To Buy Or Not To Buy

As Oscar approaches six months of age, we appear to be entering a new phase of 'stuff to buy'. I've been weighing up the pros and cons of various highchairs, stairgates and fireguards and trying not to get too distracted by the mind-boggling array of gadgets and gizmos described in the catalogues and baby magazines as 'must-haves' (now try telling a mother who lives in a mud hut with five kids that a baby wipe warmer is a 'must-have').
I seem to have developed a bit of a compulsion for teething toys. I see one that looks particularly interesting and soothing (sometimes I even fancy chewing them myself) then manage to destroy them promptly after purchase (I've discovered that boiling toys to clean them results in clowns with scary melted faces) or lose them (don't expect a baby to keep hold of anything whilst out in a buggy). By contrast, Oscar is quite happy putting absolutely anything in his mouth (my fingers, other baby's fingers, slightly-unwashed-looking-strangers-on-the-bus' fingers, in fact anything that carries large amounts of bacteria per square inch).
Then there's the vast bib collection. When Oscar started out on solid food, I put him in a neat little cotton bib, but his eating style is so messy that I rapidly progressed onto a larger vinyl-backed towelling affair, then one with wider shoulders, then one with sleeves, and currently we're road testing a contraption that goes down way past his knees and is best described as a waterproof cassock.
All this excessive consumerism coincides devastatingly with the end of my maternity pay, which makes me feel very guilty indeed. Time to put the baby monitor with infrared camera back on the shelf in Mothercare and back away very slowly...
My one guilt-free purchase has been a new set of cloth nappies which are working out very well so far, although Oscar's rear-end has doubled in size overnight. He's the J-Lo of Isleworth, minus the bling.