Baby Gear

Great Toys, Books, Gear, Etc.

Toys for the 1st year

  • Big toys
    • Selecta Musina Wooden Activity Arch: a wooden non-toxic baby gym that’s fun for a newborn and sturdy enough to support a baby as they learn to stand.  Eleanor has gotten a lot of use out of it.
    • Schoenhut My First Piano II: lots of fun to bang on!  Eleanor first encountered it at cousin Winslow’s house when she was 5 months old & she loved it, so she got her own for Christmas.
  • Basic little toys
  • Teething toys:
    • Sophie the Giraffe — nontoxic rubber squeaky teething toy
    • Baby’s First Toothbrush — Eleanor’s favorite thing to teethe on, and we also use it to brush her teeth (by putting some water on it & letting her chew on it).
  • Plush Toys
    • Taggies
    • Blabla
  • Things to look at:
    • Mobiles — Rebecca got great customized felt-animal ones at the Portland Saturday Market; Ikea has cute inexpensive ones if you want to hang them in multiple locations
    • Dangly toys — Eleanor loves the Dylan the Duck that Robert’s dad picked out for her; it hangs where she can see it while having her diaper changed, and if she starts to get fussy we rattle one of the fish and she turns to look at it
    • Photos — we put a frame with our baby pictures in it on Eleanor’s changing table and she stares at it forever
    • Bookcases full of books — lots of colors! a good place to pause when roaming the room with a baby
    • Anything hanging on the wall — paintings, etc.

Books for the 1st year

  • It was impossible to read anything other than board books, b/c Eleanor insisted on grabbing, tearing, & eating everything, so paper books wouldn’t have survived.  We set those aside for later :)
  • Books that rhyme & are very rhythmic, or involved us making animal sounds, were the most interesting at first
    • Dr. Seuss, especially Mr. Brown Can Moo but all the shorter, rhyming stories too, like One Fish Two Fish, Hop on Pop, Cat in the Hat, There’s a Wocket in my Pocket
    • Sandra Boynton — The Going to Bed Book, Not the Hippopotamus, The Barnyard Dance
  • Eleanor also loved this Flip a Face book
  • Lift-the-flap books became a big hit around 6 months
    • Who Said Moo?
    • Dear Zoo
    • Baby Says Peekaboo
  • Books w/ photos of babies & animals
    • Baby Says Peekaboo
    • First 100 Animals

Other stuff…

  • Amish nursing pillow and cover: This is like a Boppy except that it’s made of organic cotton stuffed with wool. Nice for nursing and great for supporting baby on her back or in tummy time.
  • Clothes
    • Socks that fit and stay on: Baby’s First Socks by Hanna Andersson. They are expensive (2 pairs for $5, but sometimes some colors are marked down) but worth it because otherwise you’ll buy a bunch of socks that are too small, fall off, and get lost. Order a few pairs in each size (newborn, 2-5 months, 6-12 months) so you don’t have to pay for shipping more than once or think about socks again for a long time.
    • Side-snap T’s are really handy in the first couple of weeks. They leave the umbilical cord uncovered so it can breathe, and you don’t have to figure out how to get a shirt over a floppy newborn head. Even if it’s summer in California you need some long-sleeved ones at first.
  • Carriers
    • New Native baby sling (or something similar) is nice for the newborn stage when the baby can’t sit up or hold its head up at all. It lets you have the baby with you while leaving your hands free, and Eleanor fell asleep right away once she was cozied up against us and we were moving around. You also can use it to go for walks.
    • The Moby Wrap lets you wrap the baby against you in all sorts of positions, different ones for different ages. Even tiny babies can be wrapped in an upright position, which is nice if you need to keep them upright after feedings.
    • The Ergo Carrier is great after the first couple of months, once they can hold their heads up a bit. It’s better for the baby’s spine because once they’re old enough they can wrap their legs around you inside the carrier rather than dangling, so it’s like a supported piggyback (or piggy-front) carry, and it’s better for your back too because a lot of the weight is distributed on your hips, so it’s feasible to keep using it with older toddlers.
  • Cribs, Co-Sleepers, Mattresses
    • Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper: It attaches to the side of your bed so your baby is right next to you but safely on his/her own sleep surface. The Convertible models can be used as a co-sleeper, bassinet, or play yard / travel crib. We have the Mini Convertible because we don’t have that much space.
    • Mattresses: Highly recommend getting an organic mattress that is not treated with any flame retardant chemicals, because the chemicals are neurotoxic and your baby is going to spend a lot of time on the mattress. Organic mattresses can meet flame retardant requirements without any chemicals because the materials used (e.g., wool) are naturally flame retardant.
      • Arm’s Reach sells an organic mattress for their co-sleepers. It’s made of latex, wool, and an organic cotton cover, isn’t treated with flame retardants, and is MUCH nicer than the mattress that comes with the co-sleeper. We also have and really like the wool puddle pad that they sell. We have the Original size and it still works with the mini co-sleeper (the extra just folds over the edge of the mattress like a fitted sheet); we like that it’s bigger so we’ll be able to keep using it after she outgrows the little co-sleeper. It does a really good job of repelling liquids so that they soak into the sheet and don’t even seem to wet the pad.
      • When buying an organic crib mattress, make sure it really doesn’t contain flame retardant chemicals. Babies R Us sells a relatively inexpensive Sealy “organic” crib mattress, but while it is made with organic cotton the other materials are no different from those in standard mattresses and it is NOT free of flame-retardant chemicals, so there is no reason to buy it over a less-expensive standard mattress. Good organic, flame-retardant-free crib mattresses are at least $300, but if you get a crib that converts to a toddler bed you can get a lot of life out of the mattress.
  • Misc.

Diapers

We use cloth diapers with Eleanor, but when she was really little we had a hard time finding ones that worked, both because of her umbilical cord stump and how tiny she was. We ended up using disposables the first month — more on that below. When she was a month old we went to a cloth diaper workshop and got some covers we liked better, ways to make the prefold diapers fit better, and also some fitted diapers that fit little ones well. By that point she had grown into the infant prefolds so we didn’t have to fold the front or back down at all, and that helped a lot too. I think we could’ve transitioned to cloth earlier if we’d known the options we now have — mostly the fitted diapers and the better covers. I think we still would have ended up using disposables until her cord stump healed, because even the covers we like have a pretty high rise in the newborn size. Info on good cloth & disposable options, plus wipes, diaper rash cream, & laundry detergent, below:

Cloth Diapers and Other Necessities

  • Diaper covers:
    • My sister originally tried all-cotton Nikky covers but her boy could pee right through them, so she switched to Thirsties, which have a waterproof PUL inner layer. The Thirsties didn’t work for us early on because the gathered/elastic part at the top would turn inward and dig into her skin from where she lay on it, leaving uncomfortable-looking red marks.  We use our hand-me-down Thirsties as backups and are happier with them now that we aren’t using a thick doubled-up diaper under them.
    • Our favorites are Imsy Vimsy organic cotton covers. They’re cotton with a waterproof PUL liner in-between the layers. They fit well, contain leaks, and don’t leave marks on her skin, b/c the gathered part is about a centimeter below the top of the diaper, so they lie flat.
  • Prefold diapers: we’re using these most of the time.
    • We have unbleached infant-sized diapers (supposedly fit most babies until about 9 months IF you aren’t “pinning” them with pins or a Snappi, but I don’t know how you’d expect them to hold newborn poop w/o something to hold them together under the wrap), 4×8x4 ply. You can get thinner ones but I don’t think they would absorb enough because she can soak these pretty thoroughly. They were too bulky when she was really little, because we had to fold the back down a bit so they wouldn’t extend above the rise of a cover, but when she was a month old they fit well.
    • The trick to using prefolds is to buy a couple of Snappis. They hold the diaper together and they’re really quick to put on, and make it easy to put the cover over the diaper. They’re cheap and you don’t need many of them. We have 2, and one lives in the diaper bag in case we go somewhere with her wearing a fitted diaper (no Snappi needed) but need to change her into a prefold.
    • Folding a prefold:
      • We’re using the bikini fold / twist fold right now, because it creates less bulk between the legs. Probably as she grows we’ll move on to other folds. We don’t do it exactly like the folds demonstrated on the sites below. We start with the diaper completely unfolded, place her on it so that the back of it is at belly-button height. Then we fold the sides in on a little bit of a diagonal so that the front is in the narrow configuration but the back is still wide; then we twist as we bring the front up to her belly button, open out the front, and secure with the Snappi.
      • Sites demonstrating folds:
  • Fitted diapers: an alternative to using prefolds.
    • They are shaped like a disposable and you snap them closed before putting a cover over them. They can be snapped in different configurations to make them fit as the baby grows.
    • They cost a lot more than prefolds. You don’t need as many covers with them though b/c you won’t have leaks.
    • We had 6 of the Kissaluvs newborn-sized fitted diapers. They are really soft and absorbent and easy to use, and they have never leaked poop, which we can’t say for the prefolds. We didn’t get them until she was a month old but I think they would fit a newborn much better than prefolds; you can snap down the front so they have a lower rise. I also think they keep her a bit dryer than the prefolds when she has a wet diaper. We ended up buying 24 of the Size 1 Kissaluvs (enough for every-other-day laundering) when she outgrew the newborn ones, because she was outgrowing her infant-sized prefolds too and we like the Kissaluvs a lot better than prefolds. The Size 1 should fit her for a long time (up to 25 lbs).
    • We also have 6 of the Kissaluvs doublers, which increase the absorption of a cloth diaper. We put one in her diaper before bedtime, since she doesn’t wake up when she pees at night.
  • Wipes: we use flannel wipes w/ water.  We have about 40 wipes and we do go through them.  We made our own from a yard of organic flannel b/c it was much cheaper that way, but if you don’t have a sewing machine or time to stitch all those edges, by all means buy them, it’s still much cheaper than buying disposable wipes & much better for baby & the environment.  We have a little 2oz Nalgene toiletry bottle filled with water in her diaper bag.
  • Diaper rash cream: we use Motherlove Nipple Cream. Zinc barrier creams are discouraged w/ cloth diapers b/c the zinc gets on the diaper & makes it less absorbent. Motherlove also makes a diaper cream, but it contains myrrh and I was afraid it might be irritating; their nipple cream is also intended to work as a diaper cream, and it has worked really well for us — no rash so far!
  • Laundering Cloth Diapers
    • Allen’s Naturally liquid detergent: eco-friendly, very concentrated, and has no fragrances, dyes, fabric softeners, or enzymes; recommended by lots of cloth diaper companies.  This site explains why you want to avoid those 4 ingredients, and rates tons of detergents for diaper laundering.
    • Line-drying in the sun, followed by a short stint in the dryer to get them soft & fluffy: saves energy, and the sun bleaches out stains in no time.
    • Fabric softeners or dryer sheets will ruin the absorption of cloth diapers (and are unhealthy anyway).

Disposable Diapers

  • Seventh Generation: We used the size 1 ones (not the newborn size) in the hospital and until her cord fell off. She was 7 lbs 1 oz so it could be that a smaller baby would need the newborn size We just folded the front down a tiny bit before securing them. They’re great because they have no chlorine or fragrances, so they weren’t irritating. But like any disposables they have super absorbent polymer (SAP) gel, which can get on their skin. And we hated throwing away diapers all day. And disposables are much more expensive than cloth because you have to keep buying them.
  • gDiapers: These are a partially-disposable option. You have a cloth diaper cover with a plastic liner that you snap into it, and both of these are washable. Then you buy disposable inserts that you fit into the plastic liner. The good thing is that the disposable insert contains no plastic and is biodegradable. You can flush, toss, or compost it. I also liked that if she just made a tiny stain on the insert I could flip it over so the dirty part didn’t touch her skin, whereas with a regular disposable I would’ve had to throw it out. Like the Seventh Generation, the inserts are fragrance-free but contain SAP gel. The main downside is that these are about as bulky and high in the rise as cloth diapers, so I’d rather just use cloth. If you have to go to a laundromat and cloth diapering is just too much, these might be a good option. Also some people argue that these are more environmentally friendly than cloth because you don’t use so much water & energy laundering. I still have a bias toward reusable options, and in our case we line dry our diapers for the most part so I think cloth works out better. A final note on the gDiapers is that they’re notably more expensive than regular disposables (although being able to flip & reuse occasionally makes one of them as good as two disposables) and they are much more expensive than cloth.
  • How to get disposables inexpensively: Amazon.com sells both Seventh Generation and gDiapers, and I’m sure other brands, in cases of 4 packs. You can save 15% by buying through their “subscription service,” which automatically ships you a new case every X months, with free shipping, but you can cancel the subscription right after you order, so it’s the best way to order even one case.

Breastfeeding Supplies

  • Most important is trying the bottle early enough & persistently enough if you plan to pump at times! We thought Eleanor was fine with the bottle b/c she drank maybe an ounce the first time I pumped, at about 5 weeks. Didn’t try it again until 1 week later when I went to my first postnatal yoga class, and it was a disaster. Still working on it at 10 weeks and I’m due back at work in a week! Since she figured out breastfeeding so fast (was already back at her birth weight at her 3-day checkup) we should’ve tried the bottle sooner and kept giving her one bottle a day. Honestly we didn’t do it sooner b/c I hadn’t read the pump instructions or sterilized the parts & bottles before she was born, and things like that are easy to put off once you have a newborn, so I recommend preparing in advance! Will post any insights I have once we figure this out. Will say that she seems to like the Medela nipples better than the similarly-shaped but less soft Evenflo ones, and likes the Nuks better than the Evenflo ones too, but neither are making her happy just yet.
  • Medela Pump in Style Advanced: This is the double electric pump everyone seems to get if they need a pretty effective pump for returning to work. The cheapest place I’ve seen it is drugstore.com. It comes in a shoulder bag version and a backpack version. I didn’t like the microfiber bag’s chemical smell so I transferred all the contents to a great canvas diaper bag someone gave me (Skip Hop Spark), but the bag it comes with is definitely handy.
  • Medela Harmony: A single hand pump. I like having this in addition to the Pump in Style because I can leave the big pump at the office and still have something at home when I need to pump, and also so I have something I can carry with me to school, meetings, etc.
  • Evenflo Classic Glass Nursers: These glass bottles fit the Medela pumps and are incredibly inexpensive. They come in 4oz and 8oz sizes and have silicone nipples. Glass is a safe alternative to some plastic bottles. The Medela plastic bottles also are safe because they don’t contain bisphenol A (see toxins page). The Medela plastic bottles are good when you’re pumping milk that you plan to use within 24 hours, whereas glass is better if you’re going to store it for longer, because some of the white blood cells in breast milk adhere to glass at first (and thus aren’t in the milk) but release over 24 hours; after 24 hours milk stored in glass has higher levels of white blood cells than milk stored in plastic. I ended up only using the glass ones though b/c I didn’t like the smell of the plastic ones. The glass nursers can go in the freezer as well as the plastic ones, just leave a little space for the milk to expand.
  • Bravado nursing bras & tanks: These worked best for me and a couple of other people I know. They’re considered good for the engorgement phase because each size actually fits a range of sizes. I used them as maternity bras too but had to get a different size once I was nursing, so don’t spend too much on them during pregnancy.
  • Milk Diapers nursing pads: These are all-cotton, effective, and fairly discrete under clothing. I recommend the 5-layer unbleached. I have some 4-layer ones too and they aren’t noticeably thicker so why not get more protection. You may need to double up early on. I’d recommend at least 10 pairs (2 packs of 10 pads), maybe more if you aren’t cloth diapering and therefore aren’t doing laundry as often as we are :) You can get 20% off your order with code SP-20. Other natural-fabric options are wool and hemp, but the Milk Weeds cotton-hemp ones I tried leaked right through. You don’t want anything with a waterproof layer because you need it to breathe.
  • Bebe au Lait nursing cover-up: Nice to have for nursing in public.