PARENTS waste hundreds of pounds on baby products they never use. Birmingham Mail reporter and mum to-be Emma Deadman investigates what's worth buying and what's not when it comes to kitting out your bundles of joy.

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WHEN I discovered I was to become a first-time mum, words couldn’t describe my elation.

All sense of rationality went out of the window when I started thinking about shopping for our bundle of joy.

The line between items that were a necessity quickly became blurred with the desire to have it all as I discovered the plethora of baby paraphernalia on the market.

I convinced myself that unless I bought every “essential” gadget known to man – from air purifiers to a video link for the nursery – our baby wouldn’t prosper.

And it seems I’m not the only one.

A recent survey by parenting club Bounty found UK mums-to-be waste £158 million a year on baby products they never use.

Bounty spokeswoman Sally Hall says: “It’s hard to know what to buy for a baby if you haven’t had one before. When it comes down to it, all babies need is to have their basic needs met – to eat, be kept clean and warm, and to be loved – something parents should keep in mind if they’re watching their spending.”

And there is help out their for parents-to-be who are determined, like me, to rein in their spending.

Consumer watchdog magazine Which? polled parents to come up with a list of top-ten must-haves new parents could buy, excluding core items such as pushchairs and cots.

Among the items parents found most useful were stairgates, baby monitors and changing mats.

The survey also reveals the ten products parents found the least useful – from baby reins to night lights.

There’s also a wealth of websites and organisations set up specifically to help parents and mums-to-be to save cash.

One of those is price comparison website www.mumsmall.com, which has also carried out a survey revealing that the average cost of starting a family is now £10,500 – a staggering £3,500 more than in 2003.

Gemma Campbell, the site’s data analyst, said parents could save heaps of cash by shopping around to find the best deal.

And, once the baby has arrived, other top tips she recommended was to cut the cost of sterilisers, bottles and formula by breastfeeding, using cloth nappies rather than disposables and to make your own baby food from blended fruit and vegetables, instead of buying costly pre-made products in tins and jars.