Product Spotlight 4/19: Baby Apparel

themadcamel

Conversations about baby clothes have come up before, but maybe this could be a good place to put it all in one spot.

Some questions to get us started:

• What do you think are staples in every baby's wardrobe?
• How many of each type of thing should baby have?
• Where are good places to find cute things at affordable prices?
• What range of sizes should be put on a registry and/or bought ahead of time?
• What do you think is the best way to wash baby clothes?

lillywonderland

We didn’t put any “clothes” (onesies, sleepers, pants, etc) on our registry. I just let people buy whatever the heck they wanted and then returned the stuff I didn’t completely love.

I ended up with a good amount in each size up to 12mo. You’ll need more clothes if you won’t be able to do laundry EOD, but I found at least 5 pieces of everything was sufficient. 

Wal-Mart has super cute cheap onesies ($2), but I found that Carters has better quality (like $6-10) so as your kid gets older and they’ll be in it longer I suggest getting better quality clothes for 6mo+ so they’ll last longer. 

We washed baby’s clothes with a dye-free soap version of the one we currently use (Tide) but then I gave that up after the big tub of Tide pacs was all gone. We didn’t have any issues with his skin, but some babies can have reactions so it’s a good idea to try a dye-free version at first and then transition to your normal laundry soap. Dreft is overpriced (IMO) and there are a lot of alternatives out there.

nda_roxybabe

• What do you think are staples in every baby's wardrobe? For the first couple months, we did lots of onesies and PJs for around the house. Buy the variety pack of Gerber onesies where they give you multiple of every size.
• How many of each type of thing should baby have? I'm not really sure... since we were team green we bought as we went (still do)
• Where are good places to find cute things at affordable prices? Old Navy is a fave. Cute, comfy, and cheap. H&M is good too and so is Baby Gap. For nicer stuff I love boutique brands like Quincy Mae, Childhoods, Kickee Pants, Tea Collection...
• What range of sizes should be put on a registry and/or bought ahead of time? Whatever you feel like! People love to tell you that newborn stuff is a waste. Depends on your baby. I had a 9lb baby who wore newborn for over a month. Then we had to go buy more 0-3m stuff because he was in it so long. 
• What do you think is the best way to wash baby clothes? Use a mild detergent. Month before I actually switched ALL our laundry to something baby friendly (Mrs. Meyers Baby) because I never wanted to do seperate loads and have never had to. We all use it now. 

ternsetc

I really like the Simple Joys Carter's onesies from Amazon. I would say the fabric weight is sometimes less than the regular Carter's stuff but they fit and held up really well and are decently priced (they pretty much never go on sale though). They are more basic in terms of color and pattern, but I was fine with that. (I will say some people gave me advice that all I'd need were plain white onesies for the first few months, and I ignored that advice and am super glad I did - it was so nice to dress DS up in stuff with some color or some kind of visual interest.)

At least half of DS's clothes are from Old Navy - it's easy to get stuff pretty cheap if you wait for a sale, they have some decently cute stuff, it holds up fine. IMO Old Navy runs a bit small (DS is average sized and grew out of Old Navy stuff about a month before he grew out of anything else) - we buy up a size and he gets a lot of wear out of these.

Target has some cute stuff and it's well made, but most of what he has from there are gifts because I kind of balk at the price (the price isn't really that bad I guess, I'm just cheap about baby clothes). IMO Target (Cat & Jack) run big.

I really like the Robeez soft sole shoes for the first 18 months. If not too picky about which design you get, Amazon can have some attractive prices on these. We got DS one pair in each size and it was pretty much his only shoe until recently.

I thought having quite a few onesies (I like onesies, some people don't) - around 12 in each size - was helpful for the first year or so. That way I wasn't cornered into doing laundry unexpectedly. Probably 7-10 pairs of pants were enough, and maybe 4 sets of whatever pajamas you prefer (I liked the two pieces, but I think I'm in the minority). We did laundry every few days. Once teething starts, having some drool bibs on hand can really cut down on clothing changes (otherwise DS's onesie/shirt would get soaked).

We already used free and clear detergent because my skin is sensitive to anything else, and we just kept using that and never had a problem. We don't wash DS's stuff separately either.

lillywonderland

@ternsetc We loved Robeez as well!!! However, it took DS what felt like forever to fit into the 12-18mo pair after he outgrew the 6-12mo so we had to get a different harder-sole shoe. Boo!! 

kgg2241

So can someone help me understand newborn size compared to 0-3 months? Are they the same? Do we need both? 

Also, I just bought baby (well toddler really) these crocs and I'm dying. I wear crocs all the time and get made so much fun of. But I love them so I don't care. Now baby girl can match me 😂. 

ternsetc

@kgg2241 I wear crocs all the time now too! I wore heels a lot in college and then switched to really unsupportive flats - a year ago took a hike in flats (always making great decisions like this), my feet hurt (shocker), got some crocs flats to recover in and liked them so much I stuck with it. Recently got DS some crocs for puddles and he loves them! Those are adorable! And newborn clothes are smaller than 0-3mo (newborn is up to 8 or 9 lbs? and also shorter in terms of length; 0-3 mos is maybe up to 12 or 13?) - we hardly had any newborn stuff, just a few things a friend had sent us, but DS did fit in them for the first month or so. I also thought he fit (more or less) in 0-3 clothes though. If baby is on the smaller side, I'd think having some newborn stuff on hand could be useful.

nda_roxybabe

Newborn are smaller than 0-3 months. 

lillywonderland

@kgg2241 🥺 @ the baby crocs!! So cute!! NB clothes are usually a smidge smaller than 0-3mo. DS was in NB for maybe a month or so. 0-3 is a tiny bit bigger, but TBH you can basically use those straight out the womb. They might be a tiny bit saggy. Or the pants won’t fit. DS always was a couple months behind in pants vs. onesies. 

kgg2241

Okay that makes sense. I wasn't sure if they were the same size, but maybe labeled differently. Thanks everyone!

zuuls_mom

• What do you think are staples in every baby's wardrobe? Tons of sleepers and onesies since they get changed a lot due to blowouts, leaks, spit up, etc. 
  
  
• How many of each type of thing should baby have? I think I had about 10-15. Most were basic solids or white and the sleepers ranged from cotton to fleece depending on how cold it was. It was nice to have a variety. 
  
  
• Where are good places to find cute things at affordable prices? I LOVE the Cat & Jack stuff at Target. I find their prices very reasonable ($5-10 per item) and they are so cute. We buy all of DS' shorts from there because they are only $5 each. For pretty much everything else I buy from either Carter's or Baby Gap and only from sale or clearance sections. I can usually get a ton of stuff that way for a really good price. I can get $35 pants for around $5-7 during the really good sales. SCORE. I don't like spending a lot on clothes since they grow out of them quickly, but I also like getting good quality stuff so it will last while we need it and work as a hand me down after. I will also say I didn't care for Garanimals or Gerber brand stuff. The fabric seemed scratchy and it always seemed like it ran really small so he grew out of it quicker. 
  
  
• What range of sizes should be put on a registry and/or bought ahead of time? I'm not sure how this worked out, but somehow we ended up with no newborn stuff from my shower with DS. Everyone was awesome and got us 0-3 all the way up to 2T so he was set on clothes (for the most part) for a long time. I had bought two newborn outfits and then when he was born at less than 7lbs I realized we would need more newborn stuff so DH had to run out and buy a bunch of stuff. He was in newborn for almost two months so I definitely recommend having a decent amount on hand just in case. 
  
  
• What do you think is the best way to wash baby clothes? Dye and scent free detergent. Whichever brand you like. We had Dreft originally and it worked for a couple weeks and then DS had a reaction to it and I was stuck with a giant container of it. Waste of money. We're sticking with dye and scent free and also stopped using dryer sheets to keep fragrance and chemicals away from DS and the new LO.

bubsalicious

We are lover's of Cat & Jack (Target) and Old Navy. Carter's for onesies. Old Navy seems to run slimmer, and Carter's sizes differently based on what you buy. I also recommend newborn size unless you have a chunk. DS was 8.5 lbs and wore NB for 6 weeks, but he has always been long and tall. I buy a lot of pants from Etsy (Grow With Me and Joggers) because they are adorable and I can use cloth diapers as an excuse. We always end up with a lot of t shirts so we are always trying to find different colors solid long sleeve ones to layer with in the cooler months. But my favorite clothing item is the romper. They are adorable and I am really struggling to find some in 2T this summer so I'm open to suggestions. 

septoctkids

• What do you think are staples in every baby's wardrobe? Onesies for sure and feetie pajamas that ZIP.. no one wants to be fumbling around with snap up pajamas in the wee hours of the night— trust me! Haha

• How many of each type of thing should baby have? i don’t have an exact count for many things but I’d have at least 8 onesies. This way it gets you through a few day of not doing laundry and enough as back up if baby has a blowout etc.

• Where are good places to find cute things at affordable prices? Can’t go wrong with carter’s.. their stuff is affordable especially considering the baby wears each thing once or twice at first since they grow so fast.  

• What range of sizes should be put on a registry and/or bought ahead of time? Newborn, 3 months and even some 6 months. I agree with above that ppl will say don’t bother with newborn stuff but most kids definitely wear newborn for a few weeks. 
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• What do you think is the best way to wash baby clothes? We used dreft at first with our DS and that was a mistake!! Go with something unscented. Their skin is so sensitive. We switched to free and clear detergent. 

septoctkids

@bubsalicious I LOVE rompers too! So so cute!! 

@kgg2241 0-3 is basically the same as 3 months. Any sizes that have a span like 3-6, 6-9.. they are the bigger size. Like 3-6 is the same as 6 months. Does that make sense? Haha Sometimes they are a tad smaller but the general rule is they are the same as the bigger size listed. 

swamplass

Ladies there is 50% off in store at Old Navy today (Saturday 4/20)! Couldn't wait and ordered some things from clearance online this morning but I'm itching to go dig through the store. 

kgg2241

@septoctkids ah that is super helpful!