We were tipped off on a baby fair at Takashimaya (thank you, I!) and made our way there yesterday with our excel list of eighty or so to-buys. The fair was at the B2 floor open area with a decent crowd. We weren’t sure where to start but decided pretty quickly that the stroller variety was not quite satisfactory. More importantly, we were still a few months away from delivery and didn’t have to rush into buying the big-ticket items just yet.

Still, we made a reasonable dent in our list at the Pigeon booth where we spent slightly over $300 on just baby wipes, nursing pads and a bottle steaming sterilizer pack. According to the recommendations on the list, Pigeon wipes and nursing pads are best value for money.

Apparently, babies that are breastfed tend to poop five to eight times a day (they poop less on a formula diet) so even if you use two baby wipes per poop clean-up, you’re going to need at least 300 wipes per month. That’s about four to five packs of Pigeon baby wipes.

As for nursing pads to help soak up the drippings after each milk pumping session, assuming a minimum of four pads per day (that’s two milk pumping sessions), you’ll need at least 120 pads per month. That’s almost two packs of 72/pk Pigeon nursing pads.

Deciding on which bottle sterilizer system to buy took a longer time although Avent and Pigeon was at the top of our list. Here are some comparisons I found online:

1. Manufacturer Origin – Avent is made in England and generally pricier. Pigeon is a Japanese brand made in China.
2. Wash Cycle – Pigeon takes about 6 minutes with 120ml of water and keeps contents sterile for up to 6 hours. Avent takes about 8 minutes with 90ml of water and keeps contents sterile for up to 3 hours.
3. Size – Pigeon (with the 120ml water capacity) is slightly larger and can take bottles of other brands. Avent can only take their bottles.
4. Cleaning – Pigeon has no enclosed parts so you can see easily whenever descaling with lemon juice or vinegar water is needed. Avent requires you to buy their citric acid sachet and it is impossible to see when descaling is needed.

We decided on Pigeon because the sterilizer is heavily used only in the first 6-12 months so we did not want to spend a lot on a unit. Also, the overall Pigeon pack offered better value than Avent with five BPA-free milk bottles, a baby food warmer, bottle/nipple brush, cap cleaner, liquid cleanser, & one pk of baby wipes for $199. I don’t quite remember what was in the Avent pack but it had a random bottle of baby shampoo that I taught was an indicator of something low value and irrelevant that they threw in just to make it seem like a good deal.

Oh, and all the other stuff in the photo you see (except for the two Playtex Drop-In Storage Kit) are the freebies that came with buying a certain value at the Pigeon booth during this fair. Gotta love the freebies!