Rainbow Fish 6 Piece Crib Bedding Set: Wearing Thin
Written: Jun 05 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cute theme ties into book
Cons: bumper ties tear, quilt?
The Bottom Line: Not durable enough for use over multiple children, and to be honest, I'm sick of the theme.
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| pippadaisy's Full Review: Rainbow Fish 6 Piece Crib Bedding Set |
When I was pregnant for my daughter and shopping for things for my registry, my husband and I argued about the nursery theme for ages. In my hormonal state, the story of Rainbow Fish and its message of sharing really hit home and I fell in love with this set. My husband, on the other hand, favored a theme that was less pastel-y and more generic in theme.
Heading into my third child to occupy the crib, I'll have to confess he was right.
What You Get
The Rainbow Fish 6 Piece Crib Bedding Set consists of a diaper stacker, quilt, bumper set, window valance, dust ruffle, and one sheet in the pastel-themed colors of the Rainbow Fish line of books. The colors themselves are pleasing, and give you a wide variety to choose from in painting a room color; when we used this set for my daughter, we painted the room a muted purple, and for my son, a soft blue. Both colors looked nice with the set.
What You Need
The allure is obviously that you get six items in a bundle for less than the items would cost if purchased individually. The downside is that you get things in this set that you really don't need. For instance, I can honestly say that I don't know anyone who ever really used their diaper stacker. Even using cloth diapers I don't use it, and it's been folded up and stuck in a dresser drawer since 5 minutes after I took the initial pictures of my daughter's nursery.
In addition, while the quilt that comes with this set is adorable, it is unsafe to use in an infant's crib. The quilt, then, serves mainly as room decor, draped over the glider rocker. Basically, you are left with the bumper set, valance, dust ruffle, and sheet as usable items. I use the dust ruffle because I do think it looks neat, but it does occasionally get caught in the drawer on our Pali Sabrina Crib. In addition, unless you have only one small window (which is the case for our son's room, but wasn't for our daughter's), one valance isn't going to help out much, and you'll have to add in more valances purchased at the a la carte pricing.
How It Has Held Up
This set was used by my daughter for two years, and my son is currently using it. I have to admit that I'm dreading using it for the new baby, and am hoping to scrape together the cash to get a new, plainer set.
My one bit of advice to first-time parents in choosing a nursery theme is "Will you get sick of this?" While I still love the story of Rainbow Fish and the message behind it, the message is not readily apparent to a newborn, and I'm tired of looking at fish and pastels and the matching wall border. If I could choose over again, I would have picked something plainer, with no character association that could go with any number of other types of decor, say a soft green and yellow set that I could have used flowers to accent for my daughter, and bugs for my son, changing the look a bit.
Secondly, the crib sheet has been relegated to the drawer under the crib. After the first washing, it had shrunk enough to be difficult to put on the crib mattress, and by now it requires a Herculean strength to stretch it over the corners. A crib sheet that is too small for a crib mattress is unsafe, as it can pop off the corners, and become an entanglement and/or suffocation hazard for baby (side note: I've had much better luck with inexpensive cotton jersey sheets from Target).
Third, the ties on the bumper set just haven't held up well. I think they may have shrunk with repeated washings as well, because it has become increasingly difficult to tie them around the corners of the crib. Also, the ties have ripped off the bumper more times than I care to think about, and have been re-sewn on at least one time each, if not more than once.
Recommended?
Perhaps I was thinking of the price of this set as more of a long-term investment. If you are planning on using it for one child only, by all means go for this set. But if it's something you want to have for the long haul and a few children worth of reuse, my advice is to find something more durable and more generic.
Recommended:
No
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pippadaisy
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About Me:
Divorce seriously cuts into the amount of time for reviewing.
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