Product Spotlight 01/26: Baby Apparel

wanderlustsoul

Today on the list of topics to discuss we have BABY APPAREL. So let's have our first serious baby clothes discussion! Looking ahead at the product topics, in later weeks we'll also have specific conversations on fall and winter essentials for our growing babies, so we'll be able to revisit seasonal particularities, so don't feel the need to comb your brain for every last item! This thread can focus on what to get throughout our pregnancies to be ready for those first few newborn rollercoaster months!

So tell me all about tiny baby clothes! Do you have favorite brands? Where do you get your basics and where do you get your splurges? Does one even splurge for a newborn? Did you have a special coming home outfit? Any particular stylistic preferences to warn FTMs (e.g., do you avoid teensy buttons like the plague and only get zippered onesies)? Opinions on baby hats and baby socks?

How much do you REALLY need for a newborn: did STMs find you changed their onesie 10 times a day or, like, rarely? Any shopping tips to get a good baby clothes haul (which they'll inevitably use for 10 seconds before growing out of it)--did you get used baby clothes? What range of sizes should we get now that we have a little time to plan and shop: should you buy ahead and be equipped through months 0-6 or 12, or buy as you go? How do you dress them to sleep: do you use a sleep sack on top of pjs? Baby shoes: adorable accessories or complete waste of time? And while we're talking clothes, how do you wash baby clothes? Do you use special soap? Please share!

Prior and Upcoming Product Spotlight

wanderlustsoul

Don't buy tons of clothes because everyone buys clothes. I basically just filled in the gaps with anything we needed. I did hate that people bought clothes I hated (I have a very minimalist, earthy colour palette, style and I hate onesies with words or too many bright coloured clothes. Just a personal preference.) 

I don't personally care on the zipper vs snaps front but I know many people feel very strongly about this. I'm a minimalist in everything I do so baby clothes too. I like to have what I need and nothing else. Everyone buys unnecessary outfits for us and he wears it 1 time, maybe. With COVID, he barely even did and I'd put it on just so he at least wore it 1 time. (My son was 6 months when COVID hit)

My favourite brand for sleepers/PJs is Petit Lem. It's organic cotton, super soft, and has a double zipper. It's the only thing I use for him to sleep in even now so I own sizes newborn-4T currently (he's in 24 months/2T). 

I'd totally recommend looking at buy nothing/marketplace as you can get bundle of clothes for super cheap. It's super handy! 

Sizes are different here (we go by cm so 86 cm is 12-18 months but much more precise and accurate than a US size 12-18 months, which I hate!!!). So I made sure we had 0-3 and 3-6/Size 56 and 62 and then bought as we went/used presents. My son was 8lbs 4oz so he didn't really need anything newborn sized. Then we bought as we need things. I.e. I have no short sleeve onesies so I'll buy size 92 (18-24 months) in my next H&M purchase to fill in that gap. I only buy as I need as I don't want to be wasteful. 

Love sleepsacks. We used the Ollie swaddle (amazing - actually just preordered a 2nd one yesterday as they've been sold out for months) and use Perlimpinpin sleep sacks now (Canadian brand). Kyte is another favourite brand (I need to order my son 18-36m in the summer sleepsack). Baby shoes are a complete waste of money. Baby socks are super cute. Baby hats, you only need 1-2. I'm pretty sure 90% of my son's wardrobe from 0-9 months was gifted to us, including blankets, etc. 

I also love H&M for baby clothes - super cute, well priced, and sizing is so much more accurate than other brands. I also use a lot of European brands (Little Green Radicals is a fave). I hate Carters - sorry not sorry. The sizing is ridiculous to me. 

canucklehead123

I found the snaps had their pros, like you didn't have to expose the whole torso to change a diaper! If you do go for zippers, go for the double zipper for sure (but strangely I found that not many brands that did zippers caught on to the double zipper genius). 

For sleep sacks we have sworn by the Swaddlenot (which is a Canadian company but I think the Zipa-dee-dip is comparable in the US).  Our little guy had really bad eczema for months and months and this kept his hands covered and no scratches.  He still wears his Swaddlenot at 2.5 years old but we cut the hands out of his bigger ones (scratching is not a problem anymore).  We're moving out of the crib this weekend so are sadly saying goodbye to the sleep sacks but we'll definitely be using Swaddlenot for this baby too.

Otherwise, I agree with all of what @AKuzReve said - go for used, try and get a good big box of 0-3mo stuff at least - after that its hard to know how your babe will grow so you might want to hold off on buying a ton of bigger sizes.  Luckily, we have too many clothes to know what to do with so will not be worrying about purchasing baby clothing with this one! 

becks_726

I really liked having a minimal wardrobe pre-daycare. Once we got out of the super messy spit up stage that looked like 4 of everything. 4, pants, 4 onesies, 4 sweaters, etc. 

The first time around we got oodles of clothes gifted to us in the 0-6 month range and if this is your first, I urge you to hold off on buying until you see what you’re given. 

We also got tons of hand me downs (too much, honestly) and absolutely loved it. It was fun to just shop for the few little things that were missing. I highly recommend accepting hand me downs that are offered and asking friends and family with small kids. Think of the environment and the savings!  

The one item that I went out of my way to buy in preparation for this little one were Petit Lem footed pjs. They are buttery soft and have 2 way zips. Ime they are far superior to any other brand I’ve tried. 

We swore by sleepsacks with #1 and particularly like nest design cold weather ones. They feel like an actual duvet! 

My last clothing related rec is to arm yourself with a good enzymatic stain remover (I love Puracy’s). Enzymes work on bodily fluids and food so it’s pretty useful for baby stain. But for poop I swear by Shout. Preserve those clothes!! 

kime783

First thing I will say is this, like so much of motherhood, is totally family dependent! Trust your gut - you will know your little one and your family situation best!

Having said that, I took any and all hand me downs. If there were things that weren’t my taste I then passed them on to someone else. I also love consignment events and shops. They grow so quickly and will grow out of things so I don’t feel the need to pay full price. Having said that, we had feeding difficulties for about the first 4/5 months so we were in newborn/0-3 months for what seemed like forever. He has since been more true to size/age. 

Regarding sleepwear, this was also a difficult situation for us. He would Houdini out of swaddles but then not sleep if his arms were free. So we ended up needing two different things layered (probably not the normal but this also happened to a friend with her first and she was the one who saved me by suggesting this). We used this first SwaddleMe Pod – Newborn Size, 0-2 Months, 2-Pack (Dino Trucks ) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0107CYKJ2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_i_SZgeGb80K4HWS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
(think baby straight jacket) and then I layered a swaddle me. This was the bedtime routine until 3/4 months. Then we switched to a zipadee zip layered with a nested bean until 6-8 months. Then we ditched the nested bean and just used the zipadee zip until 15-18. Now he just wears normal pjs.  Here’s to hoping the new babe won’t be quite so complicated early on 😂

We were not big on socks or shoes when really little - mainly clothing with feet included since he was a winter baby. We then transitioned to the zutano type footwear when he was crawling and first walking.

We use either babyganics or tide free and clear laundry detergent.

bntfroggie

I use All free and clear to wash and Shout on breast milk poop stains.  It's always worked well for me but sometimes an outfit is just a lost cause and it's okay to just toss it.

Almost everything my girls have were/are hand me downs so I have no clothing preferences.

canucklehead123

Oh man, on the laundry front, we tried SO many different brands and kinds of scent-free, dye-free everything-free laundry detergent with DS when he was a newborn because his eczema was so bad.  In the end, we ended up having to double-rinse all of his laundry loads to ensure all traces of soap were out of his clothing (this helped so much when he had bad eczema flare-ups).  Now we use the method free and clear detergent and does not irritate DS's skin (but his eczema also isn't what it used to be). 

DuchessOfCambridge

Im the odd one out here - I have a tiny clothes shopping problem 🙃

We actually ended up needing to buy more newborn clothes bc my kids were tiny. With my daughter I was gifted a bunch of preemie clothes so I didn’t buy too much for that stage. She was in newborn for quite a while. I also had spitters so between spit up and blowouts, I changed their outfits probably 2-3 times a day. Spit ups were the biggest reason. It’s definitely smart to start smaller and buy more if you need it. We did also have hand me downs in the mix - but I really enjoy dressing up my babies haha

For the basics, I don’t care where they’re from. Cheap is good for me. I don’t splurge on newborns but H&M has really cute stuff for not too much $. Old Navy and Carter’s were big with us too. Once they are wearing clothes longer, I love buying secondhand Janie and Jack. I’d have some nb, 0-3, and 3-6 just in case your baby is big or grows really quickly. I have no opinion on socks or hats, whatever fits. I do like hats with bear ears 😂 we do fleece or muslin sleep sack over pjs depending on temp. We have a variety since babies vary but both mine liked the Halo ones best. 

Most of our baby shoes were hand me downs! It’s more fun for me to buy them when they are walking and wearing shoes regularly but I did love the hand me downs. I don’t mind snap pjs. I feel like the snaps always have the cutest prints! Snaps are best for NICU if that ends up being something you need to think about, easier to deal with the wires. I like zippers too, Cloud Island at target makes onesies that zip from the bottom up, nice for nighttime changes. 

I HATE OUTFITS WITH TINY BUTTONS AND BUTTONHOLES. They’re very cute but with 8-10 diaper changes a day, just no. 

We use Tide free and gentle or whatever for baby clothes. My kids don’t have sensitive skin so eventually I switch back to the good smelling stuff lol

knottie9e7fa67ce498487a

I want to try the magneticme pjs !

I put some clothes i like on the registry list to help my family in France find out brands that are local to canada (rather than buying in France & shipping)

Other than that, i ll goewith the flow. We ll order basic onesies from amazon, and see closer to the date what we have,

Worst case i ll send my partner to the store last minute to buy something that we would miss!

knewman85

I got some of these for free - https://www.megafreestuff.co.uk/free-pampers-nappies-giveaway/ has anyone used these before?