Your Baby Gear Guide
Building a baby registry for the first time feels like being handed a 400-item shopping list in a foreign language. Every product claims to be essential, and the sheer volume of options can make even the most organized person spiral. The baby industry is massive, and it is expertly designed to make new parents feel like they need everything on the shelf before the baby arrives. The good news is that real parents, after living through those early months, have strong opinions about what actually earned its place in the nursery and what collected dust from day one. Here are the 10 things first-time parents most wish they had bought sooner, followed by the 10 they wish they had skipped entirely.
1. A Delivery Membership
When you’re running on three hours of sleep and realize you are down to your last two diapers at midnight, a same-day or next-day delivery membership becomes the most valuable subscription you own. Parents who signed up for delivery services consistently say it felt like a lifeline during those chaotic early weeks when leaving the house was its own logistical production.
2. An Electric Nail File
Baby nails grow at a genuinely alarming rate, and they are sharp enough to leave scratches on a newborn's own face within days of birth. An electric nail file designed for infants is far gentler and less terrifying to use than traditional clippers.
3. Two-Way Zipper Footie Pajamas
A sleeper with a zipper that opens from both the top and the bottom is a small design detail that makes a significant difference during 3 a.m. diaper changes. You can handle the whole ordeal without fully undressing the baby, which means less wriggling, less crying, and a faster return to sleep for everyone involved.
4. Burp Cloths, And Lots Of Them
The standard advice to buy a few burp cloths vastly underestimates how much a newborn spits up, and many parents find themselves doing laundry daily just to keep up.
5. A Baby Bouncer
A reliable bouncer, whether a vibrating model or a well-reviewed option like the BabyBjörn, gives parents somewhere safe to set the baby down while actually using both hands.
6. A Sound Machine
A dedicated sound machine with red-light and sleep-schedule features, like the Hatch, is something parents routinely say they wish they had set up before the baby came home, rather than scrambling to order it during the first sleepless week.
Christiano Sinisterra on Pexels
7. Velcro Swaddles
Velcro swaddles or zip-up options like Love to Dream take the guesswork out entirely and stay secure through even the most determined escape attempts.
8. A Portable Changing Pad
A portable, wipeable changing pad means diaper changes can happen anywhere in the house without committing to a dedicated changing station in one room.
9. A Supportive Baby Carrier
A well-fitted carrier keeps the baby close and content while freeing up both of your hands, which turns out to be enormously useful for basic tasks like eating, answering the door, and functioning as a person. Wraps like the Solly and structured carriers like the BabyBjörn or Artipoppe are frequently cited by experienced parents as purchases they wish they had made before they were already desperate for a hands-free solution.
Christopher Luther on Unsplash
10. Thick, Absorbent Bibs
The bibs that come in aesthetic gift sets are often too thin to do any real work, and parents learn quickly that absorbency matters far more than appearance. Thick cotton or terry cloth bibs are the ones that actually catch drool and spit-up before it soaks through to a freshly changed outfit, which means fewer clothing changes per day and a little less laundry piling up.
1. Muslin Burp Cloths And Swaddles
Muslin has become almost synonymous with baby products, but the thin, loosely woven versions that fill most gift registries absorb almost nothing and fall apart after a few washes. Parents who stocked up on them before birth often end up setting them aside in favor of something with real thickness and absorbency within the first two weeks.
2. An Expensive Baby Swing
High-end swings like the MamaRoo come with a significant price tag and the assumption that every baby will love them, which turns out not to be true at all. Many parents report that their baby showed zero interest, or that the swing was cumbersome to clean, leaving a very expensive piece of equipment sitting unused in the corner.
3. A Bottle Sterilizer
Bottle sterilizers seem sensible in theory, but many parents find that their dishwasher handles sanitizing perfectly well, or that the model they chose did not actually fit their specific bottles.
4. A Wipe Warmer
The idea of a wipe warmer sounds considerate, but in practice, it tends to dry out wipes, requires near-constant refilling to stay useful, and introduces one more thing to plug in and maintain. Most babies adjust to room-temperature wipes within a few seconds, and parents who skipped the warmer overwhelmingly say they do not miss it.
5. Baby Shoes
Shoes on a baby who cannot yet stand, let alone walk, serve no practical purpose beyond looking adorable in photos. They fall off constantly, they are hard to get onto tiny feet, and the baby has no use for them whatsoever. They sure are cute in photos, though!
6. Baby Towels
Baby towels with the little animal-ear hoods are charming, but a regular household towel works just as well and often covers more of a wet, slippery baby than the smaller dedicated versions do. Parents who bought several sets report using them briefly before switching back to ordinary towels.
7. Stuffed Animals And Cuddly Toys
Newborns have no interest in stuffed animals, and safe sleep guidelines recommend keeping soft toys entirely out of the crib for the first year. The result is that many parents end up with a shelf full of plush toys the baby cannot safely interact with, which sit there looking decorative while taking up space that could have been used for something functional.
8. A Baby Bathtub
Dedicated baby bathtubs are bulky, awkward to drain, and typically outgrown within a few months. Many parents discover that bathing a newborn in a clean sink or using a simple foam support in the regular tub works just as well.
9. An Aesthetic Nursing Pillow
Nursing pillows designed primarily to look good in nursery photos tend to be too soft, too flat, or the wrong shape to provide real support during long feeding sessions. Parents who struggled with positioning say they wished they had prioritized function from the start, since the right pillow makes a measurable difference in both comfort and latch success.
10. A High-End Video Baby Monitor
Expensive video monitors with breathing trackers and connectivity features seem reassuring, but many parents find that the alerts cause more anxiety than comfort and that the monitors generate frequent false readings. For parents whose baby sleeps nearby, a simple audio monitor or even a fan positioned correctly often proves more than sufficient without the added worry that a complex device can introduce.
