THEY come in every shape and colour. Some are designed to resemble bumble bees or ladybirds, others have Winnie The Pooh and Tigger on them. There's even one with the England flag emblazoned on the front, no doubt a limited edition for the World Cup.

There must be about 200 babies' dummies on the display in front of me. If I were a new mum looking to buy one, I wouldn't know which to pick.

Would it be a pretty pink one to help signify that the bald bundle in my buggy is a girl? Or perhaps one with a cover for the teat would be more hygienic. And what about the teat? What shape should I pick? Is it worth paying extra for one approved by dental experts who guarantee the soother won't interfere with the development of junior's teeth?

These are some of the decisions new parents will make when buying a dummy. It doesn't stop there. From buggies to baby baths, nappies to new toys, mums and dads wrestle with so many issues before selecting a product.

Market researchers at Swift Research, in Wetherby, are eager to get to the root of this decision process and discover what leads parents to pick one product over another. The firm runs a specialist offshoot called small:talk which carries out research with pregnant women and new mums on a variety of goods.

At present they are gathering research for Tommee Tippee on dummies, and also conducting tests on nappy bins, which seal the offending item in a protective and fragrant film which minimises smells and trips to the outside bin.

First-time mum Liana Price, from Harrogate, is one of the thousands of volunteers on the company's database who regularly help out with market research.

Sometimes volunteers are invited to Swift HQ to test products or be interviewed by staff, but often they are quizzed over the telephone or can try out goods from their own homes.

Liana, who has a 14-week-old son, Charlie, said she enjoyed the work. "I had taken part in other market research before and found I had time on my hands once Charlie was born."

At small:talk, she has taken part in a focus group where a selection of mums talked about the products they bought for their baby and the reasons for selecting them. She is trialling at home one of the nappy bins, which she will be allowed to keep for free. She said: "I've found it very useful. I'd heard of it before but only negative things. But now I've had this one, I'd recommend it to anybody. And if I had to buy one for myself, I would. It's so handy, you just pop the nappy in the bin, it seals it and the smell."

Small:talk staff also travel overseas to conduct and witness research with parents in other countries.

Julia Wilson, company director, recalls a trip to France where the smell-busting qualities of the nappy bin were put to the ultimate test.

She said: "Instead of putting a soiled nappy in the bin, they put in some gorgonzola cheese. Everyone was so amazed that they could not smell the cheese. If they couldn't smell the gorgonzola then a baby's nappy would pose no problem."

It was also on a trip to France that they discovered a wonder product no French mother would be without. Julia said: "The mums were talking about food preparation for babies and kept mentioning this thing called a 'baby cook'. It turned out to be a device that steamed food and also liquidised it. That product wasn't available in the UK at the time. Now it's available in a catalogue."

In Germany, the small:talk team discovered another must-have product, the bucket bath for newborns, which enables them to sit up to be bathed. That product is also now available in the UK.

Back at small:talk in Wetherby, mums are often invited to take part in group discussions in a room with a two-way mirror. This allows researchers and sometimes their clients to hear at first hand what mums really think about their products.

Samantha Armitage, associate director at Swift, said: "It's really useful for clients to hear directly from the mums; they are their potential customers."

Among the products the company has tested recently include nappies, baby wipes, bottles, baby monitors, sterilisers and toys. The company is always looking for new recruits, particularly pregnant women and mums with children under three years.

Samantha said the company was not being sexist in using mothers, rather it was a reflection of the fact that women still did most of the early years' childrearing and made most of the purchasing decisions for their children.

She said the company paid expenses to women who took part in their research and added there was the chance to have free products to try at home too.

She added: "We feel it is worthwhile what we do. We are helping clients get good products out there. And mums do feel that they are being listened too and have an impact on what gets developed."

To find out more about Swift Research, visit the website www.swift-research.co.uk To join the small:talk panel, visit www.swift-insight.co.uk