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...

A blogger, moi?!

Maybe this is the form nesting takes with me, but here I am, starting a blog.

Actually, what prompted it is the response I've been getting to the survey my friend Sarah created to help Steve and me navigate the landscape of baby stuff -- his last child was born almost 18 years ago, in what now seems like the dark ages of the waning 20th century. There wasn't nearly as much "stuff" around that you could get, or had to think about, it seems.

Anyway, we figured we'd get some advice from our larger circle of friends, family and acquaintances on what was useful, turned out to be essential, or was just redundant gear. Then others asked to see the results, and I figured once the little bundle of joy arrives it'll be easier to update one central place rather than trying to figure out people's emails.

So, here is the link to the survey, which will stay around at least until mid-July.

I'll post the results here once we have analyzed them :-)