For the full article see The Guardian.

SLEEPING

Bobby Blanket
£160, alexandalexa.com
Whether for the cot, the pram, to swaddle your baby for early morning feeds or as an impromptu playmat, you can never have enough blankets. This one, by Danish brand Lucky Boy Sunday, is a keeper. Made in Bolivia from 100% baby alpaca and dyed using non-toxic pigments it can be machine washed on a wool cycle.

Angelcare AC401 Monitor
£99.99, mothercare.com
This baby monitor slips under a cot mattress and detects both movement and sound. Despite a range of features, from a room temperature alert to a nightlight, its main selling point is an alarm, which will sound if it detects no movement (ie breathing) for 20 seconds. It’s brilliant for peace of mind, especially when you start putting your baby to sleep in a separate room.

Message In A Bottle Hot Water Bottle
£41, donnawilson.com
Trying to get a new baby to sleep anywhere but in your arms isn’t easy. And you can’t blame them for not enjoying being moved from such warm and cosy surroundings to a cold sheet in a cot or Moses basket. To ease the transition, a hot water bottle comes in handy. Put it in the cot for 10 minutes or so, enough to warm the sheet, and then (this bit is crucial) whip it out again before you put your baby down.

Dreamland CD
£15, hmw.com
As an alternative to the brain-jarring melodies of most children’s lullabies Julian Lloyd Webber’s Cradle Song album is hard to beat. Sadly it’s out of print but this collection of lullabies from around the world by Putumayo, one in a series, is a soothing alternative if you think your brain might burst with another playing of Twinkle Twinkle.

Go Go Bag
£59.95, merinokids.co.uk
Sleeping bags are taking over from sheets and blankets as the baby bedding of choice and it’s easy to see why if your baby is a wriggler. Various brands and tog ratings are available but these merino wool and organic cotton ones are the business. Their natural temperature regulating properties mean they can be used year-round and, though expensive, they adapt from birth up to two years so you don’t have to keep buying more as your baby grows.

Baby Got Colic
£7.99, iTunes.com
If someone swears by a magic cure for restless, distressed, teething or sleepless babies, don’t believe them. All babies are different and what works for one might have no effect on another. We were lucky not to have a colicky baby but I’ve used this occasionally when our baby has been fractious and it’s worked wonders. There’s a free 10-minute version on Youtube (http://ind.pn/SRQUlZ) or you can buy a one-hour version through iTunes. It’s not recommended to expose children to white noise for prolonged periods.

FEEDING

Denim Totseat
£24, totseat.com
This cloth contraption can go over any chair to make a baby seat so you can take it round to friends who don’t have kids, or to restaurants, and you never need a high chair. Available in a range of colours and fabrics, the denim one, in 100% cotton, is especially smart. All are small enough to fit inside a shoulder bag.

Roll n Go Bib
£3.49, mastersdirect.com
One of Tommee Tippee’s most popular products, along with the company’s “first sips” cups, these dishwasher-proof bibs are great whether you’re feeding at home or on the go. Sturdy but also soft, as the name suggests, they can be wiped down, rolled up and slipped in a bag after use.

OXO Tot Sprout Highchair
£204.26, oxouk.com
From angled measuring jugs to Good Grips scrubbing brushes the OXO brand has been reinventing domestic equipment over the past few years and now it’s turning to baby products. This smart high chair, which fits children from six months to five years, is one of the company’s latest launches and has won a glowing recommendation from Which?, for its ease of use, age-adaptability and safety.

B-Jewelled Muslins
£44.95, adenandanais.co.uk
For mopping up dribbles and protecting your clothes from milk a pack of John Lewis’ white muslin squares is essential but it’s also useful to have some larger muslins. These brightly coloured ones, part of a wide range from Aden + Anais, can be used for everything from swaddling and burping to covering a pram in bright sunshine, using as a cot sheet, covering a cold plastic changing mat or covering up when breastfeeding.

Boon Squirt
£8.99, kiddicare.com
Though it has a limited time frame (it doesn’t work so well with small amounts of food when you’re just starting to wean, or with more solid food) this baby-feeding spoon is handy for weaning on the go. Fill the bulb with purée, slip on the cap and then squeeze out the food onto the spoon when your baby is ready to eat; no need for a separate food container, spoon and plate.

Muffin Pan
£9.99, lakeland.co.uk
To save buying a lot of special equipment many parents use ice cube trays for freezing purées when they’re weaning. Once your baby gets a taste for food, though, you’ll have to use several cubes at each feed. One way to keep things simple when you need larger portions is to switch to silicone muffin trays. Yes it’s another buy but at least a re-useable one.

OXO Tot Feeding Set
£17.87, vupbaby.co.uk
This four-piece feeding set is another inspired reinvention from the OXO Tot range. Designed for babies learning to feed themselves the non-slip plate and bowl help children get food onto their spoon or fork more easily thanks to a removable, curved ring. And the fork and spoon are designed to be held and used manageably even with small hands.

Chillipeeps Teat
£7, jojomamanbebe.co.uk
A godsend for formula feeding parents on long journeys these re-useable, variable flow teats can be screwed straight into a carton of ready-mixed formula or certain bottles of mineral water without needing to pour the contents into a sterilised bottle. Pre-sterilised, they’re ideal for keeping on hand for emergencies, and have just gone on sale in 400 Sainsbury’s stores.

Slimline Milk Powder Dispenser
£5.99, preciouslittleone.com
Along with Mam’s self-sterilising bottles (www.mamonlineshop.com), this Brother Max milk dispenser is one of the most useful buys for formula-feeding parents. It has a pourer on the side rather than the top, to avoid powder getting get stuck, and a funnel for easy filling. Scoop however much powder you need per feed into its three compartments then click on the lid and slip it into your bag along with water and bottles.

PLAYING

Dear Zoo
£5.99, waterstones.com
From The Very Hungry Caterpillar to The Gruffalo, once your baby starts being interested in books a whole new world of entertainment opens up. Not sure where to start? This autumn is the 30^th anniversary of Rod Campbell’s classic lift-the-flap book, Dear Zoo – as good a reason as you’ll find to get your baby turning the pages.

Giraffe and Tiger Pram Toy
£12, teddykgifts.com
Just the right shape and size for small hands to grab, this pram toy from Swedish company Teddykompaniet is designed to go over the hood of the pram but I strapped it across the front of mine and it has provided much-needed distraction on reluctant outings.

Doorway Bouncer
£24.99, tippitoes.com
Many parents rave about Fisher Price’s Jumperoo but if you have an aversion to large shiny, noisy plastic toys the simplicity of this doorway bouncer is appealing. It’s ideal when your baby can hold their head up and starts getting frustrated rolling about on the floor. Make sure you keep an eye on them so they don’t swing into the door frame – and always put something soft underneath them.

Baby Snug
£39.95, mamasandpapas.com
The Mamas & Papas version of the Bumbo, these seats can be used as soon as your baby can hold their head up and adapt to fit them as they grow. Though not all babies like them, they can be really useful for keeping children upright when you start weaning  – and for taking the pressure off heads that have been slightly flattened by back sleeping.

Flensted Mobile
£14.95, thebigtoponline.com
Almost all babies love mobiles. Deluxe versions include Trousselier’s musical ones (http://ind.pn/TKXaxC) and Anne-Claire Petit’s crocheted ones (http://ind.pn/TKWXdE) but Flensted’s handmade ones are classics. Available in cute, quirky designs (a collection of white sheep with one black, or a delicate airborne re-enactment of the sailing of the Mayflower), being flat-packed they’re great presents for new parents, too.

Jungle Art Cards
£10, huggle.co.uk
Part of a collection of black and white flashcards designed by Wee Gallery for babies, you can put these around your child’s room to distract and entertain them when you’re changing a nappy or dressing them after a bath. Or use them to make up stories with older babies. They’re eco-friendly, too, made with recycled board and soy inks.

Vegetable Baby Rattles
£6.50, eenymeenykids.co.uk
Hand knitted in Bangladesh by disadvantaged rural women, these are rattles to feel good about. Part of a range by Pebble, they look good, are not overpoweringly large or complicated for a baby to get to grips with and, when they start teething and putting everything in their mouths, provide a bit of comedy too. The radish is especially cute.

Alphabet Zoo Activity Gym
£67, johnlewis.com
A play gym will take you through from the very early days when your baby will just lie on it to the age where he or she can sit up and play with all the attached squeakers, rattles, mirrors and teethers. This smart one from Skip Hop is a favourite. Soft and padded it comes with a pillow to help your baby lie comfortably on their stomach and, when your child gets too old for it, you can take off the arches and hang it on the wall.

Garden Friends Bouncer
£9.99, kiddicare.com
You can buy more expensive bouncers, with padded fabric or reclining mechanisms, but this one does the job of keeping your baby safely upright brilliantly. It’s useful for helping soothe their digestion after a feed, to get them out of a horizontal position if they want to look around or just to keep them near you while leaving you hands free.

CARING

Postnatal Pilates
£95 for 8 classes, your-pilates.co.uk
Brilliant for any new mother but especially good if you’ve had a Caesarean, or have been left with a prolapse, bad back or other physical issues, these weekly classes gently help you put yourself, and your pelvic floor, back together. Great for stretching out properly after a week of baby carrying, you can take your baby along too. For nationwide classes see www.pilatesfoundation.com.

Gaia Starter Kit
£12.99, nctshop.co.uk
Many parents don’t use anything but water and olive oil on a baby’s skin for the first month or so. After then, Gaia’s affordable, organic products are a good option as they’re free from artificial fragrance, soap, sulphates, petrochemicals, parabens and propylene glycol. The packaging is nothing to get excited about but essential oils (sweet orange, evening primrose and lavender) mean they smell delicious.

Confidence
£9.99, foyles.co.uk
The 10 Most Important Things You Can Do For Your Children by Roni Jay is a quick, easy read that aims to strip away some of the anxiety around parenting and give you the confidence to focus on the things that matter most when bringing up children – and to stop worrying about those that don’t.

3 in1 Digital Thermometer
£35.75, boots.com
This ear, forehead and room temperature thermometer by Brother Max is quick (it only takes a second to take a reading), accurate and easy to use either in the ear or on the forehead. All of which are winning features for anyone who has struggled to keep a more traditional thermometer under a wriggling baby’s arm for long enough to get a reading.

Baby Manicure Kit
£28, feelunique.com
Tweezerman is known for its adult grooming products but it also does this neat little kit for babies. One of the most nerve-wracking tasks a new parent faces is cutting tiny nails but this set of tools – a nail file, brush, clippers and scissors – makes the job somewhat easier.

First Aid For Baby and Child
From £37.50, redcrossfirstaidtraining.co.uk
It’s easy to spend on prams or feather-soft babygros while overlooking something far more important; what to do in an emergency if your baby starts choking, stops breathing or is taken ill in some other way. Some hospitals offer free basic infant first aid training for parents. If yours doesn’t, the Red Cross runs special five-hour courses across the UK.

Jahgoo Bath Support
£12.99, cheekyrascals.co.uk
Essential for new parents with back problems but popular with many other parents this moulded bath recliner supports your baby in the bath leaving you hands- and strain-free. Suitable for babies up to around six months old, it helps them to feel more secure in the water, leaves parents free to play with their baby and generally makes bathtime more fun.

Your Baby Week By Week
£12.99, blackwells.co.uk
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by advice in the early weeks with a baby, just when you don’t have the time or energy to digest it. Don’t go near Google (there’s far too much scaremongering and bossing about on internet parenting forums). Instead invest in this book by Simone Cave and Caroline Fertleman. It cuts out all the background noise and sensibly and clearly lays out all the essentials, week by week, in easily absorbed chunks.

Wind & Cold Therapy
£19, elementalherbology.com
Lansinoh and Kamillosan are the best salves for breastfeeding mothers but now my baby is a bit older, I keep this one in my bag. A kind of all-natural Eight Hour Cream, you can use it as a nipple cream (though wipe it off before feeding if your feeds are close together) but it also works on nappy rash, stretch marks, chapped skin, as a lip balm and many other minor ailments.

Sophie The Giraffe
£12.99, sophielagirafe.co.uk
That it’s sometimes dubbed “the middle class giraffe” shows how ubiquitous this squeaky toy-cum-teether has become. Now part of a wider range, the classic giraffe version is made in France from natural rubber and non-toxic food paint. It’s free from phthalates and BPA and has been a bestseller since the 1960s – no wonder given how light and easy for small fingers and gums to grasp.

Moltex Öko Nappies
£24.95 for 138, naturebotts.co.uk
It may not have been the most glamorous new baby gift we received but, besides some homemade ready meals, a pack of Moltex Öko nappies was the most useful. Whether you’re planning to move onto re-useable nappies or not, these are great to start out with; easier on the environment (even the packaging is compostable), healthier for babies’ skin and far more absorbent than the more famous brands.

OUT & ABOUT

Nomad Travel Bed
£119, pushchairs.co.uk
Ironically most standard travel cots are too bulky and heavy to travel with unless you have a car. But these Dutch ones make light work of travelling by public transport, or abroad, as they collapse small enough to fit in a rucksack and only weigh just over 2.5kg. Suitable from birth to around four years, they work like a tent, threaded through with aluminium poles and equipped with a self-inflating mattress.

Kiddy Guardian Pro 2
£225, johnlewis.com
One of the frustrating things about budgeting with children is how quickly they grow out of everything. Even with car seats, most newborn ones only last up until around nine months. Happily this one, which holds the child in with a cushion rather than a harness, is more long lasting. Though it doesn’t cover those early months it will take you from roughly nine months to age 12, or until your child is big enough to legally wear a standard seat belt.

My Buggy Buddy
£5.99, kiddisave.co.uk
Unless your pram has a big basket you’ll probably end up juggling shopping bags with one hand and steering with the other. A rucksack is one solution but this clip is great for hanging smaller items off your pram leaving you hands-free (it can take quite a weight but beware of your pram tipping over if you attach too much). It’s also available in a lock version – useful for parking outside pram-unfriendly places.

Ivory Longwool Pram Liner
£64.95, thelittlegreensheep.co.uk
Sheepskin helps keep babies cosy in winter and cool in summer and Little Green Sheep’s range of lambskin liners are excellent. Like its organic mattresses and baby pouches (sleeping bags for newborns), these high quality fleeces are free of harmful chemicals and heavy metals. Use them in a cot, car seat or on a playmat. Choose from a shorter piled natural liner or this extra cosy longwool version.

Coromandel Bag
£185, pacapod.com
Pacapod changing bags don’t scream “nappy bag” so you can use them years after you’ve finished wiping small bottoms; most will hold a laptop. Many (including this leather satchel) are unisex, so both parents can use them and, although the company does cheaper versions, the “feeder” pods included in its luxury range double up as children’s rucksacks. Other features range from a key fob to a changing mat.

Family Beach Shelter
£49.99, littlelife.co.uk
LittleLife does two sizes of shelter. Both are light, portable, easy to put up and give sun protection of UPF50. The smaller one is ideal if you’re looking for a comfortable spot to keep your baby out of the sun while you’re at the beach or in the garden (you can just about climb inside it with your baby if you want to breastfeed), but this one is better if the whole family fancies a snooze out of the sun.

Hand-knitted Shawl
£105, shetlandknitwear.com
A shawl has myriad uses that a larger blanket doesn’t, from keeping your baby cosy during a night time feed to tucking them up in a pram with a favourite comforter and even swaddling them. If you haven’t been lucky enough to inherit one, start your own heirloom collection with one of these intricate hand-knitted shawls from Shetland.

Britax B-Agile
£229.99, mothercare.com
This sturdy forward-facing number is the Transformer of pushchairs. With a carrycot or car seat (bought separately) attached it’s suitable for younger babies but it’s the pushchair mode, for older babies and toddlers, that really sets it apart. Swivel wheels make it a doddle to manoeuvre around town and, when you want to hop on a bus or pack it in a car, you can just push a button and fold it down, single-handed, in one swift movement.

Organic Ergobaby Carrier
£94.90, peppermint.co.uk
Ultra comfortable to wear and easy to put on (though it helps to have someone else on hand to do up the clip between your shoulders), with a seated baby position and an inbuilt sunshade, Ergobaby carriers are secure and sturdy. We switched to one of these when our baby could hold his head up but, for young babies, you’ll need to buy a special insert.

WEARING

Essentials Sleepsuit
£14, thewhitecompany.com
Cute, cosy, unisex and very long-lasting, despite relentless washing cycles, White Company babies’ sleepsuits are just the thing for bedtime. I’m a big fan of their cowboy-style dribble-catching bandanas, too. These keep your baby’s chest and neck dry, helping to avoid soreness and rashes.

Jeffrey Loves Apples Babygrow
£36, silversense.co.uk
If you come out in a rash at the sight of rows of baby blue and powder pink clothes, the Silver Sense clothing range is a godsend, in more ways than one. Its beautifully designed, colourful childrenswear is made from a blend of cotton and silver fibres, making it kinder on sufferers of eczema and other skin conditions than conventional garments.

Green Peaflower Snowsuit
£39.99, tobytiger.co.uk
One thing babies aren’t good at is temperature control. As winter sets in, keep chilly fingers and toes – and everything in between – at bay with one of these cute, fleece lined snowsuits (see picture, above). Complete with detachable mittens and booties, they come wrapped in a re-useable cotton shopping bag.

Baby Wetsuit
£18, jojomamanbebe.co.uk
For a one-stop shop for baby swimwear, try JoJo Maman Bebe. As well as some very fetching swim nappies, which are designed to work without a separate nappy underneath them, it also sells baby wetsuits. For many parents, buying one of these has meant the difference between a happy, warm baby enjoying their first forays into swimming and a wretched one.

Motties Slippers
£15, motties.co.uk
The best baby slippers I’ve found, Motties are made by hand from offcuts of leather and other fabrics, mostly from the upholstery industry. Unlike more traditional booties, elasticated fittings mean they’re really easy to get on and off – and cosy, soft and comfortable to wear. They also come gorgeously packaged in little brown paper packages tied up with string.

Fleece Overall
€24.95, lindex.com
The Swedish brand Lindex sells affordable, stylish, good quality clothes. Their baby range features plenty of unisex designs in bright colours and patterns, including some nice organic cotton options. This foxy fleece overall is ideal for winter; wear it as an all-in-one cover-up or unfold extra flaps on its sleeves and ankles to add instant mittens and socks.

For the full article see The Independent.

For the full article see The Independent.

For the full article see The Independent.

For the full article see The Independent.

For the full article see The Independent.

For the full article see The Guardian.

For the full article see The Guardian.

For the full article see The Guardian.