What is essential to buy for a newborn

pigpen

Foot muff if a winter baby .. most of mine have been little cold mousey babies.. terrainhaus are about the best muffs ever.. picked one up for £5 off ebay.. they are about £60 new.

bumbo.. useless, the straighten themselves and flip straight out the back
travel cot.. useless unless you visit rellies away or go camping .. mind you, mine slept in a large suitcase lined with a folded duvet.. the case was packed with their stuff for travelling.
Moses baskets are way too tiny.. a crib is quite often much bigger and lasts much longer.. mine were in the basket about 3 months yet 8 months in the crib...

tiny babies ae often sensitive to wipes so cotton wool/squares of old towel and water/baby lotion are better.

essentials I got.. lansinoh, metanium and infacol!!

Tesco do some wrap over vests in their baby boutique range.. they are fabulous. open flat for easy dressing.. much less scary for baby than dragging something over their face.

I dont have outfits until they are about 3 months+ .. sleepsuits are so much comfier.. and then I only get 2 or 3 because they wear them so rarely.. Squeak didnt get dressed daily until she started feeding herself breakfast at about 10/11 months.

thermometer I would recommend having..

jojo_2012_2

Travel system with pushchair not essential but desirable
Cot bed not essential but desirable, don't like cot beds, if baby's like my son he'll break the cot before he outgrows it
Nappies
wipes
bottles not essential, boobs are better and more cost effective
formula not essential (see above)
Babygrows
Changing mat not essential, but desirable, preferably one upstairs and one downstairs.



I would say the only thing other than the nappys wipes and basic clothing would be a selection of blankets. Personally I think somewhere safe to sleep whilst downstairs with you is essential too as you can't put baby on sofa and lugging him upstairs is a pain.

mum2one

My best investment was from poundshop a travel changing mat, I had the unit in the bedroom, and this fold up mat for downstairs.

Car boots - if your buying baby clothes etc always try and get the make to sell them to you, (not being sexist), but us woman tend to get attached to items, and we know the original cost, whereas a man will see it as set of baby grows, babys grown out of them I'll take £1, but for the lady, there from x,y,z, we paid £xx, excellent condition, I'd really want £5 for them....

Your be surprised at how much people give you.

I had intented to breast feed for at least first 6 weeks, but unfortunately I was bone dry.... our best steraliser was from Ethel Austin, - microwave sterlaizer, but you could also use it as a standard cold water unit. If you have power sut, your stuck with electric steamer. xx

THREEBOBBLES

I would say be careful of using second hand equipment especially from car boot sales and wash every thing you do buy anyway with non biological powder. I work with babies and I find that mums normally get loads of gifts from friends and family so buy the minimum etc

A few newborn baby grows ( they use on average 1-2 a day
Blankets/ muslims
wipes/cotton wool small bowl for top and tailing/ bowl for bathing
vests
hats/ gloves
Car seat is definitely needed as well as road transport for baby ( Pram)
Steam steriliser is quick and efficient needed whatever type of feeding being used for bottles/dummies

Wool27

Agree with all of the above! First child had everything, second and third, hand me downs! Very easy to go over the top but not necessary.

Join all the baby clubs you can think of, at your address, your parents and in laws... We did very well out of coupons from subscribing via mail and online. Huggies and pampers were great, and as mentioned, the boots baby club. The change bag was fab and lasted two years!

Best of luck

toniq

THREEBOBBLES wrote: »

I would say be careful of using second hand equipment especially from car boot sales and wash every thing you do buy anyway with non biological powder. I work with babies and I find that mums normally get loads of gifts from friends and family so buy the minimum etc

A few newborn baby grows ( they use on average 1-2 a day
Blankets/ muslims
wipes/cotton wool small bowl for top and tailing/ bowl for bathing
vests
hats/ gloves
Car seat is definitely needed as well as road transport for baby ( Pram)
Steam steriliser is quick and efficient needed whatever type of feeding being used for bottles/dummies

Not too sure if they are an essential!!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: xxx

jovichick123

Hi,

Only thing I can think of I have not seen mentioned is scratch mitts - DS went through loads of these but they were worth it not to have him scratch himself to pieces overnight.

Good luck

Jovi x

lidlest

Jessikita1983 wrote: »

What's everyone else's opinions/feedback

Things I REALLY couldn't do without but didn't know i needed :-D

Foam bath insert (much better than useless dust gathering baby bath)

Bepanthen nappy cream (OMG it works! Sudocrem is rubbish compared to this)

Swaddle pod - cosy baby doesn't wake himself by flinging arms out, but does look like he is in a straight jacket

Dr Browns bottles - Not massively advertised and do have a couple of extra bits to wash but SO good went through avent and tommee tippee before settling on these, but i know it's a personal choice.

Pram chassis that car seat slots on to (so handy)

Obviously these are not the essentials you need to keep baby alive, but they are essential to me

peachyprice

See, i have to disagree with the travel system being not worth it. I had a Chicco TS for my DD which was the pushchair, first car seat and proper carrycot.

The car seat got used everyday until she grew out of it, the carrycot used every day for her naps downstairs (I've always had my babies sleep in a separate place during the day than during the night, helps them differentiate between a nap and proper bedtime) and a real pet hate of mine is when you see babies all scrunched up in a car seat being pushed around parks/shopping centres etc for hours on end, so the carry cot got used alot when we knew we'd be out for a long time. The pushchair, being a Chicco was particularly spacious and was still being used when she was 5.

Also, I think a cot bed is just too big for a newborn, if you can possibly borrow a moses basket it will take up much less room next to your bed and will make baby easily accessible at night, a cot bed couldn't go right next to you.

Other than that for me essentials would be half a dozen white vests and babygows, it's not worth spending the extra for pattered or coloures and IMO pure white looks so much nicer or a newborn and will wash better if stained. 4 sheets to allow for two total changes, 2 blankets, get large ones so they can be folded for an extra layer. Muslin squares, saves your own clothes and are so easily washed and dried. I liked having a monitor TBH it measns you can hear baby stirring and can get to them before they're all revved up.

I'm sure there's more, but the defo do not needs are a top & tail bowl as mentioned above (what is the point?). Nappy disposal jobby (can't think what they're called) fancy bedding. Cotton wool for cleaning bums, honestly warm water and cotton wool does not remove sticky baby poo, it's far easier to go with the gentlest baby wipes or make your own (recipe on the net somewhere)

HTH

Ravenlady_2

Bumpmakesfour wrote: »

It's probably far easier to ask what ISN'T essential tbh.My fourth baby is due in december and looking back at some useless carp I bought for my first it's quite funny to think I really honestly thought they were "essential" at the time(too much reading stupid
"checklists in backs of mothercare catalogues ).

Seperate baby bath..bulky and pointless.Mine go in with me and get snuggles
Top n tail bowl..WHY?? lol
Travel system..we bought a big bulky jeep travel system.Got sick of it within a couple of months taking up so much room we went out and bought a maclaren stroller
Things like bath thermometers,special baby hooded towel robes(use a regular towel) ummm will be back with more

I am having number 4 in March, I too bought the jeep system (with carrycot) and yes, its a bit of a tank, I bought a petite start zia when baby outgrew the carrycot at 6 months and wish I went for the maclaren. Its too rickety and the handle broke after a week.

The baby bath got used as a washing basket, the top and tail bowl is really good for holding nuts and bolts in the shed and we only just bought a bath themomitor as it came with the birth pool.

Sheets. I keep forgetting how much babies can be sick, pillowcases are better and cheaper for moses baskets as they can be flipped over rather than having to change the whole sheet