recommend buying is a baby wipes warmer. Several different companies make them, which of course makes it appear that they are really popular, and might really be a must have item. In reality though, they aren't really something you need at all.

The purpose of a wipes warmer is to make diaper changes more comfortable. The producers make you think that a baby needs a warm wipe to be comfortable during a diaper change, especially during the night. Really most babies don't mind a cool wipe if that is what they are used to. The babies that have the problem with the cold wipes are the ones that are used to warm ones from a wipes warmer. This means that if you use a wipes warmer at home, your child might not like it when you have to change him away from home since the wipe will be cold. If you never start using the warmer, your baby won't have to adjust to something new when you can't use it.

Another problem with a wipes warmer is the cord. The fact that a wipes warmer has to be plugged in means you might have to rearrange your nursery to put the changing table by an outlet. You might end up having to arrange the nursery in a way that you don't like. Even if you like the arrangement, you still have that extra cord hanging down. Once baby becomes mobile, cords seem to be very tempting. A crawling baby could be hurt if a heavy wipes warmer were to fall on his little head.

You also need to consider how a wipes warmer works. It works simply by heating up your baby wipes. In theory this may sound nice, but what actually happens is the warmer ends up drying out a lot of the wipes because of the heat. The heat can even cause the edges of the wipes to turn brown. A dry wipe isn't nearly as effective as a wet wipe. If dry wipes were effective, everyone would use them instead and you still wouldn't need a wipes warmer.

One last bad thing about the wipes warmer is the germs. Warm, moist environments are great breeding grounds for germs. They are a lot more likely to grow abundantly there than they would in a cool, damp environment. Do you really want to expose your baby to that unnecessarily?

The choice of whether or not to buy a wipes warmer is of course totally yours. Just compare all the reasons you want to get one, to the list of reasons that I didn't get one. Then decide on your own.