10 essential and practical must-haves on your baby registry.
Are you a parent-to-be? Are you already a parent but looking for ideas? Or are you a gift giver who’s looking for inspiration for a baby shower present? Well you came to the right place!
The items I’ve listed below are what I personally found helpful to have on my baby shower list. I made this post in hopes of inspiring you and helping you with ideas. I wasn't just looking for the typical items like diapers and cute baby clothes, I wanted to put items that ultimately were:
-multipurpose
-necessary
-practical
-and/or reusable.
So here are the top 10 items on my baby shower list.
We all know diapers are great and functional presents, but
opt out of receiving the actual diapers. Instead, go for diaper and diaper-related FUNDS. Why you ask? Even though there’s information out there of roughly how many diapers in what size you should buy and you can return them, resell them or give the excess away, why bother doing that extra step? Sometimes you might need more size 1 diapers versus size 3 diapers. You just don’t know until your baby comes. Why bother wasting the space for diapers of varying sizes that you might need, especially if you’re limited in space. What I did was asked for wipes and diaper FUNDS in the form of money or giftcards (i.e., Amazon giftcards, Target giftcards, Walmart giftcards, etc.).
Plus, for present givers these two items are easier to buy as compared to figuring out what size diapers you think they’d need, or if other people already got too many of that specific size, etc. etc.
And with wipes, I haven’t had to buy wipes for my little one for more than a year, because I got so many at my baby shower. Some people might be thinking, “well there’s so many wipes out there, and you don’t know if the parents have a specific brand preference…or once the baby’s born if his skin will be sensitive, so on and so forth.” I was very aware of these things both as a soon-to-be parent and also a baby shower gift giver. So for my baby, I started out with a brand that had minimal ingredients and was more natural as compared to other wipes. On my baby shower list I added a few boxes of water wipes.
Here’s a bonus. Throughout my journey of looking for baby-related items, especially for items for my baby’s first few years of life and given that I was more cautious of the ingredients in those products, I used a great app called Think Dirty. It rates items (not just baby things but a host of other products like shampoos and house cleaners) of how “safe” they are given their ingredient list. There’s other apps out there such as this, but this is the one I used found helpful.
#3 Nail cutter/filer
Baby nails are so tiny and can be very scary to cut for some. I love this nail filer, because it’s easy to use, it grows with them AND you can use it for your baby and yourself. So you get the most of your buck!
#4 Diaper pail REFILLS
Don’t only ask for a diaper pail on your list, more importantly ask for REFILLS. No matter what diaper pail you have, the refills are where it’s at! We got one of the Dekor hands-free pails. After doing my research, I essentially chose a Dekor diaper pail, because it can act like a regular trashcan down the road. You can actually also just use a regular trash bag with it once you run out of the refills. It has been almost two years since we’ve had the Dekor hand-free pail, and because I had put the refills on our baby registry, we haven’t had to buy any refills yet.
Speaking of dirty diapers, another great item that I added to my baby shower list were scented dirty diaper bags. If we were on the go or there weren't any trashcans close by, I’d put the dirty diaper in one of these. They’re basically like scented doggy bags but for diapers. Very handy and doesn’t expire. After your diaper days are over, you can use them for your next baby, give them away, or use them for your pet. Handy and multipurpose!
We opted out of getting a traditional crib and got a pack n’ play instead, because they're practical, multifunctional and super portable. If your family travels often, this is also a great purchase. The breakdown and setup of a pack n’ play is made to be super simple and easy. It can act as a bassinet when they’re smaller, it has a changing area, and it transitions into a crib. Very worth the price if you ask me. I also bought a foldable mattress that can be taken out and water proof sheets in case of accidents.
Here’s another great, easy, portable, space-saving item. We use this on-the-go, to grandparents’ house, in restaurants, outside in the park, and even at home. Another great reason why I love this so much--other than how compact it is--is that it’s also super easy to clean. It’s so versatile, basically fits on any chair that has a backrest.
#8-10 Baby soap, baby detergent, baby dish soap
I would have to say that as a gift-giver I didn’t see much of these three items on baby shower lists. But honestly, why not??? These are items that we use pretty regularly. Trust me, you'll be using these items before your baby even comes. So it's great to already have them handy. Like most of the items on this list, I did take the time to do my mommy research, so here are a few suggestions in hopes that it would save you some time.
Check out Part 2 for 10 more items!
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