It doesn’t matter where you go, it is almost a guarantee that you will find highly intense marketing, specifically catering to parents, trying to sell you so many different types of “baby must haves.” The cuteness overload can be very tempting, we know.
We also know that if you are a new parent, preparing for a newborn can be awfully overwhelming. You can easily convince yourself that raising a newborn requires an array of gadgets & an abundance of baby specific products. Fortunately for you, we are here to debunk that myth. We are here to prevent you from falling into that newborn marketing trap. You will soon realize that you will not miss these items below. These “baby must haves” are not only unnecessary but can run you a hefty budget.
01. Baby Bottle Warmer
We know that babies enjoy their milk warm. But, it is unnecessary to purchase a bottle warmer that you only need temporarily, you can not travel with it, & it takes up space on your counter top.
If you are formula feeding your baby, you know it is recommended that you use hot water to make your baby’s bottle. Despite of this, you do not need to purchase any new appliances to accomplish this – instructions state you should bring water to a boil in a pot. You can also try warming a refrigerated bottle or thawing frozen breast milk by running your baby’s bottles under hot tap water for a few minutes.
If you are a breastfeeding mother, your milk is naturally warm at your body’s temperature, so your baby may already be accustomed to having natural warm milk but this does not have to mean that your baby exclusively relies on warm milk. Room temperature or cold milk is perfectly safe according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).
However, if you are always on the go & would prefer a bottle warmer while traveling to & from your destination, we recommend a portable baby bottle warmer suitable for both breast milk & formula. You can’t just whip out your pot to warm up a bottle of milk while driving, so this portable baby bottle warmer will come in very handy!
02. Bottle Sterilizer
There are no scientific or medical studies to prove that you need a baby sterilizer. If you are properly cleaning & sanitizing your bottles after every use just like you do with your dishes, you have nothing to worry about. To keep bottles consistently clean with no leftover residue, we recommend purchasing glass baby bottles. Unlike plastic bottles, glass baby bottles are not porous. Because plastic is porous, it absorbs a lot of the liquid or food it is stored in. Especially in high cool & hot temperatures. Therefore, plastic bottles will always have any residue attached to them making it difficult to maintain them clean & sanitized them unlike glass baby bottles.
03. Baby Wipes Warmer
Unfortunately, wipe warmers are a great breeding ground for bacterial, fungi, & mold growth due to the exposure of warm moisture. This could cause some nasty diaper rashes on your baby’s bum. You will have to be very attentive to your wipes warmer ensuring cleanliness, safety (as they must always remain on emitting heat + the combination of heat & water could potentially be hazardous), & maintenance (due to the heat, wipes will easily dry out so you will need a specialized solution).
Once again, this is just another product with no scientific or medical studies to prove that a baby wipe warmer is necessary. You could easily find yourself dependent on this product until your child is potty trained making it inconvenient for you to maintain. Besides, it is impossible for you to carry a wipe warmer while on-the-go anyways. So, there really is not a reason for you to make this type of investment.
04. Rocking Chair
Rocking chairs are more expensive than anyone could anticipate. Their price range can go from $600 to $2,000+. The price of a rocking chair could easily equate to a month’s worth of rent. This item is not something that you need to include in your baby must haves list but, it is a lovely luxury to have in your nursery if you have the space or the finances to accommodate. It is a great chair to relax in with your baby, provide you with comfort, & support you or your partner for feedings & putting your little one to sleep. But once again, not essential. There are plenty of ways to feel comfortable, relaxed, & supportive without the hefty investment.
05. Walkers & Jumpers
Some parents purchase walkers & jumpers because they believe that these assist their babies with learning how to walk sooner. On the contrary, that is far from true. These mechanisms actually delay learning how to walk because walking is about standing & balancing on your own which walkers & jumpers do not do. In fact, walkers & jumpers can be very dangerous.
What makes them so dangerous?
Well, walkers make a lot of unsafe things accessible to a baby that should not be in their reach such as a hot pot on a stove. There also have been a numerous of injuries reported pertaining to babies falling down stairs causing serious injuries to their head, spines, & necks & reports of babies falling into pools resulting in drowning. Jumpers on the other hand, place a lot of pressure on their toes to bounce themselves off the floor which can also delay their ability to learn how to walk. There also have been a number of injuries linked to jumpers such as babies falling out & hip dysplasia.
Our best recommendation is to invest in a play gym where they are entertained through developmental activities. Create a designated space in your home utilizing a playpen where your little one can play, learn to roll over, crawl, sit, & stand all in a safe, supervised environment.
06. Bassinet
Bassinets are only useful for up to 3 – 6 months, depending on your newborn’s weight & size you might stop using it even sooner than that. There are also other milestones that your newborn could reach prior to that timeline that will require a transition to a crib, such as rolling over. After your baby has met specific requirements & has outgrown their bassinet, you must transition your baby to a crib. Alternatively, the immediate, ideal baby must have would be to purchase a crib & skipping the bassinet altogether. Begin your newborn’s sleeping journey with a convertible crib instead. A convertible crib will follow your baby’s sleep journey from the beginning all the way to the toddler years.
07. Infant Lounger
Infant loungers should not necessarily be on your baby’s must haves list, this is because they can be both safe & unsafe to use. They must be used with immense alert supervision & never used for sleeping. Because of this, the purchase of these loungers must be to the parents’ discretion. If unsupervised, a baby can fall to the ground, roll over, fall asleep, or suffocate.
For the first couple of months, they may keep your baby calm & comfortable but they will quickly outgrow it. The best place for an infant to sleep will be in their crib, where it is designed to do so & approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics (APP). Due to its nature, a lounger does not meet their requirements. Loungers are meant to be used for lounging, just as the name suggests.
08. Nursing Pillow
Nursing pillows are not a feeding requirement. They can be bulky, expensive, difficult to clean, uncomfortable to the body for some moms, inconvenient to store, & only good for a small time-period of your feeding journey. The purpose of a nursing pillow is to help support your arm, wrist, shoulder, & back while you are breastfeeding or bottle feeding your baby. You can absolutely do that with a regular pillow as long as it comfortable for you & your baby. Considering babies grow pretty swiftly, by the time your little one gets older, heavier, & are able to hold their heads up on their own, you will quickly find yourself phasing out the nursing pillow.
09. Changing Pad or Changing Table
Your little ones will outgrow those changing tables & pads very quickly. It will be more convenient to invest in a foldable, portable changing pad that you can take anywhere with you. Not only that, but changing pads & tables are only reliable in one location, & that is the nursery or the babies’ sleeping corner. When a baby has to go, you will soon realize that you are going to change them anywhere at anytime. Having something that is going to be easy to grab & go, will be very practical for any caregiver.
If you are looking for a convenient place for storing all your babies’ changing needs in one location (such as diapers, wipes, creams, et cetera), then repurpose the top drawer of a dresser instead of investing in a table. As you are building your babies’ storage area, create a designated spot for easily accessible diaper changes especially throughout the night. You can even invest in a baby diaper caddy that you can fill with any essentials that you can take around the house with you or even keep in your car.
10. Baby Food Processor
There are a multitude of methods you can use to make baby food at home – you can use a blender, a pot & boil some potatoes, a fork to mash food, a food processor, a cup (an old-fashioned method to make mashed plantains), a stainless-steel potato masher, etc. There are a few other methods that we can think of but instead, we encourage you to take a tour of your own kitchen & find what tools could work best for you.
11. Children’s Car Seat Gear & Toys
Children’s car seats are there to protect children in case of a serious accident by safely keeping your child inside the vehicle with minimal to no injuries. If you start cluttering that personal space with different types of gear & toys like an activity tray or a head strap, all safety precautions went out the window immediately. These are extremely dangerous! They can be choking hazards & cause great projectile risks when or if an accident occurs. Possibly becoming deadly.
If it did not arrive with your car seat & if it is not permitted by the manufacturer, do not purchase it! If you want to keep your baby entertained, especially during those long trips, invest in some soft toys that do not pose any risk in case of an accident & store them away from their car seat.
12. Swaddles & Sleep Sacks (Including Weighted)
If you choose not to swaddle your baby, nothing bad will happen. It is best that you choose not to swaddle your little ones because there is barely any evidence that proves any benefits to swaddling & preventing any health risks. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), “There is no evidence to recommend swaddling as a strategy to reduce the risk of SIDS.” & “Weighted swaddle clothing or weighted objects within swaddles are not safe & therefore not recommended.”
The AAP also states in their guidelines that once your infant begins to show signs of rolling, using swaddles could increase the risk of suffocation. A few other possible dangers to swaddling may include overheating, SIDS, & hip dysplasia due to the stress of lack of movement of baby’s legs. Evidently, science has proven that there is no safe way to swaddle a newborn.
13. Diaper Pails
Diaper pails are just trash cans but for diapers. & though it is advertised as so, diaper pails are not a reliable source for containing odors. This being the case, a regular trash can is perfectly fine for use. Managing the smell of diapers is of high priority for many parents so what you can do alternatively, is place your soiled diapers individually in doggy bags, invest in a stainless trash can with a lid (plastic trash can grasps odor due to its porous nature), & lastly, pour about 2 cups of baking soda at the bottom of your trash can which is know for eliminating odors.
14. Too Many Baby Clothes
We encourage all new parents not to include baby clothes in their registry & just purchase the baby clothes on your own. This is because we encourage parents to do your shopping when you can have a better grasp of length & weight of your baby because you might not need the NB sizes, & just go straight to that 0-3 months size.
When shopping, keep in mind that babies will outgrow their clothing very quickly. If you purchase too much, there will be plenty of clothing that will go unused, left with the tag on, & ready to be donated. So shop with precautions because you do not know how soon your baby will reach those growth milestones. Some newborns can grow so quickly that they could easily outgrow their 0 – 3 month size in just 3 weeks.
So shop for clothes that are comfortable, can get dirty, & that you can rotate consistently. These clothes are only going to last you at 3 – 6 months.
15. Baby Bottle Drying Rack
If you already have a dish drying rack at home or a dishwasher, a drying rack that is specific to baby bottles should not be on your baby’s must have list. It may seem practical to have a dedicated space on your kitchen countertop just for baby bottles, but it is just creating more unnecessary clutter. It will be fine to dry your baby bottles in the same preferred method you dry your dishes whether that is with a cloth, on a rack, or in a dishwasher.
16. Crib Bumpers or Pads
Unfortunately, most infant deaths such as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) occur in unsafe sleeping environments. Infants must sleep on a flat, non-inclined surface on their backs (preferably in a certified crib or bassinet) without any pillows, bumpers, or bedding sets. Crib bumpers specifically have been known to be responsible for causing suffocation, entrapment, & strangulation in infants. To create a safe sleeping environment, follow the safe sleep guidelines firmly recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
17. Newborn Shoes
Newborn shoes are too adorable & difficult to resist. However, babies cannot walk immediately after birth. Therefore, newborn shoes have no purpose except for style. These shoes are not considered a baby must have because they will be outgrown quickly, can easily be lost, & shoes are used to protect your feet only when walking. If you need to keep your baby’s feet nice & warm, invest in thicker socks or in footed onesies or bottoms.
18. High Chair
Seldom do your hear people talk about how inconvenient a high chair really is. If you take a deeper dive, you’ll find that most families complain about the following; how bulky they are (people trip on these all of the time because they take up so much space), how messy they can get – you will find food hidden in all of the little nooks & crannies, how inconvenient they are to clean, not all high chairs pair well with your dining table, & most importantly, they can be pretty costly for an item you are only going to use for a limited amount of time.
Besides, once your baby grows out of the high chair, what do you do with it? You can’t fold it down & put it away for storage. For these exact reasons, we recommend a portable baby booster chair that comes with its own tray that also grows with your child. Something that’s affordable, portable, easy to clean, & convenient. Your baby can grow in this chair all the way into the toddler years & they can eat anywhere with this booster chair – the dining chair, the floor, you can even take this booster seat to a restaurant with no difficulties.
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