Baby Tips 1: Useful Items

Quite a number of friends around me are going to be first time parents or are already parents of a newborn. Xavier is going to be 6 months old in two days time. So I thought I share with you guys some of my experience as a father of a 6 months baby. Do note that I am no expert and the following are thoughts from my personal experience.

I will start of with baby items which are useful:

1) Guardian Underpads - These are waterproof sheets which comes in very handy to contain the spillage or soiling. They come in two sizes: 17" x 24" and 30" x 30". We usually stock up on the 17" x 24" (they seem to be out of stock when we most need it) as we find the size very handy. We use them on changing tops, lay a sheet when we are changing outdoors and let him sleep with the sheet on the lower half of his body. I even used it to put in between a towel and my sofa when I did his naked portraits. It has saved me from dealing with a mess when his diapers fail to contain his output.

2) Pigeon Baby Wipes - This one needs no introduction. One of the popular wet wipes in the market, it does its job well. Wait for offer then buy the 6 large packs for maximum value.

3) Desitin Creamy - The only napper rash cream I trusted and used so far. It helps prevent and heal diaper rash really well. Like recently he had a very red ass from the infant care (dunno what they do there) and we used it extensively over the weekend to help heal it. I literally cream his rash area like icing on a cake.

4) Combi Nail Cutter - We tried a few baby nail cutters before Elsie recommended we try this curved scissor by Combi. The curved shape ensures you do not end up cutting the baby's finger by accident.

5) Beco Baby Carrier - Not everywhere is stroller friendly and there will be times when you prefer not to use a stroller. That is when a baby carrier is useful. Lilian had tried those sling type before but found the strain on the single shoulder too much to bear (especially when Xavier is nearly 10kg). She narrowed down to two which she finds useful, Beco Baby Carrier and Ergo Baby Carrier. Both are similar in that the baby is in a natural sitting position when carried and it distributes the weight between the shoulders and the waist. We settled for Beco as it enables transfer of the baby (from one parent to another) without taking him out of the carrier.

6) LG Baby Playmat - These colourful playmats are developed by LG Chem. Its great as it is cushioned and very colourful, so it becomes a very good play area for the baby. Especially useful for the baby to roam and discover how to move and crawl. Babies need to learn and practice how to move and crawl. It doesn't suddenly just wake up one morning and start crawling. So you need to give him the space to "practice". The link is actually a vendor whom we found from the Singapore Motherhood forum. The design and pricing are available on the link as well as how to order.

7) Attractive toy - Ok this is really subjective but the bottomline is find a toy that your baby really likes. For Xavier, it happens to be the Lamaze First Mirror Lilian bought for him. He loves this mirror so much that you can put it anyway on the mat and he will crawl to it (and attempt to eat it. Maybe he find himself too irresitable). This mirror has been his main crawling "training" tool.

8) Hand me down clothing - The 1st six months your baby is gonna grow so fast there is no point buying him nice clothes. Ok maybe a couple for special occasions but the rest of the time, try to get hand me down clothing. They are soft (due to repeated washing) and very comfortable for babies.

9) Thermometer - Get one which gives you fast and accurate reading. Eric and Elsie gave us the Braun ThermoScan Ear Thermometer and it works great, plus the ear filters are also easily available. Baby have no patience for you to put those under the armpit or in the ass thermometers.

10) Rechargable Batteries - With a baby around you will find that suddenly you will have many stuff around you that uses batteries. Things like fans, cot mobiles, toys, rocker that plays music all uses batteries. And if you want to save money in the long run and be more friendly to the environment, use recharable batteries. I use Sanyo Eneloop. They have cool adaptors which converts their AA size batteries into C and D size batteries.

Hope you find the above items useful as well.