What are 'Essentials' for a newborn baby?

andipandi_2

breast milk i would imagine!

LilMissEmmylou

Jet it states on that site all bottle feeding equiptment needs to be steralised until 12 months... ok it says spoons and bowls only need to be done till 6 months, but i myself plan to stick to the 1 yr rule that my health visitor has always told me.

Jet

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

Jet it states on that site all bottle feeding equiptment needs to be steralised until 12 months... ok it says spoons and bowls only need to be done till 6 months, but i myself plan to stick to the 1 yr rule that my health visitor has always told me.

But my point is if you don't bottle feed (or express to a bottle) you don't need to buy sterilising equipment. Therefore it's not essential.

My health visitor's advise was obviously different to the information you were given and the information on nhs direct. It won't do any harm to sterilise but according to guidelines it's not necessary.

After all when babies get to 6 months they put everything in their mouths anyway.

hoopie_2

i was given the boiled water advice my my midwife. however, it was ten years ago, perhaps things have changed? i know the antenatal care has!!

if it's not needed then i'll save some money, but i probably will still buy bottles as someone said about expressing milk and i plan to do that, for anyone else who may need to feed the baby.

what expressers do people recommend, electric or hand? i had a hand one last time and struggled.

black-saturn

I managed to get away with a pram which converted into a pushchair later, cot (if your using a second hand cot buy a new matress for it), moses basket, full sized sheet cut into squares (cheaper than cot sheets), full sized blanket cut into squares, steriliser, bottles (if your not going to breastfeed) and enough clothes to last a week on a baby. I don't drive but if you do I would buy a car seat. Once you have this you can build as you go along.

I would try and look for these second hand if your on a tight budget. The only thing I would personally not buy second hand is a matress and a car seat.

LilMissEmmylou

oh btw also with moses baskets, rather than buying bedding you can use a pillow case, means if the baba is sick rather than having to go change it, just flip it over

re breast pump, i have both. My hand one was cheap and it worked when i only had a little to express at the start, but now i can express 6oz or so in a go my hand would get sore, so i bought a madela electric pump, it was £55 but you can get them a little cheaper on ebay worth the money though and if u buy from boots on tripple points you get £6.60 back

Elle00

flis21 wrote: »

Hi All,

Well, have only recently found out I am pregnant and have started looking at baby stuff, but there is quite a scarily large range of stuff out there.

My Husband and I were in Boots at the weekend and were looking at some stuff, I picked up a 'top and tail' bowl and we were trying to figure out what we would use it for, when this lady came up behind us and said that she wouldn't bother buying one if she were us, as she bought one and never used it.

It got me thinking how much other stuff that actually we might not need. We don't have a lot of money, so anything we don't need to buy will be a big help.

Luckily my Mum is buying us a 'travel system' with a car seat and mother in law is getting us a cot. I am going to breastfeed (hopefully) so no need for bottles and stuff.

What things are we actually going to have to buy and what can we get away without (and where is the cheapest place to go for stuff, looked in mothercare and it all looks sooo expensive!).

Thanks everyone,

Flis

Hi there, I wrote an extremely long and detailed article for the Ciao website five months ago entitled "Preparing for a baby on a budget" which you might find useful:

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Member_Advice_on_Preparing_for_your_Baby_s_Arrival__Review_5622376

It explores the various types of equipment out there and also lists the cheapest places I've come across for buying various items taking into consideration quality as well as price. I bought all of my baby's equipment and clothing etc for under £600 including furniture which is pretty good going and it's possible to do so for around £200 or £300 if you're careful. If you're not careful, you'll spend well over a thousand pounds without even realising!

Let me know if it helps and best of luck.

Elle x.