1st time dad at The Baby Show

The Baby Photographer

Sympathy Pains

Published on Friday, 28 February 2014 13:00

Last Updated on 28 February 2014

Michael Shilling

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Last weekend I attended The Baby Show at London’s Excel Exhibition centre. If you’ve been following my Sympathy Pains articles you’ll know that my wife and I are expecting our first child this summer so my reasons for attending the show weren’t all work related.

Obviously I had my London Mums press hat on and my Baby Photographer sunglasses but I was wrapped firmly in a cape of first-time-dadness.

The plan for the weekend was to find and discover cool things I’d not come across before and to buy a buggy.

If you’ve read Buggy shopping in Harrods you’ll understand my worries about this later goal.

The truth is the buggy bit was easy, my wife had pretty much decided which one she wanted (a SilverCross Wayfayer) so all we needed to do was get a good deal.

 

 

The hard part was choosing the right type of baby bottle. Yes we were after a deal but at the same time the pair of us didn’t have a clue what we were looking for.

In the end we invested in the Mam system and although I have yet it test it on baby’s we pass in the street I’m sure we’ll get on splendidly.

 

 

My wife had a strange request for the weekend to…find some wet wipes that she likes the smell of. This brought us to Water Wipes and their very cool water feature stand. Not sure about the nurse-esque uniforms but at least one of them was a midwife.

 

 

On Friday when I entered the press room two things were happening, Booby Norris from TOWIE was trying on a sympathy belly for some reason and all the mums were raving about Baby’Clips. I didn’t manage to acquire a sample for myself but I did give one a go with some very sweet mushed up apple substance. It’s a clever little device and if you’ve started using those food pouch thing you should take a look at them.

 

 

I’m a big fan of Dragons Den and it’s not unusual that you come across plenty of companies that faced the panel of entrepreneurs. Not many walk away from a £100,000 offer and I’m usually shouting at the TV “pull his arm off!” Cuddydry did just that and they seem pretty happy about it.

 

 

Whilst we’re on the subject of absorbent clothing I should also mention Skibz. Out of all the baby bips on show these were my favourite although sadly only for children. They are also distributers of

Animal Hoppers which in my mind are the greatest children’s toy innovation since the stick and hoop.

 

 

Early on Friday morning Mr Mole Blankets caught my attention, they’re are great little present for someone with a newborn baby or just as something to buy for yourself.

 

 

We didn’t know the sex of our baby last weekend so we weren’t paying too much attention to many of the clothing lines. We did however have a little chat with the lovely people at Lucy and Sam Unique Baby Clothes. My wife’s exact words “I can’t wait to find out the sex of our baby so I can go and spend a shed load of money in that shop.”

 

 

Stand of the weekend has to be the Cosatto Ooba showcase. A rather subtle design for Cosatto but the stand was fantastic.

 

 

Last but not least was my favourite find of the weekend and that was Baby Roll Top Baths. The super kitsch addition for the baby that has everything.

 

 

Well those were my highlights from show but there’s plenty more I could have mentioned. If you made any great finds then let us know in the comments or send me a tweet @memorygate.

 

If you’re looking for more great baby businesses then check out #babyhour on Twitter on Sundays between 8pm and 9pm.

 

Michael Shilling is a baby and family portrait photographer at Memory Gate Photography he is due to become a father for the first time on 11th July 2014