I am trying to decide whether to buy a change table (with combined bath) or a chest of drawers with a change mat on top.
While watching the Lifestyle channel on Foxtel, they featured baby furniture, and mentioned that change tables are used for about 3 years. That really surprised me. Having never had a baby before, I thought a change table would become too small after a period of time.
How long have you used your change table/mat for? And is it easier to change a toddler on the floor when s/he gets bigger and squirms a lot?
with my first 2 children i had a change table with a bath underneath - absolutely hopeless - try bathing a baby then getting them out of the bath and trying to flip the lid of the change table down to put them on to dry - so i gave up the bath and they went straight in the big bath and as it was a small bathroom i just bought a change mat from kmart and used it on the floor it was good for the kiddies as they were safe - couldn't roll off to far but can be a bit of a pain for your back.
with lani i borrowed a wooden change table with i use still (she is only 6 1/2 mths old) it is great but i imagine when she is squirming about rolling over during nappy changes etc it will be time for the mat on the floor for us. my sil uses a change table still for her 2 yr old and she looks big on it but it saves on sil's back.
The longest I ever used a change table for was until 15 months and that was with my youngest, who wasnt as active as the older two. The older two I stopped younger and swapped to changes on the floor. Its hard to keep a wriggly baby still on them! Goodluck.
HMMM! Change table. I have one but it gets used more as a clothes holder than to change nappies. I don't have a chest of drawers for Jessica so everything sits on top. Although that's a poor excuse cos the same thing happened with jemma and I had a chest of drawers with her.LOL
I think they are good to have, ones with drawers are good for storage space. Maybe I should use mine more often and my back wouldn't be sore all the time. My resolution is to use it after I get the drawers.
If I were buying one, I'd go for a chest of drawers with a change mat on top (I assume you mean the shaped foam mats) and I'd add on a raised lip (beading) around the top of the chest to stop things sliding off it when the baby wriggles!
If you are handy, it might be worth adding a raised edge of a few inches to encourage the baby to stay on top of the chest once he/she starts moving.
I was given a change table (MIL's old one) and it was handy being able to wheel it around from room to room, but I would have had more storage space with a chest of drawers.
I just use a mat on the floor, from a safety p.o.v. its great because he can't fall off it.
I used a baby bath for a tiny while but its such a hassle filling and emptying it that I started using the big bath asap.
I used the changetable from birth to when she got toilet trained. Its now used as a bookshelf, display thingy LOL! All Paris' nursery furniture turns into other stuff. her changetable turns into a stand for either a tv or whatever. Her cot into a bed and a sofa. I do like the idea of chancetables with drawers the only thing is I found them hard to change side on with. I prefer to change at the end of the table. I guess you could if you had the space.
I love my change table cause it matches the rest of the nursury stuff, and the room just looks so pretty. Which is completely irrelavent of course given it needs to be functional!
Anyway - I have a Sunbury wooden 3 tier table that matches my cot, but if there was a matching chest of drawers with change table on top, I reckon I would have got that as its far more practical.
You can get straps that go around the top layer of a change table so you can strap the little suckers down when they start to wiggle. I saw some funky ones in the bumpto3 catelogue that arrived from coles baby club this month. They are called Gold Bug Safe Change - they are bright colours and look really neat, and cost around $30. I'm not sure how practical straps are though for changes.
In retrospect - I think you are better listening to those that have had babies..... as opposed to me who just hibernates them for longer than they are supposed to be there! ](*,)
Fi
Just a note FI you aren't hibernating it longer than its supposed to be there, pg is 38- 42 weeks long, you just have a different cycle to some!!!!!
Anyway on the subject of changetables I had one the bath under it, and as someone else said its impossible, I ended up using the big bath, or the sink, the changetable is great, but I only use it til they can roll over, and then I use the bed or the floor ( depending on my back!!)
when I was looking at change tables I thought the same of the tables that flip to have the bath underneith, but then I saw one where the bath slides out from underneith and you can have them side by side, seems alot more pactical
Fi - hope bub is not tooo stuborn, no use in over baking lol
We still use ours, but not all the time. Matilda is sometimes too active and we are basically changing her as she's rolling around, and then we move to a towel on the ground quickly LOL. But its been a life saver for me with a bad back...
I had one with bath underneath, but only ever used change table in first few days then it became a stacking table... This time I am not bothering as they do take up room & really I changed DD on floor or bed or couch or wherever!
I have a chest of drawers with the mat on top and it is a great height. Although as DS is 7 weeks old, don't know how long I'll be using it for. Depends on how much he moves around later on down the track. But it is a piece of furniture he'll always have.
Wonder why they sell the change tables with the bath underneath - seems that noone here likes them? Doesn't make sense?
I never had a change table with my kids and won't be bothering this time either. My kids were crawling by 6 months so I'd have been too worried about them falling off. Plus they were both toilet trained by the age of two anyway. (Bragging here!)
I found a change mat on the bed/floor/couch to be practical and portable, however, if you have a bad back probably not the best option.
We have a set of drawers & a change pad on top. The drawers we bought though have an attachment which is like a lip sort of thing to stop the baby rolling off when they are bigger. So it is technically a change table, but converts to drawers afterwards.
Alexzander is only 3 weeks old, so I have no idea how long I'll use it.
We have a change table with a bath underneath it, and I agree that it's difficult to use in terms of getting the baby out and then flipping the top back! We didn't use the bath for very long anyway as Jacob just grew and grew so rapidly that he was too big for it anyway and went into the big bath.
The change table part has straps on it so that he can't fall off it, but I also noticed that it says only to use them until babies are 12 months old.
with joshua I only ever used the mat on the floor, I ued it untill he could walk at 9 mths coz he never wanted to lie down anymore after that..
we have been given a change table with a bath underneath and then a basket type thing under that for nappies etc, so we'll be usign that, not even sure if we'll use the bath as with joshua i used the normal bath and we have one of those cloth seats they can lie back on for the big bath too..
How long do you use change tables for?
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