Anyone with older siblings probably discovered early in life the joy of hand-me-downs.

Your pram, car seat, high chair or some other item was broken in by your bigger brothers and sisters. And perhaps with a few years under its belt, the item is now also broken.

The giant US toy chain Toys ‘R’ Us has launched its Great Trade-In event for 2010. Parents will receive a 25% discount on new baby items in exchange for old ones (even ugly kids’ gifts) that may be well past their use-by dates and plain unsuitable for further tours-of-duty with knee-high terrorists (sorry, children).

The point of this child safety initiative is twofold: to clear the country’s basements, attics and spare rooms of unsafe baby items and to highlight the issue of child safety, pointing out that “tried” doesn’t necessarily mean “true”. This is the Great Trade-In’s third year, with over 200,000 items already being returned so far this year. The program runs until 19 September.

Hand in hand with the Great Trade-In comes the company’s Product Safety Vigilance Program which is designed to keep busy parents better informed about product recalls and keep a vigilant eye on all items their youngsters come into regular contact with around the home.

Three cheers for Toys ‘R’ Us for this community-awareness campaign, especially as it’s become  de rigueur to recycle and regift. And plus, for your chance to get rid of some god-awful baby and children’s gifts and save some money on new ones.

You don’t need to have a baby of your own to know that creating the patter of tiny feet around the house (no, not the furry kind) has become a pretty expensive business these days.

Well yes, even little furry feet come with their own financial demands, but that still isn’t a scratch on the costs associated with having a baby. It’s no surprise, then, that expectant mums in the UK are now throwing baby shower parties in record numbers. And it isn’t just for the warm, fuzzy feelings they inspire, either.

The UK gift company Carte Blanche recently polled 3,000 women about all things baby-related, and came up with the surprisingly unsentimental finding that 40% of the respondents admitted the main reason they have a baby shower was for the booty, and we ain’t talking cute little knitted baby booties – nor Beyonce’s type of booty.

Yes, it’s the gifts from friends and family these expectant mums have their eyes on – all those essential baby items such as change tables, bassinets, nappy services, soft toys, etc. Combined, these things can cost a bomb, so the baby shower party is fast becoming a necessary part of the whole process, according to a whopping 67% of expectant mums in the UK.

But the invitees to these parties are also happy to go along with the expectation. After all, everyone loves shopping for babies. It gives us the perfect excuse to tap into our own inner baby. Picture it… you’re in the toy shop with a cuddly giraffe in one hand and a brown bear with a squeaker in its tummy in the other. Be honest. Just who are you really buying for?

In the second part of this two-part post on baby shower gifts, here’s 25 more gift ideas when you don’t know the baby’s gender ahead of time. Some of these items are so reasonably priced, you could pick up a few to make a little gift hamper of your own…

1. If you don’t know whether your friend will be using cloth or disposable nappies, err on the side of caution and give her a wet bag (great for travelling) or swim nappies from Superior Posteriors
2. What mum doesn’t want to be like a movie star, with her tummy snapping back into shape mere seconds(OK, weeks!) after the birth? Help her along with a Bellyco belly wrap
3. Perfect for the handmade brigade, babies will love shaking the organic cotton owl-like “monster” rattle from Made It
4. Let them create a mug, mousepad or more from the tiny hand- and foot-prints of their newborn with BellyArt’s inkless printing system
5. Nudey!Rudey! in New Zealand makes a range of modern cloth nappies in cloth or organic cotton and bamboo velour designed to save families money and reduce their carbon footprint
6. While they’ll need to be a little older to use it, toddlers will love playing with the colourful wooden xylophone from EcoToys
7. Make your mum-to-be feel attractive in hospital with a striking jungle-print hospital gown from Designer Mamas
8. Mummah makes a range of clever packs for mothers-to-be, from Pregnancy through to Delivery and Hospital packs that contain everything a brand-new mum could need
9. If you want to pamper her a little, why not give her a designer gift box packed with goodies for mother and child from Pamper Boxes
10. Give her a voucher for an Inky Feet experience where her child’s footprints can be turned into a framed work of art
11. Lavender is well-known as a restful and calming essential oil. Spray the lavender water from Pure Earth Noosa in your baby’s room to give him or her a restful sleep
12. A Milkooler holder keeps milk cold or warm for longer and it’s easy for babies to hold, too
13. Snuggle Pods from Lila and May make it easy to bundle your baby up in his or her bassinette, cot or pram – my favourite gender-neutral print is Owl Friends Flannel
14. The Chickadee Bathtime Baby Gift Set from DigiGifts features a white hand towel and facewasher with “Baby” embroidered in yellow and a fun yellow duck bath glove, two vegetable baby soaps and a toy rubber ducky
15. Give her an Elm baby sling from Beep Beep Slings (see picture) made for Daddy to easily carry his baby around to give Mum a break
16. Aromababy has a clever Nappy Change Time pack which includes a toiletry bag, padded nappy change mat, clear zip bag, bath gel, moisturising nappy cream, barrier balm and baby lotion
17. If she’s going to use eco-friendly disposable nappies, she’ll still need to throw them away which is where Eco Disposal Bags from Naty come in handy – great for cleaning up your doggie’s doo-doos on your daily walk, too
18. At some point your favourite yummy mummy will want a night out with her baby daddy. If she’s arranging a babysitter, this laminated Babysitter Planner from Corporate Mums can be updated with your child’s routines and anything else you tend to scribble down on a piece of paper
19. Produced excess breast milk or pureed endless pumpkin – and don’t want it to go to waste? Qubies makes a clever ice-cube contained designed to separate liquids into 30ml baby-size portions.
20. A child who wants to put his or her clothes away? Any mother would kiss you for making that job so easy! And perhaps you can with these extremely cute wooden animal coat hangers from Twiggi in your choice of five bright colours (pick ‘em all, I say)
21. The beautiful illustrated stationery from Note Couture includes invitations, notepads, address labels, to do lists and and correspondence cards – so adorable!
22. Eventually, her baby will transition from a bottle to drinking from a cup (and oh, back to drinking out a bottle when he or she is at uni, but that’s another story). With a Sophie the Giraffe Non-Spill Sippy Cup from Your Cheeky Monkey, her little one will be intrigued to see a tiny Sophie the Giraffe at the bottom of her cup…
23. You might consider booking a babysitter for her from Expect A Star so she can enjoy a rare night out with her partner
24. Pamper your pretty mama with a hair, face or beauty package at Yummy Mummys – one of Sydney’s few beauty salons with a creche!
25. Make her baby’s nursery magical with a gift voucher for children’s bedroom decor from Treehouse

Has one of your friends become pregnant but refuses to find out and/or tell you the baby’s gender? One of my good friends has so she’s getting red, lemon, lilac and green-coloured items – but I thought there had to be more to ambiguous gifts than colour…

Since you can’t rely on the old-standby of something blue or pink, you have to be more ingenious! Here’s the first in a two-part post on baby shower gifts when you don’t know if your friend is having a baby boy or girl.

1. Ergococoon – these neutral-coloured “cocoons” make it super-easy to wrap your baby up at night – no more having to learn origami!
2. Ninky Bear Honey Pots – an adorable neutral-coloured ”honey pot” made of a cloth nappy, washcloth, handtowel and bear
3. Babies don’t breast-feed forever, so when it’s time to start solids, your mum-to-be will need a Starting Solids Baby Feeding Kit
4. Start them on the path to literacy early with these handy Big Alphabet Wall Stickers
5. Add some fun to the never-ending chore of bottle-washing with the Boon Grass Drying Rack
6. Focus on mum with a boxed delivery of some sparkling pinot noir chardonnay, a teddy bear, Belgian chocolate and fruit
7.  Inspire the expecting couple with a delightful framed Family Rules print that can go in the nursery, hall, kitchen or loungeroom
8. Give a trio of the best-known nursery ryhmes – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Baa Baa Black Sheep as framed prints to learn by heart on those long nights ahead!
9. A classic gift for AC/DC fans, these instrumental lullabies will have Dad happily head-banging away when baby can’t sleep (check out The Beatles, Bob Marley, U2, Nirvana, Pink Floyd and about 10 other famous bands)
10. A gorgeous owl-print cot quilt and twin bibs in neutral colours makes a pretty baby shower gift
11. Wondering how to get them to eat their veggies once they start solids? Toddlers love Fred Food Face!
12. 30 brain-training ideas and life-changing steps make it easier for her to go from pregnancy to the baby’s first three months
13.  Give your new mum a cute baby rattle in the shape of a guitar to encourage her baby to be musically inclined 
14. Buy a teddy bear from OCF to ensure every child with cancer has the chance to grow up and enjoy life
15. They won’t be in it for long, but this vibrantly-coloured designer Land and Sea Bassinet Blanket is a keeper!
16. Protect their new baby’s delicate skin with a Beautiful Baby Gift Pack containing organic skincare products
17. Look after mum too with a Baby Concepts New Mum Pack containing organic lotion, belly oil, facewasher, body wash, and nappy bag
18. Keep track of when baby (or mum!) last slept or ate with a green Itzbeen timer (and you could use it for time-outs for older kids, too)
19. A Baby Bliss DVD helps new mothers to stimulate their baby’s digestive, respiratory and muscular systems through baby yoga
20. The fun survival pack from Giftboxology contains a Forgetmenot shopping list stationery set to combat “baby brain”, rum balls, macadamia nuts, and soap and botty butter for the baby
21. Let your new mum know all about her baby’s personality and potential. Give her a BabyStars gift certificate that she can redeem once the baby’s born for a luxury hardcover 45-50 page astrology report
22. Relieve her backache with a gift certificate for a wonderful Ripples Pregnancy Massage in northern NSW, QLD and VIC
23. Keep baby as snug as a bug in a rug with a Lambykins superfine pure merino cot blanket in an on-trend rich raspberry with winter white stripe
24. She will love you for making it so easy to get out and about with her Shopping Caddy that holds everything for a baby’s outing
25. If you’d like to give her something for herself, this stunning black wrap-around organic cotton maternity dress is incredibly flattering pre- and post-pregnancy!

Next post – 25 more baby shower gift ideas, part 2

Swapping, selling and buying plastic gift cards is nothing new but here’s something I haven’t seen before…

Not only is CardsUWant.com is a fabulous online marketplace for buying gift cards at up to 40% off and for converting your unwanted cards into instant cash, but they’ve also got a great range of merchants who sell e-gift cards.

Instead of handing someone a plastic gift card for their birthday, Christmas or baby shower in person, e-gift cards are terrific for those who live on the other side of the world – and especially great for those who remember all-too-late on the day when it’s someone’s birthday.

The 16 merchants on there to date range from Bedandbreakfast.com to Zappos. The balances on the e-gift cards are low – $US25 and $US50 – but they should get you out of hot water celebration-wise when it absolutely, positively has to be there before you get an abusive phone call, text or email.

Perhaps the US merchants have been lobbying hard, but the original deadline of 22 August 2010 for them to ensure all gift cards have five years expiry has been extended to 31 January 20111.

This new deadline takes it safely past a four-month holiday period when 90% of all gift card sales are made. 

Gift occasions on which gift cards are purchased include baby season (September/October), Halloween (31 October), engagement season (September-November), Thanksgiving (late November), wedding season (in Australia from November-December), and Christmas and New Year’s Eve (December) so merchants don’t have to destroy and replace an estimated 100 million cards which are already on the retail shelves.

Customers who buy gift cards during the six-month transition period between now and January 2011 will receive the full benefits of the new gift card rules.

This means no service fees or ATM fees can be charged until one year of inactivity (and then only one fee per month), gift cards have expiry dates of five years from the last load (aka deposit of extra funds), free replacement cards must be issued or the issuers can reimburse the cardholder, full T&Cs must be displayed and conspicuous disclosures regarding gift card use must be made prior to purchase.

Still, why would anyone wait five years? There’s inflation which will go up – but the value on your gift won’t – and the risk of the store closing, which happens.

I am quite sure the gift cards will outlast some relationships.

Mid-way through our southern hemisphere winter (one of the coldest for ages), there are a few online retailers having sales – and if you’d like to get a gift to cheer up a friend who’s expecting a baby, you have kids or you’re already thinking of tucking away a few Christmas gifts for your nieces and nephews, here’s what’s on:

My Baby Bump is having a sale on its fun maternity t-shirts – up to 60% off.

Everything Boys has repriced (read: reduced) its range of boys’ jeans and they will donate $5 from every pair of jeans sold between now and 1 August to Jeans for Genes Day.

Brand-new online retailer Avidiva sells handmade, eco-friendly and organic baby products. You can get 25% off store-wide until 21 July 2010 by entering ‘hip hooray’ at checkout.

Petit has a clearance sale on the winter baby range and the Bobinette boys winter range plus every order will receive a free gift.

By signing up to the Mother’s Toolkit newsletter, you receive a free Mother’s Shopping Toolkit packed with discounts and special offers from online retailers of products and services for mums.

Just in time for World Breast Feeding Week from 1-7 August, is the cutely striped Retro Awning breast feeding pillow from BabyBaby, reduced from $NZ89 to $NZ55. 

And New Zealand-based Chelsea Bee is having a 10% store-wide sale until 31 July and is offering free shipping worldwide.

Do you know of a children’s or baby gift online retailer having a mid-winter sale readers should know about? Tell us!

Research has found that comfortable and familiar things from the past can have a powerfully reassuring effect on us, especially when we might feel left out and crave a sense of belonging.

A scientific study recently published in the US’s Journal of Consumer Research, explains why despondent consumers often reach for nostalgic products or images to lift their spirits, rather than their more contemporary counterparts.

This can come in the form of old TV shows and movies, food, drink and other treats, books, car brands and even commonplace items like shampoo and shower gel. In each case the consumer is searching for an emotional crutch rather than the fulfillment of a more practical requirement.

The study’s authors, Katherine E. Loveland and Naomi Mandel from Arizona State University and Dirk Smeesters from Erasmus University in the Netherlands experimented with different situations that were designed to make some participants feel left out. The excluded participants selected nostalgic products over contemporary products, in surprisingly direct proportions to their feelings of needing to belong.

So when do people feel left out? It depends of course on their basic personality, but typical one gift occasion when people feel a real need to belong are housewarmings, when they’ve moved somewhere new and literally need to feel they’re part of the community. Home-baked cakes and cookies always go down a treat.

For others, it could be Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, particularly if the parent is divorced or widowed. This is not the time to buy them something funky and new, but something reassuringly familiar. Is that why retro kitchen appliances are so popular?

While mothers are busy getting all the baby gifts, some fathers can feel left out when their child is born – as can the older siblings. A fun item that harks back to their golden years can go down very well.

Have you ever sent a gift basket? If you have, who was it for? What was the gift occasion ie a new baby, Christmas, a housewarming, engagement gift or Mother’s Day – or was there some other reason you wanted to celebrate?

If you’ve never sent one, what items would you include? Chocolate? Champagne? Baby items? Flowers? Gift certificates?

Take a minute to fill out a fun gift baskets survey and you’ll receive a $20 gift certificate code to spend towards any astrology report on http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com.

The survey is at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GiftBasketsSurvey. The survey closes 31 July 2010.

You’ve probably heard of “babymoons” before, (no, it’s not an astrology thing where women conceive on the Full Moon – although hey, everyone’s a little crazeeee around then) but honeymoons for expecting parents.

Birth tourism is a phenomenon I hadn’t heard of before where people go to a particular country to give birth. If you give birth in the US no matter what your nationality, thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constiution, any child born on American soil becomes a true-blue Yankee Doodle Dandy citizen.

So the Turkish-owned Marmara Manhattan in the Upper East Side of New York is catering to mothers wishing to have an American sprog by offering a suite for one month for $US7,750 plus those dreaded taxes, including airport transfer, baby cradle and a gift set for the mother. For more info, contact manhattan-info@themarmarahotels.com.

I hope its walls are sound-proof. Just like that scene in Sex and the City 2, those thinking about going halves in a baby could get put off by the sounds of a real one next door…