Must-Have Baby Items - A Comprehensive List of Everything a New Mom Needs!
This one is for the new moms. The ones who are the first in their generation to have a new baby. The ones who are the first of their friends to have a new baby. This is a comprehensive list of all the best baby items between my very best girlfriends and I. After having 3 births in 26 months… I have a little bit of insight on what’s needed and what isn’t.
Full disclosure… I am a natural minded mom but am grateful for western medicine as well because without it, my son (my first born) wouldn’t be with us today. Because of his journey with pyloric stenosis, GERD, and v@x injuries you’ll see mostly naturally derived/organic items.
I thank God every day for the journey we’re on and pray that this list will help bring some peace to you before your little one makes it topside ♥
Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to make a purchase—at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I truly love and would use for my own family.
The Medicine Essentials
These are the things you want to store in your medicine cabinet for safe keeping.
I love these scissors for the newborns. Put them in your hospital go bag when you’re getting ready for baby’s arrival because no one prepares you for how long those little talons are and how much they scratch their own super sensitive little faces on accident. They’re super easy to use on a newborn.
Genexa Infants' Clean Acetaminophen
If you love Tylenol, this is almost identical… The same active ingredient but without all the added garbage. Remember to double check with your pediatrician on accurate dosing for your child’s weight/age.
Boogie Baby Saline Nasal Spray & Boogie Wipes
The Boogie Baby Nasal Spray and Boogie Wipes are the best for sniffly noses. The wipes are perfect for loosening up those pesky dried boogies off of baby’s face and the saline drops/spray is amazing for when those noses are just a little too clogged.
Frida Baby 3-in-1 Cool Mist Humidifier
While we pray that baby will never get sick, it’s important to be prepared in case it happens. This cool mist humidifier is my favorite for when the kiddos get sick. I run it on full blast all night and it helps loosen up all that nasty phlegm so they can get some much needed rest. Plus added bonus that it’s an essential oils diffuser too.
Frida Baby 3-in-1 Nose, Nail + Ear Picker
This nifty little tool helps pick those gnarly little crevices without hurting baby. I especially love how it’s designed perfectly so you can’t venture too far into baby’s ears or nose. I used this ALLLL the time in the first year (and even use it sometimes now - my oldest is 4).
Talk about an all natural itch relief… This stuff is awesome. I usually put this on bug bites for the littles to stop the scratching.
Colloidal Silver - Immune Support
If you’re not on the crunchy side, you can ignore this one but if you’re crunchy-ish and your kids eyes are stuck shut with goop, trust me, you’re going to want this in your cabinet. Story time — Amy (my youngest) woke up screaming because her eyes were stuck completely shut from eye boogers. After cleaning her eyes completely with some boogie wipes, I put one drop of this stuff in each of her eyes and poof — the goop never came back. It was like a little miracle. **disclaimer: this is not medical advice, just one mom’s experience. Please consult your doctor prior to using this product.
Frida Baby 3-in-1 Infrared Thermometer for Ear, Forehead & Touchless
I love this thermometer and have used it for all three kids. It gives a pretty accurate read for a home thermometer and It’s friendly enough for the kiddos to learn to use.
Hyland's Baby Mucus and Cold Relief
Hyland’s is my go-to OTC brand (well, that and Boiron). This is something you can easily pick up at Publix if you just need to get something super quick. I feel like it works so well and doesn’t have any of the nasty ingredients other cold relief medicines have. Plus the flavor is good and I find my kids asking for “more medicine”.
This is my current favorite brand of medicine not just for the kiddos but for my husband and I too. It’s been phenomenal at getting colds out of our home quick. Let me tell you with a 4, 3, and 2 year old we can end up sick for weeks at a time if I’m not on top of the treatment. If you open my medicine cabinet you’ll see it’s probably exploding with nearly every Boiron product they sell. I recommend them so highly because it’s a homeopathic brand that works better than most over the counter medicines.
Active Skin Repair - First Aid Natural & Non-Toxic Healing Ointment & Antiseptic Spray
Remember when we were kids and we’d get a cut and mom would be like “wait! let me grab the neosporin!!”. No? Just me? Well this is my neosporin except my kids just call it jelly. Every time my kids get a cut or a scrape, we put a little of this jelly on there and it’s good to go.
Dr. Green Mom Nature Profen Natural Relief for Infants & Kids
Dr. Green Mom (aka Dr. Green Life Organics — https://drgreenlifeorganics.com/) is one of my favorite brands on the planet. Not only is she a pediatrician but she’s a mom too so she gets it. She has a ton of different types of drops on her website that help with various things from tummy issues to immune support and everything in between. It’s not enough to just list one thing here, you really need to check out her website. Some of my favorites are the vitamin K support drops, the col-icky drops (life saver for my little GERD baby), and the Vax-Clear.
Alright so this one is a little gross (a lot of gross actually) but I needed it for all three kids. Maybe something about the formula they were fed but right around 2 months old, they all got stopped up. When the little babies can’t poo and the leg bicycles don’t work, this tool with a little coconut oil did the trick for all 3 of my kiddos. I pray you never need to use it but in the case that you have a screaming gassy baby, it’ll be nice to have on hand.
Now everyone raves about the Frida Baby Nose Sucker but I didn’t care for it. It was so difficult to suck and so I swapped that one for this one because this is an electric one that does all the work for you. Fair warning, the babies HATE it. I found it wasn’t very loud and did the job super quickly.
All things SLEEP related
Hopefully this list will not just bring you sleep but baby sleep as well. Now some of the things on here worked for one kid and not the others but remember no child is the same. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made — knit together in our mothers womb by the Master Designer — God. Because sleep can be such a hard thing to navigate I want to take a minute to pray over you and baby. Say this out loud over your baby and the Holy Spirit will bring you peace that surpasses understanding.
Father God, thank you for everything you’ve given us, for all the blessings you continually give us in our lives. Lord pour out your peace onto us, give us patience, kindness, gentleness, and most of all love. Father as I squeeze this little baby tight, help me remember that we are Your children first. Help me remember You will provide for us even when our hope is lacking. We take refuge in your promises to prosper us and that You will work all things out for good. Lord, let us both lie down in peace and sleep for You alone guarantee our safety. Let us wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle anything that comes our way. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
HALO 100% Cotton Sleepsack Swaddle
Every one of my kids slept in a Halo Sleep Sack at one point. Usually before they met the weight requirement for the Dreamland Baby Sleep Sack. This Swaddle is amazing if you’re not confident in your swaddling skills because it’s has velcro arms making it so easy to bundle them up nice and tight. I will say the only drawback is if they’re already sleeping, ripping the velcro tends to wake them up. I love how they make up for this by having a two way zipper so you can get to the diaper without having to take them completely out of the swaddle.
This one I discovered when my last baby was refusing to nap during the day. I felt like it was like magic. There’s the perfect amount of pressure around their little arms and chest that they feel like they’re being held and conk right out.
Dreamland Baby Weighted Sleep Swaddle
This… This sleep sack was actually a life saver. My little man refused to sleep after his pyloric stenosis surgery. It was like now that he could finally eat food, he didn’t want to miss a single moment. Also, it probably didn’t help that I shoved a bottle in his mouth at every movement because I was just so happy he could finally be awake enough to eat. Anyway, when he finally gained enough weight we tried this weighted sleep swaddle and when I tell you he went from only getting 2-4 hour stretches at night to getting 10-12 hour stretches at 2 months old, I was never giving this thing up. I still have it sitting in my closet waiting for my brother to have a baby. They’re pricey but worth every single penny. When they grow out of the swaddle sleep sacks you can move up in size to these ones — Dream Weighted Sleep Sack — we used them with all three kiddos until well over 12 months old.
Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit
I personally have never used this one.. My girlfriends swear by it though. The only drawbacks I heard with these is that they’re really warm so if your baby is little a furnace like mine are, this might not be the best option for you.
Now, this sock was a life saver for me when Willy came home from the hospital and was losing weight, not waking up to feed, and never awake. I remember people telling me how lucky I was that my newborn was already such a great sleeper but what they didn’t know is he had pyloric stenosis and was slowly starving… He wasn’t just a sleepy baby, he was lethargic and barely able to move from lack of nutrients. My anxiety was at an all time high because naturally, the doctors told me I didn’t know what I was talking about and because I was a first time mom I just didn’t know what spit up looked like.. Side note, don’t let the doctors tell you that. You are literally connected to your baby in ways science cannot comprehend. If you feel like something is wrong advocate for your baby. I had to yell at the ER doc just to get an ultrasound… they almost rushed us out of the hospital until I put my foot down and demanded more testing. Willy could’ve passed away that night. I still hate looking at photos of him at one month old — he was just skin and bones. Thank God the doctor picked up on the fact that I would burn the place down (figuratively) if they didn’t test further and he came back an apologized. What he tried to turn us away for ended up being a 5 day stay in the hospital and a major abdominal surgery for my little guy. Sorry I know this is long. Thank you for staying this far.. I said all of this so you would understand the kind of anxiety I was under. I had to wake Willy up every two hours using an alarm on my phone and I’d wipe him with a wet wipe and blow on him just to keep him awake for feeding. Before I had this sock, sleeping was not in the realm of possibility for me. But I knew that the sock alarm would go off if his oxygen or heart rate dipped and that allowed me to sleep in peace for those few hours.
For Hannah, I had no issues but this sock gave me peace of mind. It was so easy knowing if something was wrong, an alarm would sound. But for my youngest, Amy Kate, she caught RSV at 4 months old. Nerve-wracking because we were just fired from our pediatrician because they changed their vaccine policy and when I brought her to the ER, the doctor told me “Don’t bring her back unless she’s blue” (yeah, I know I have greaaaaat luck with doctors). I had the sock on her 24/7 for a week. Her oxygen was low but only dipped under 90 once. Thank God we had this sock because without it I probably would’ve camped out in my van at the hospital.
This one also comes with a camera. I can’t say I know anyone who has used both the sock and the camera but if you were looking to get that one I’ll link it here → Owlet Dream Sock + Camera
Love this sound machine. I have two (one for each kids room). We have schedules set so the sound machine is already on for me if I’m trying to transition a baby from the car to nap time in the crib. Recently we set a wake alarm for the kids to keep them from coming out of their rooms too early in the morning. Basically they go to sleep with their ocean sounds and a soft orange light and then they know they can come out when they see the green light and hear the birdies chirping. It’s been a life saver with the toddlers. I actually also have the adult machine (Hatch Restore 3 Sunrise Alarm Clock) which I LOVE because it’s literally like you wake up with the sun. This company did make a 3rd gen sound machine I haven’t tried yet but it looks like it has all the same features (3rd Gen Hatch Baby) and they also have a mobile sound machine that’s super small and easy to transport (Hatch Go).
My Favorite Baby Monitor — Infant Optics DXR-8 Pro
My infant optics has been through the roughest conditions known to man. These kids have thrown the monitor across the room, broken pieces off of it, and it survived two brutal kids but right when I thought it finally kicked the bucket, I was able to buy a cheap replacement battery and bam back in business. I will say I was also really picky about my monitor not having wifi access because ya know weirdos are everywhere and the internet is forever.
Cribs and Play Yards
If you’re on the fence about a crib, I would argue you should get one. I know they’re super expensive but we’ve found all our cribs for free on local mom group pages. They’re so sturdy. Most of them can be converted into little toddler beds and even the ones that can’t, we’ve made work with a few add ons from amazon.
Moonlight Baby Little Dreamer Crib Mattress
We have two of these - They’re awesome. I love that there’s a firm baby side an a soft toddler side so you can just flip it over when you’re ready. I also love that it can just be wiped down to be cleaned. That’s honestly the best part because these kids will get all kinds of gross stuff on it from blowout diapers to throw up and pee. It’s gross but it makes it so much less gross when you can literally just wipe off the mattress.
Trust me you want at least 4 of these. We double up on the beds so one mattress protect, then sheet, then another mattress protector, and another sheet. I was given that tip by one of my best friends because accidents happen and in the middle of the night when everyone is tired, you just want to rip those gross layers off and have the bed already made underneath. Love that they’re machine washable too.
There are so many options out there for sheets. I really liked these ones, I feel like they have the same quality now as they did the day I bought them even though they’ve been been washed so many times. This Peanutshell Brand has been good to us. If you want organic cotton they also have that here — Organic Cotton Crib Sheets
BreathableBaby Breathable Mesh Liner for Full-Size Cribs
The crib liner is a controversial one. I’ve used one with all 3 kids up to a certain age. As a new mom, It’s nerve-wracking putting them in the crib and they start rolling around in there and get their legs/arms stuck outside the crib. My middle child made a sport of actually getting her limbs stuck in the crib slats and then screaming her head off until we came running in. This crib liner actually helped keep her limbs in and I love that it’s breathable so even if they stuck their faces up to it, they could still breathe.
Graco Pack n Play Dome LX Playard with Baby Bassinet
I love this play yard. We have 3 pack n plays. I love the dome on the top of this one. We used it as the bassinet in our room for the first few months of life before transitioning to the crib. I also love how it has a diaper changing table which made the middle of the night change and feeds so easy.
These sheets fit the pack n play and I like that they’re quilted so that it provides a little extra cushion on that firm mattress. Plus being waterproof is a huge help. I would double these ones up also to save you time at night.
