Are there other nursery furniture or baby gear items that people should avoid borrowing or buying secondhand?
We recommend against using a secondhand baby car seat. Car seats quickly become obsolete, so a secondhand seat is likely to have outdated safety features. Also, if you get a car seat secondhand, you don’t know if it’s been in an accident, which can compromise its integrity. Toys are another item you should be careful about buying secondhand. There are a lot of toy recalls, so you need to do your research. Finally, we don’t recommend that you use a secondhand crib mattress. A used mattress can harbor bacteria from baby pee, spit-up, and so on. And you don’t know how the used mattress was stored, which could also contribute to bacteria, mold, and other issues.
