THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 16, 1995 TAG: 9510170027
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 153 lines
OVERHEARD IN the car-seat aisle at the Baby Superstore in Virginia Beach between a hugely pregnant young woman and her mother:
Mother (fingering the brightly colored covers on the infant car seats): Do they come with these?
Daughter: Yes, I'm sure they do.
Mother (looking at the detachable base at the bottom of the car seat): What's this?
Daughter: That lets you take the baby out of the car without taking her out of the seat.
Mother: That's amazing. They never had these things when I was having children.
Indeed.
You might say those very words even if your children are still in preschool.
Sales of baby products - or the juvenile-products division, as retailers and manufacturers call it - is booming, even while the country's birthrate declines slightly as baby boomers move out of childbearing age.
Industry sales for juvenile products increased $5 million between 1991 and 1994, topping out last year at a record $3.7 billion.
``Clearly the key to the business is product,'' said industry analyst Andrew L. Beja of the Advest Group in Hartford, Conn. ``There's been a burst of creativity and energy on the product side over the last decade.''
Consider:
Baby monitors that play Brahm's ``Lullaby'' when your baby cries.
Video baby monitors that allow you to not only hear your baby sleep but also watch him or her on your own portable black-and-white screen.
High chairs that turn into play seats. Strollers that convert to car seats. Cradles that transform into gliders. Toddler beds that change into bookcases.
Small wonder then that new parents can spend $5,000 to $10,000 outfitting a nursery. That figure comes from Debbie Albert, spokesperson for the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association. The New Jersey-based trade group represents more than 250 companies in North America that manufacture or import such things as strollers, cribs, car seats, bedding, lamps, and accessory and decorative items for infants.
One of the biggest trends in infant products, she said, is in the ``transformer'' category: products that have more than one use, like the stroller that converts to a car seat.
``Most families have two parents working, other people taking care of their children, so they're looking for that all-in-one product,'' Albert said.
Take the stroller, for instance.
Century Products Co., like several other baby-product manufacturers, makes a four-in-one stroller. The chair pops out and attaches to a base in your car to become an infant car seat. When the child gets older, the stroller converts to accommodate toddlers.
The seat also can be used as an infant carrier. These strollers cost $94 to $110.
What about a changing table on wheels that doubles as a baby bath? Just remove the top and there's a convenient plastic tub. A hose attaches to the bathroom faucet for filling.
High chairs these days can be raised and lowered. Use them for giving babies bottles; then, as the child grows, lower it so he can comfortably sit at the table. Lower it even more and it works as a toddler play table.
There are baby swings that double as infant carriers. Cosco Inc. even makes one that transforms into a car bed and infant car seat.
Even if items have only one use, chances are they've become more complex, with features added for convenience and ease:
Nursery monitors with night lights, out-of-range indicators and lights to show the level of noise your baby makes. Receivers you can wear on your wrist.
Car seats with sun shades, in every color imaginable from classic pastel to trendy forest green.
Strollers with oversized bicycle-type wheels you can use on the beach or the sidewalk. Most feature enormous storage bins for carrying diaper bags and groceries, and some include Velcro bottle holders or plastic cup holders.
Even the common bottle has gone modern. There are bottles that curve to reduce the amount of air a baby gets, cups with nipple attachments and bottles decorated with every imaginable Disney character.
``We notice that parents are waiting longer to have their first child and that probably because they've waited, they're also spending quite a bit more on their first,'' said Laurie Strong, a publicity specialist for Fisher-Price, the manufacturer of toys and other items for children. ``Parents are willing to pay more, but there's got to be value.''
So Fisher-Price expects to sell quite a few of its new video monitors, which let parents see their babies sleeping.
``It's the next step in technology and in making life easier for parents,'' Strong said of the monitor, which carries a suggested retail price of $325. The product includes a camera that can be mounted on the wall or set on a dresser and a portable monitor. The camera uses an infrared light so that it works even in total darkness.
Strong predicts that the camera will have a life beyond the nursery. In focus groups, she said, parents said they'd like to use it while their older children are playing in another part of the house.
That desire represents the second trend fueling the baby-products market: safety.
``With parents out of the house and working, and a lot of secondary caregivers taking care of children, parents want to make sure everything in the house is perfect,'' Albert said. ``Every coffee table edge is padded with cushions. Everything is locked, the toilet is locked.
``It makes me wonder how we grew up without bashing our heads in or drowning.''
Safety 1st, a Boston-based company, was built on the concept that parents want to provide a safe environment for their children. The company saw its sales nearly double between 1993 and 1994, reaching $70.2 million last year.
Among its items: a bed rail with a built-in nightlight, inflatable bathtub spouts to keep kids from hitting their heads on the metal fixtures, cushioned pink-and-blue knee pads to protect a crawler's delicate knees, and the now-classic vivid-blue swiveling baby bathtub seat.
Safety 1st is not the only player in this category. Safety items abound in department stores and catalogs. There are foam rubber cushions that go around your fireplace to protect against bumps. Safety latches to keep refrigerators, cabinets and appliances closed. Flexible gates that not only block access to stairways but also can be placed around such fragile - and potentially dangerous - items as Christmas trees.
Some items that aren't readily available in stores can be found through baby catalogs. One popular catalog, One Step Ahead, based near Chicago, was a pioneer in the mail-order baby products business.
``Our mission is to make life easier for parents,'' said owner Karen Scott.
They do it with items like the BeeperKid. Pin the beeper to your child's clothing and clip the receiver onto your own. If Junior wanders more than 15 feet away, it beeps.
The Child Door Alert sounds an alarm seven seconds after your child opens the door.
There's even a bright yellow sign warning, ``Be Alert - Children'' that can be placed in your driveway when your kids are playing.
Parents aren't the only ones buying baby products. Grandparents are a huge part of the market, Albert said, adding, ``They tend to be a bit younger, healthier, and they have more money.''
So they can help parents pay for the $100 strollers and $60 car seats, for the $30 designer diaper bags and the $80 ear thermometers.
The choices are just going to increase. Next month, more than 350 manufacturers will descend on Dallas for the annual juvenile-products trade show.
Manufacturers will unveil hundreds of new items - all of which are currently a big secret, Albert said.
Now, if someone would just invent an item that gets up in the middle of the night with baby . . . ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Motoya Nakamura\ The Virginian-Pilot
Baby walkers are being made so that they stay stationary while
allowing the baby to turn and play.
New nursery monitors even play music when your baby cries.
Some car seats feature a five-point harness system.
Bath and shower products add a whimsical touch to getting clean.
Strollers with relatively large wheels have greater stability.
by CNB