How to Create Your Own Simplified List of Baby Essentials
It took me a while to learn that despite what society tells us, preparing to welcome a newborn into your life does NOT have to involve buying heaps of baby products.
Here’s how I navigated motherhood while keeping simplicity in mind, and what I learned about what you do and don’t need to take care of your baby.
Becoming a mom = Buying ALL the baby things?
You’ve decided to become a mom. Congratulations!
How exciting. A child! A human being you’re responsible for supporting, as well as serving as head facilitator on their journey through the early years of life.
Now, let’s just sit down and relax for a moment so you can take it all in.
Oh wait, there’s something knocking at the door. It seems to be… The whole of society, telling you about all the stuff you need to buy to prepare for motherhood:
Crib
Changing table
Diapers
Wipes
Wipes warmer
Diaper bag
Breast pump
Baby clothes
Books
Toys
Carrier for the car
Carrier for on the human
Teething rings
Room decorations
83,579,659,879,483 other things that just don’t fit on this list
It can be fun at first, going to shops you’ve never been to and exploring new departments within familiar stores. Tiny little things are CUTE! Bright colors and animals and other baby themes are fun. Wheee!
The other side of preparing your home for your newborn, however, is that you can quickly become overwhelmed.
You have other things to do with your time and energy, besides shopping:
Work
Classes
Volunteering
Spending times with friends and family
Catching up on the latest episodes of your favorite show
Preparing yourself — physically and emotionally — for life with an additional human in it!
And shopping for all of these baby things can put a ton of pressure on your family finances. As if you need the extra stress while preparing to become a parent — whether it’s the first time, or a repeat performance!
The good news: You don’t need any of this stuff.
That’s the truth.
It took me a while to learn this.
With friends, family, and even well-meaning acquaintances (like neighbors and my husband’s co-workers) buying us things they thought we needed for our baby, we amassed a lot of stuff very quickly. As we got more and more clothes, stuffed animals, and tiny gadgets, I developed a constant, anxious roar inside my head.
Like with other areas of living more simply, I learned that we didn’t own our stuff, our stuff owned us.
We had more stuff to keep clean and put away. More trouble finding what we wanted when we wanted it. It was a pain in the neck.
To quieten the roar, I decided to cull the pile.
We focused on choosing toys made out of materials I felt comfortable with. For us, the less plastic the better, due to safety concerns.
Homemade items got special treatment. Toys and clothes that were passed down from an earlier time were amazing. My mom had actually saved a bunch of clothes from my childhood. I didn’t keep them all (how many pairs of bright green velour bell bottom pants does one actually have time to wear?) but I did grab a few favorites, like the ones with pastel elephants.
We thought realistically about our space. Just because we had a walk-in closet didn’t mean we wanted to fill it so tightly that no one could actually, well, walk into it. Same thing with drawers, cabinets, etc. We wanted to be able to open a drawer and not have stuff pop out like a jack-in-the-box. And if we could see all spines of the books that was a winning set-up.
Once we had just a few favorite items that we actually used and made sense for our lifestyle, we were so much happier. That wipes warmer: totally unnecessary yet well-loved for years. The small CD player to play Sade and soothing instrumental music: used every. single. Night.
Two soft brown cloth dolls, 3 Sandra Boynton books, and the turquoise octopus whose tentacles squeaked later, we were all set.
We found out we didn’t need all the baby shampoos and baby washes and baby toothpastes. You don’t even need soap for new baby skin. We learned this from our local health-conscious parenting community that we found shortly before our little one began to walk. It would have been great if we had known this sooner, but hey — better late than never!
And as long as they have someplace safe to sleep, babies don’t need fancy beds, either.
Less noise in this area meant more time to ensure that I had a support system in place for after the baby’s arrival, and more time for us to actually enjoy quality time with our baby.
What you DO need as your baby becomes a toddler.
You really don’t need special hygiene products for a new little one.
Things will change, however, as they grow (quickly!) and become much more mobile. They’ll spend more time outside your home, and come into contact with more people and things and environments. This means rolling in dirt and sweating — yay!
When this happens, baby shampoo/wash can be a pretty good idea.
But how do you know which one to buy? There are so many brands and product lines out there and you only want the best for your baby.
When my sweet baby girl was just an infant, I discovered that the commonly known brand name baby shampoo I was using contained ingredients that were KNOWN to cause cancer.
The scary thing is, MOST baby shampoos contain toxic chemicals that are easily absorbed into your kid’s bloodstream through their skin.
I know how overwhelming it can be, trying to decipher misleading marketing labels so you can make the best decisions for your children.
Know that you don’t have to figure it out all at once. You can start out slowly by learning just a few things to avoid.
You don’t have to do it alone
If you’d like my help creating a healthier life for you and your baby, I have 2 options for you.
Baby Shampoo Guide
The “Baby Shampoo Guide: 3 Toxins to Avoid to Keep Your Kids Safe” is a free guide I created to help you choose safe products for your baby.
You can download it by signing up below.
Private coaching
If you’re ready to dive deeper, I’d like to invite you to learn about my private coaching program.
Your Path to Optimal Health is all about making positive choices in nutrition, exercise, and attitude for you and your family.