Newborn essentials: Everything you need to buy for feedings

Before I start (re) writing this piece, I need to just vent that I spent two hours writing and my computer crashed and I lost everything and am now starting over. Moral of the story, quick public service announcement to save your work constantly.

Anyway, since Scarlett was born, barely any day goes by without someone asking me for advice – or me asking someone advice – on what products are best for a newborn. Although there is definitely not a one size fits all answer to this question, I thought it might be helpful for me to summarize everything that has worked for us and the advice I’ve received. Here is a list of the important things we’ve used since Scarlett came home from the hospital two months ago along with some of the things I recommend not to buy! For the first two months, all babies really do is eat, poop, sleep, and most recently smile (!) so I’m categorizing my recommendations that way. Part one of the guide is for feeding recommendations.

Feeding

Bottles – There are SO many different bottle options! Newborns typically eat 3 – 4 oz in a feeding so I recommend a 5oz bottle. You then want to get a size 1 nipple so the flow of milk isn’t too fast. We went with the Dr. Brown’s wide neck 5oz bottles which worked well for us. You probably need between 4 – 6 bottles depending on how often you want to be washing/ sterilizing bottles. I made a habit of washing the bottles right after every feeding and sterilizing once a day (more on that below.) I felt comfortable buying plastic bottles, they are BPA free and glass bottles seemed too heavy and impractical for me.
- What not to buy: I did not buy a newborn starter kit because they come with small bottles and large bottles. You won’t be using the larger bottles for a while. We just started right when Scarlett turned 8 weeks.
- What not to buy: We ended up not buying a bottle warmer for a few reasons. 1. We live in NYC and don’t have a ton of counter space, 2. I wanted Scarlett to get used to room temperature milk/ formula so I could feed her on the go and 3. When I did need to warm a bottle, it was easy easy to put boiling water (from my Keurig machine) into a plastic cup and stick the bottle in there for a few minutes.
Cleaning – With cleaning there are must haves and nice to haves. The must haves are Dapple , which is much gentler to use as a cleaning product than what you usually use on dishes and a bottle cleaning brush, and a bottle cleaning brush. The nice to have is a sterilizer. We use the Baby Brezza which is pretty good. The negatives are it takes up a lot of space and leaks a little when you use it. On the positive, it fits a lot of bottles and pacifiers in it and is a little easier than boiling water. Although boiling water works perfectly well, too!
Breastfeeding – This didn’t last long for me, but I did pump and bottle feed for a while. . If you are going down this path, aside from the pump (we used a Medela pump that worked well for me but I wont pretend to be an expert on that…) you will need the following:
- Pads for your bras. Luckily, this actually didn’t happen to me too badly but leaking is a thing! While I was pumping, and for a week or two after, I wore pads in my bras so I wouldn’t leak through. There are some that you can wash and re-use but I prefer the disposable ones.
- Lanolin was a lifesaver! I used it right after I pumped to prevent soreness.
- Storage bags. I would get a small pack to start because you don’t know what your supply will be like. However, if you don’t plan on pumping on the same schedule as your baby feeds you will need to store the milk. In the beginning they feed every three hours… sometimes more.
- If you are using breast milk – even if it is only for a portion of the feedings, I was told to give the baby a drop of Vitamin D every morning. We used these and just did one drop a day.
Formula – One thing that really worked for us was supplementing the night feed with formula even when we were using breast milk. This got Scarlett adjusted to formula from the start. For the first few weeks we used the Similac Ready to Feed newborn bottles. I also kept a spare serving in my diaper bag if I ever needed to unexpectedly feed on the go. Which has happened a few times! Scarlett ended up having a sensitive stomach so we ended up switching to Hipp Organic formula which we are loving. It has the consistency of breast milk and seems to work better for her. The only negatives are that it is expensive and hard to get. I also will never know if the formula actually helped her stomach or if she just got older and more developed!! Either way… we’re hooked now.
We probably go through 5 burp cloths a day and I keep a few in my diaper bag. I love these from Gerber and bought the plain white ones. I did get some really cute personalized ones from a good friend of mine that we use when we go out 🙂 Burp cloths can be used as a bibb or to clean up spit up or any other mess the baby might make.
After feeding, I like to keep Scarlett a little upright to prevent the food from coming up. I don’t know if this is a scientifically proven thing or not, but she would spit up a little whenever I laid her flat right after feeding. WE ARE OBSESSED WITH THIS CHAIR! It is a lifesaver. She feels really comfy in it and loves to nap in it. It is also great for when I need to do something around the house and just want to plop her down somewhere. Baby Bjorn makes a similar chair which works well too. I prefer the Fisher price one because of the toys that hang from the top and the different positions. It’s also much cheaper!
I did not end up using my Boppy nursing pillow, but I know people who have loved it. It wasn’t comfortable around my waist. I ended up using a regular pillow under my arm for support instead. We also bought this Boppy pillow, which I use daily.