Do You Have the Cutest Baby?

Everyone thinks that their baby is the cutest. Namely Newborns is looking for the cutest baby for the front page of our website. We like our little ones to be wrapped in a personalized blanket or cuddling a stuffed toy with their name prominently embroidered where our friends can see it. Send us a jpeg as large as possible and your baby might win a $100 shopping spree at www.namelynewborns.com

Baby contests have a very interesting origin. 

Early contest were not based on looks but on health. We take a healthy baby for granted. But earlier in the century due to poorer nutrition and lack of proper pre-natal care, many kids were sickly. Better baby competitions originated with maternalist feminists who believed that power for women would create a more compassionately governed society, one that would vastly expand public programs to benefit children and mothers. Women also supported these contests as part of the campaign for “scientific motherhood” intended to improve the efficacy and status of homemaking and to create new positions of social power for women. But such hopes often led to ironic, unintended consequences. Maternalist public health workers created the demand for preventive child health services, but their success attracted male private practice physicians to take over the field from them.

The strangest baby contest I have every heard of takes place in Japan. In most countries, parents go to great lengths to keep their babies from crying, but at Japan’s Naki Sumo festival, the point is to actually make your kid sob.  This is a 400 year old festival. Sumo wrestlers make loud noises and faces at babies to get them to start crying. The baby who cries the loudest and for the longest amount of time is deemed the winner, though the real winners are the baby’s parents, who probably haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in months.

In America everyone has heard of Gerber baby contests. Gerber has huge baby contests for the cutest baby with major prizes; offers for contracts and endorsements.

Most contests are legitimate ; however you need to be on the look out for scams.

Tips for avoiding scams .

Sometimes it's hard to spot a shady business, but experts agree on one dead giveaway:  If an agency or individual asks for money up front, this is a dead giveaway that something might be fishy. Most reputable agencies don't start collecting fees until your child has already worked (in which case, they usually take a cut of about 20 percent from you for setting up each modeling job and the same sum from the company that hires your child).

Another trick to beware: Sometimes a company won't ask for money outright; they'll say they need you to spend many hundreds or even thousands of dollars on videos or fancy photos of your child, which they claim they'll then send out to potential contests and modeling agencies on your behalf.. "But why would you spend a fortune taking pictures of, say, a 3-year-old? He's not going to look the way he does for very long,"  Good agencies usually want no more than regularly updated home snapshots or, at most, a set of professionally shot composite cards, which feature a collection of several small photos of your child. (Those will run about $200.)

Pros of Cutest Baby Contests

Entering your child into a cute baby contest does have benefits. If your child wins the contest, you will have a feeling of accomplishment and it can help build your child's feeling of worth. You will have the opportunity to win free products or cash prizes for your child. One of the best awards is when an amount of money is set aside for your child to use later in life, towards the cost of college tuition. If you are interested in helping your child pursue a career in acting or modeling, a contract with a modeling agency or cover of a magazine will help your child gain exposure.

Cons of Cutest Baby Contests

If you haven’t captured the perfect picture to submit to a contest, you may have to hire a photographer to help you. Finding just the right photo can take time and money. While winning may seem like a good thing, there is also a risk of your child being overexposed to the public. If the award means you have to visit another city or state to do a photo shoot or modeling job, you will have to pay for the cost of travel to and from that destination. You should also take your emotional feelings over the contest into account. If your child doesn’t win, it may leave you sad or upset. During the contest, both you and your child may feel stressed and nervous. While a well-known company that offers a cute baby contest is probably legitimate, others may be scams. You run the risk of someone stealing your child’s photo or asking for money towards fees for a contest that isn’t real.

Final Considerations

A cute baby contest should be an enjoyable experience for both you and your child. If the contest leaves you feeling anxious or stressed, then it’s probably not worth it. Babies are adorable and each one has the chance to win, but ultimately there can only be one winner. If your reasons for entering the contest are to simply have a chance at winning a prize and showing off your little one to the world, then both you and your child can have a fun experience.