When preparing for a baby we had literally no idea what we would need. In the beginning, if you choose to breast feed, you definitely do not more than a handful of things. However, when the mom is ready to stop breast feeding – it happens very abruptly. These are some crucial items that you should have on deck for when you make the progression from breast feeding to bottle feeding to formula feeding to solids. This is a judge free zone, so if you jump straight to bottle or formula feeding you will need these sooner than you think!
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This is the only logical way to sterilize bottles. You do still have to wash the bottles before putting them in here, but that goes with any bottle sterilizer. Even though you can stop sterilizing bottles after the first few months, I still use this as a countertop dryer for all of the baby products I take out of the dishwasher.
This is great if you plan on doing a lot of pumping. Its convenient to be able to do things around the house, go for a walk, or even wear them in the car before going somewhere. Not necessary but nice to have and definitely helps with the mental toll that pumping takes on you.
This is the most generic breast pump you will find. Amazon only seems to have this carrying case bundle which I think is probably overkill. Before buying or adding to your registry, you should check with your insurance as they will likely cover all or most of the cost of it.
Extra set of pump parts that work with the Spectra. Pumping causes so many dishes to build up and you won’t always have a chance to clean all the parts, sterilize, and dry before the next pump session. You need these.
Keurig for bottles. Enough said, you need this. Be sure to buy 2 extra funnels because you need to clean the funnel after every 4 uses so it is convenient to just switch them out when you are in a pinch.
Any nursing pillow should do the trick. Nice to give baby a place to lie down while feeding. It then doubles as a good training pillow for tummy time. Also helps for visitors who are nervous to hold the baby have a little bit of a support cushion (literally).
Clip baby onto your counter or table so you can sit right next to them while eating. We have stopped using the high chair and only rely on this. It is nice to sit at the same table while your baby explores food. You can leave it the trunk of your car to bring places with you incase you find yourself in a pickle of somewhere not having a high chair.
I didn’t think this was necessary in the beginning, but once your baby starts solids this is a must have. Makes clean up so much easier.
Get at least 20 burp cloths, they will be all over your house for the first few weeks. Pro tip: get a color that is different than your bed sheets so you can actually find them in the middle of the night. White on white was a bad choice…
Great for teething. Can freeze water or fruit purees to add to them. Whenever our baby was crying we would give him one of these filled with pear purée and he would instantly stop. Babies love it too!
This is great to freeze fruit purées in to put in the Forage Feeder mentioned above. It gives your baby some relief from teething pain while introducing new foods to them!
Gotta stay away from plastics!
This is great for when you want to start introducing solids to your baby. The double compartments make it so much easier to steam two separate vegetables at the same time. This is definitely the way to go if you plan on making homemade purées, saves so much time and dishes.
When you’re ready to introduce solids, these are great to store homemade purees in. When you’re ready to feed you can just pop one out and defrost. They are a bit messier than I expected.
You will need these if you are planning to pump. A few important things to note; you need to write how many ounces are on them, you need to freeze them lying flat, the time of day is important because evening breast milk contains melatonin in it, and if you plan on building up a stash of breast milk be sure to introduce it to your baby before you quit pumping altogether as the frozen milk has a different taste that some babies reject.
This chair gets so much hate from our fellow parent friends and I think the main reason why is because it is hard for your baby to sit independently in it. We purchased the additional infant insert and had no problems at all. I would say do not even attempt to clean the fabric each meal and just leave it off. But this is definitely the best looking high chair out there.
We found so much success introducing water to our baby with this cup. Its pretty much leak proof and since it is clear you can see exactly how much you are squeezing into their mouth.
This is the equivalent of a Stanley cup for toddlers. It is the only cup our son will drink out of. Highly recommend.
A clean, baby-friendly dishwasher detergent is great when hand washin bottles and pump parts.
This is a great alternative to the hakaa that most people buy. I like this one better because you can wear it while you are breastfeeding your baby and they aren’t able to kick it off as easily as the hakaa.