The most and least useful baby items

So here they are, the results of our survey! Thanks to the 42 people who responded. Some of the highlights:


10 useless things you only thought you needed:

1. Baby monitor
2. Baby room
3. Baby wipe warmer
4. Boppy pillow
5. Bottles (and formula)
6. Changing table
7. Clothes, especially impractical/fancy/newborn
8. Crib
9. Diaper pail/Diaper Genie
10. Toys
    

10 things you never knew you'd need but that ended up being useful:

1. BioKleen Bac-Out Stain and Odor Eliminator
2. Boudreaux’s Butt Paste
3. Changing table light
4. Colic tablets
5. Emergency baby kit in car
6. Mother's group
7. Nipple cream
8. Rocking chair
9. Sleep - for you and baby
10. Swaddling blankets

And finally, the top 10 things all new parents should have:

1. Baby carrier and/or sling
2. Babysitter (or grandparent)
3. Bouncy chair - table top type
4. Breast pump
5. Confidence
6. Diaper service
7. Earplugs
8. Meals - 2 week's worth of oven-ready frozen meals
9. Sound Machine
10. Stroller – lightweight and basic

We also asked a number of either/or questions, and here are the scores. Apparently we are having a boy who will be breastfed, carried around in a sling, and looked after by granny, only to then eventually go off to Berkeley. Go Bears! Interestingly people were pretty evenly divided between disposable and cloth diapers, and between crib and co-sleeping.

(click on picture to see a bigger graph!)

Naturally, our friends being our friends, there were some pretty strong opinions about most of these topics. Here are a few anonymous excerpts, the first from a couple of wildlife biologists:

We defaulted to childrearing that was in line with other mammals, what humans have done for millions of years, was intuitive, and most importantly easy and a good fit for us and the child. We don’t know any mammals that construct seperate sleep quarters for their young, subscribe to rigid clock based sleeping and feeding schedules, and let their young cry it out .... but to each their own.

And this one from a British friend:

We swaddled both our kids for at least six months, every nap, every night, I think this makes an enormous difference in their quality of sleep and sense of security, many people end up giving up on swaddling because "my baby didn't "like it" - fine, good luck with the part when they don't "like" getting dressed too!

So, off we go to implement the collective wisdom! We'll keep you posted on how it goes...