Regular readers will know by now that my little girl will be one in less than a month and that I have been searching high and low for items to enhance her zoo themed party. So when Trevor from Hello Baby emailed me with an offer to review and keep one a toy from his online shop, I jumped at the chance.
Hello Baby as a company is quite impressive. Its range of stock is on a par with some of the larger, better- known baby product companies but it comes with plenty of personal care. The owner, Trevor, is approachable and friendly, and often writes for the company blog, which is regularly updated with new product information.
Apart from some of the ‘usual’ baby brands, Hello Baby also caters for a few of the attachment parenting needs and has a definite foot in the environmentally friendly market too. It stocks slings and baby carriers, as well as reusable nappies and liners, and supports the Real Nappies for London network.
I specifically like that Hello Baby supports local and smaller businesses, such as Bickiepegs, Hippychick and the SLS free Beaming Baby Organic range. Personally I would love to see them extend this range to include some of the companies I’ve featured here before, such as Becothings, Green People, Bras4mums and Jackson Reece.
Even so, there are hundreds of items on Hello Baby that are worth a look, and the prices are highly competitive as it is an online only retailer.
As all good baby companies should, there is a wishlist that mums-to-be can complete and distribute to ensure they receive the items they want for their new arrivals.
There are also rather useful Baby Buying Guides, with straightforward honest advice on things to look for when buying anything from breast pumps to car seats to cots and Moses baskets.
As for the review item, my 11 month old, Ameli, already has a Jellykitten hare which she loves, so we were happy to be given the 37cm Skidaddle Giraffe, a plush soft toy with rings around its legs that make a fun clinking sound. We love the quality of both, especially that they are hardy enough to be dragged by the ear or leg through the house while still being soft enough to be fantastic bed time cuddle toys.
But, you don’t need to just take my word for it! Trevor has kindly agreed to share the love with a Diary of a First Child reader, who can win one of the same Skidaddle Giraffes as we have. In order to win, you need to have a look around Hello Baby then leave a comment here to tell me your favourite thing about the site. I must admit, I am rather partial to the extensive wooden toy selection myself!
The competition will run until mid day (GMT) 20 September 2010 and the winner will be drawn randomly using Random.org and will be announced here. Entries from anywhere are excepted and can be posted anywhere in the world.
You do not have to tweet or share this competition to enter, but doing so helps ensure that I can keep bringing you more giveaways every week! You can subscribe to Diary of a First Child by RSS, email or through Google Friend Connect (see the bottom to the right). You can also follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We hope to see you back again soon!
And the winner is: Lynn Goring-Crook
Congratulations!
Very good tips and Awesome article to read,Thank you very much…I Love this.
Awesome article to read and Very good tips,Thank you very much.
Thank you very much
Great article
had a really bad experience with hello baby. The customer service is awful / non existant – avoid avoid avoid. We definitely wont be using again..
I’m really sorry to hear that! I am approving your comment so as to notify other readers and give the company a chance to respond.
You stated we return at our costs and no postage costs would be refunded. This is shocking considering it is your own site which is misleading. We are now awaiting a response from Trading Standards as you have an obligation as an online retailer to correct misleading products and also ensure customers are not out of pocket as a result. I really don’t understand why you would risk your brand for a few £££’s in postage costs. Terrible…! We for one will never use you again.
Damien,
I feel sure that Trading standards will agree that any listing which states, in bold “Please note, this is a changing pad only and not a changer” and has the text ‘changing pad only’ over the photo cannot seriously be considered misleading.
Awful customer service @ hello baby direct, the site has some good prices but we bought a product that was descibed as a cot changer and had a picture of a cot changer. We then received a changing Mat…. AT NO POINT DID IT SAY THIS IS WHAT WE WERE GETTING.
So we thought ok simple mistake so we rang them but they only have an answer machine. So I left a message, I then emailed and got a call back.
They basically said Tuff…. I explained we wanted to return for a refund but they said we’d have to cover all postage costs and the inital postage costs wouldn’t be refunded either. It wasn’t our fault and they want us to be out of pocket.
The guy on the phone was incredibly rude and arrogant.
A real shame that our first purchase went so bad with them as they’ve lost out on a lot of future business. AND we’ll tell ALL our friends to avoid them at all costs…..
AVOID
@Damian,
Trevor from Hello Baby here. The customer purchased a East Coast changing pad. The listing clearly states that the product is a changing pad and not a changing top. This is written across the centre of the photo and also in bold in the listing. We therefore believe that the listing was not misleading. You can check this out for yourself here
The customer was and still is welcome to return the item for a refund.
I absolutely love the nursery furniture, especially ‘East Coast Angelina Cot Bed – Cocoa’ and wil be ordering this for my first grandchild!
I love the baby craft section of your website, espcially the easter egg nests…yummy 😀
Lots of lovely things but I really LOVE the Penguin Bowling set!
love lots of the things on the site, our faves were the KidKraft Toys, in particular the rocket ship and submarine 🙂
Never knew Hello Baby existed until I read your blog now it looks like I will be going there first for purchases. Love the website as it is a one-stop shop for all your baby needs!
lamaze Play and Grow Play House gym because its so colourful and stimulating
Just seen this one which would be ideal for my husband with number 1 on the way ‘The Haynes Baby Manual : Conception to Two Years’
There are too many favourites my wihlist is bursting. The jellycat toys are the top of my list, pink stripey giraffe and the monkey.
the pink stripey giraffe 🙂
I’m frightened of anything with eight legs, especially the octopus but the tomy Octopals looks like alot of fun. Unless I have to unstick them off the bathroom tiles lol
I would choose the big taggies because both my children love the tags, but they woul love the giraffe toy too
http://www.hellobabydirect.co.uk/products/98008-great-gizmos-baby-walker-truck-yellow.html
Sock Ons – any colour, saves much needed time trying to keep socks on a wriggly baby
The infantino 2 in 1 activity mirror bug is a great toy for babies my youngest daughter loved anything with mirrors on when she was younger (4 months onwards) and still iggles and lays looking into her musical piano mirror and shes just turned one
my favourite is Princess Sophie from Lamaze xx
I adore The Lamaze Musical Inchworm, my son loves anything creepy crawly!
I love the Store and Explore Elephant Gym. Enter me please!
tHE Lamaze Spin and Explore Garden Gym – Baby Activity looks like great fun.
Infantino Explore & Store Elephant Baby Gym
I loooove the Samsonite Sun & Sleep Pop-Up Bubble Cot It’s cute!!
We love Jellycat! Great site.
Great site , the baby gyrm section is awesome
saplings nursery furniture would be ideal for our youngest. The 2 older girls are very jealous
GREAT CHOICES
I love the “Baby Gyms” section. Lots of choices.
Love the site …so many cute things
Great gifts
My 1 year old Maddie lost her favourite toy, a penguin when we went shopping, I would love to win this giraffe for her, Im sure it would be a favourite of hers as it is my favourite too
the stripey giraffe!
Giraffe is very pretty, and I love it very much but I also love all the other anomals in the jelly kitten range
My fav is still the Jelly Kitten Skidaddle Giraffe. I would love to win this for my daughter who is due any day.
How cute is this one ———>
http://www.hellobabydirect.co.uk/products/39003-baby-blooms-baby-bouquet—ultimate-pink.html
Baby Bloms Bouquet ultimate pink, gorgeous 🙂
Tiny Love Tummy-Time Fun Frog Pillow and Mat
I love the KidKraft Primary Wooden Kitchen Child’s Wooden Toy perfect for my kids.
Love the site …so many cute things …. x
I love the KidKraft Savannah Dollhouse, and I think its a great price. I think this might be going on my Christmas list never mind my daughters!
The site has so many wonderful things. I like some of the activity toys on this site.
Thanks!
I like your wooden toy section too
There are some lovely things on this site. My lovely daughter would like the Manhatten Toy Whoozit See Me Mirror.
All my little ones love reading time so the books section is definitely my favourite. Some real memories there too as I had all the Mog books when I was younger!
Loving the Brio range!
I liked the selection of baby banz! these are so cute and practical!
I have only just found this website and what can i say ”WOW” its great it has some beautiful items and perfect for any baby,Im def going to recommend to all my friends with babys : )
xx
I just love wooden kitchen it looks much sturdier than the newer plastic versions.
http://www.hellobabydirect.co.uk/products/46141-kidkraft-primary-wooden-kitchen-childs-wooden-toy.html
love this soooooooo cute
I love the whole
Children’s Books for 0-5 Year Olds section
As a nursery nurse and having children myself I’ve always found reading a story a great way of spending some quality time with a child
I love soft toys and after going through the range of baby soft toys, my favorite is the Jelly Kitten Skidaddle Giraffe (which was what got me looking at the website in the first place)
I think my favourite would have to be the Flexibath in Pink, we actualy already have one of these and they are brilliant for holidays and space saving. They have a great selection on their site it’s hard to choose just one item!
It has a good range of toys, I like the brio phone looks much nicer than a lot of the plasticy ones you see around
I like the Manhattan Toy Noo Boo Symphonic Stacker Baby Toy. It would be perfect for my friends little baba
I like looking around the whole site, and reading the reviews, decided to buy the baby born cup from your review and have to say it is my grandaughters favourite cup.
Giraffe Baby Soft Toy
Thanks for the competitition from your nice site
I hate the site. Why should I “Suck up” just to receive ths prize? 🙂
I’m sure they’d appreciate feedback on why you hate it. Please feel free to leave some.
The whole site is fab! But my favourite thing is the Jelly Kitten Hoolaroo Sausage Dog – it’s just great!! Oh and I’m sure my daughter would love it too!
Jelly Kitten Hoopy Boing Giraffe Baby Soft Toy IS MY FAVOURITE
Just love this site, everything is so lovely, especially all the stunning furniture. 🙂
Oooh I’ve seen some lovely comfortors on there – just can’t decide now!!!!
Love the Win Green Large Barn Floor Quilt http://www.hellobabydirect.co.uk/products/58086-win-green-large-barn-floor-quilt.html
Great design with the tractor geese and chucks!
A good site with plenty of choice I liked the reusable nappies as we are trying to be as green as we can be be and we are keen toi use environmentally friendly products if possible
What an excellent range of toys…all on one site. Love the Brio range.
Great selection. Love all the toys. We will be moving from a one bedroom apartment to a two bedroom soon, so my daughter will finally have room for more toys. I feel like I’ve been stingy with toys due to lack of space.
Jelly Kitten Hoolaroo Sausage Dog is a great and fun looking toy! My little Jack would love all these excellent toys!!!!I would love to win! Please count me in too! Thanks a lot.I’ll go and tweet about the giveaway now
jacksoncrisman@yahoo.com
My little one loves giraffes so I would pick the Jelly Kitten Hoopy Boing Giraffe Baby Soft Toy. He also loves noises so would love this toy!
The Plan Toy Chalet Dolls House with Furniture looks fabulous.
I like the
Brio Crane and Loads Wooden Baby Toy
The whole site is great and so many choices !
A great site, thanks for bringing it to our attention. I too loved too many things! Emily was given a JellyCat bunny when she was born, I had no idea there were JellyKitten products too! 🙂
I love all the different sections, so much info on one site x
I really like the saplings nursery furniture – it can be tough to find kids furniture that’s not too garish or girly!
I love the Win Green range. Sadly WAY out of my price ranges but I do love their fabric play houses and wigwams!
Hm, thought it slightly disappointing that it doesn’t seem to have a fair trade section tbh.
Did like the reusable nappies section though.
Love this website. My favourite thing is the Great Gizmos Okiedod Fropper. Will be perfect for my babis 1st birthday! Thanks for running the comp, lovely prize