Product Spotlight: Health and Safety Items

iiirene

S+TMs:
What specific items did you find were essential to have on hand for the early days of health care and safety?
What categories of items did you find necessary?
What other items/brands did you love?
What other items/brands did you hate?
Additional thoughts?

For FTMs:
What specific products/category of products are you considering definitely having on hand? Any you are considering skipping?

Please ask any questions you may have about health and safety here.

iiirene

What specific items did you find were essential to have on hand for the early days of health care and safety? Frida nail clippers, baby Tylenol, Frida snot sucker, gas drops, gripe water. 
What categories of items did you find necessary? Getting stuff for colds and illnesses beforehand so that when it inevitably happens you don’t have to run to the store. 
What other items/brands did you love? Surprisingly, Boogie Wipes. When I first saw them I thought they were ridiculous. Then my son got his first cold and it was the only thing he would let me touch his nose with. 
What other items/brands did you hate? I wouldn’t say I hated them, but rather than prolonged use of baby gates we taught our son to safely use the stairs. 
Additional thoughts?

enw1028

What specific items did you find were essential to have on hand for the early days of health care and safety?
The Frida baby basics kit was nice to have - loved it for cradle cap and snot sucker alone. At first I thought the windi was so odd but I had a gassy baby and we ended up ordering a few packs of them because they work so well. Also loved this device for those sharp baby nails. https://amzn.to/3jh6s85 a hydrating, gentle lotion was also nice those early days as their skin can be dry or flaky as it’s getting used to the outside world! 

What categories of items did you find necessary?
Definitely have an assortment of medicines on hand, along with things to take care of umbilical cord and circumcision if you go that route. Any sort of first aid items as well. 

Make sure you have a humidifier for their room especially that first winter! We love the Frida Baby one and use their drops too. 

What other items/brands did you love?
Our favorite brands were Frida Baby, Wellements, and Mommy’s Bliss. We used a lot from the Wellements line and although it can be a pain because most of it needs to be refrigerated it’s a great product. Their tooth oil is 100000% worth it when teething. Also loved Camila drops for teething too. I know those aren’t necessarily “early day” products but nice to have on hand before you need them! Boogie Wipes also came in handy - more so now that he’s older. We also loved the baby bees baby line. All of their products were really gentle. 

What other items/brands did you hate?
Additional thoughts?

Hated Dreft. And hate that it’s targeted towards moms because it’s filled with so many chemicals 🙈 

also I think all nasal aspirations are a giant pain. Whether it’s the bulb, the Frida one, or any other ones babies hate them all and they’re stressful 😂

etnyah

S+TMs:
What specific items did you find were essential to have on hand for the early days of health care and safety? - Thermometer, Frida snot sucker, cradle cap brush + baby oil, nail clipper with a little window so you can see what you’re doing (nobody prepared me for how TINY baby nails are!). Desitin or other diaper rash creams, aquaphor.  

What categories of items did you find necessary? - Agree with @iiirene, having stuff for colds on hand so you don’t have to scramble is a great idea. Tylenol (including a weight/dosage chart so you know how much to give), thermometer of any kind (I preferred a rectal one oddly enough, seemed more accurate) are the most important imo!

What other items/brands did you love? -  Can’t go wrong with a big bundle of stuff from Frida, for both mom and baby. Great to put on your baby shower registry!

What other items/brands did you hate? - anything for gas. Nothing seemed to work for us, besides pumping his legs. Those Frida fart straws (not what they’re called but it’s what they are) were especially useless.

Additional thoughts? - Not items, but smart things to know/do: install your car seat and have it assessed by a professional before birth. Know your pediatrician’s nurse line number, where the closest urgent care and ER is. Also number for poison control, for when baby is a little bigger and everything goes in their mouth. Write it down and stick it on your fridge, save it on your phone. Take an infant CPR class if you can, know what to do if they’re choking (there are YouTube videos as well!). 

etnyah

@enw1028 windi! I couldn’t for the life of me remember what they were called, we just said fart straws

nsk489

What specific items did you find were essential to have on hand for the early days of health care and safety? Nail clippers (I liked the Frida baby ones). We also had an electric nail file thingy but I prefer just using the clippers. Some people just bite the nails to trim them 🤷‍♀️. Diaper cream, I like the Earth Mama diaper balm but also sometimes just plain old vaseline or coconut oil! And then the stronger stuff when necessary, like Desitin. And a humidifier (make sure you get one that is easy to clean)
What categories of items did you find necessary? Definitely make sure you have all the cold essentials on hand BEFORE you need them (especially since there is currently a shortage of infant and children's tylenol!). Infant tylenol, thermometer (we have both a forehead scanner one but also a rectal thermometer--scary to use at first but you get over it lol), nasal aspirator, some sort of saline drops or spray, and boogie wipes!
What other items/brands did you love? I liked most of the Frida mom/baby products. Also Wellements, their tooth oil for teething is awesome. I also ended up buying a baby scale to use at home bc we had feeding/weight gain issues, not something that most people will need but it put me at ease to be able to weigh my son before/after some feeds to see how much he was eating
What other items/brands did you hate? People rave about Tubby Todd (especially the All Over Ointment) but I wasn't a huge fan 🤷‍♀️  Also never needed gripe water or the fart straw (🤣) so can't speak to those items
Additional thoughts? If baby only receives breastmilk, they will need some sort of Vitamin D drops (or talk to your dr about you taking a Vitamin D supplement instead). Also no sunscreen under 6 months, so make sure you have other sun protection for these April babies (hats, long sleeve swimwear if you're going to the beach or playing in water, etc)

Also adding in some health items for you in those early days (not sure if we have a spotlight on this or not):  nipple cream, peri bottle, sitz bath (my hospital sent me home with a thing to use that you just out over your toilet), colace, dermoplast, tucks pads. Your hospital might send you home with a lot of that stuff!

knottieac94426758b202b4

I may not be answering the full question but there’s a Mamieli baby health bundle that goes really in depth on the products you need. All really great brands including Frida. Apparently they comb reviews to see which brand the majority of moms like most for each product and include those in the bundle or something like that. There’s more context on what you need/ which brands/ and why on the website, worth checking out

I agree with the others that said products for gas arent great, at least they weren’t for me. For my first baby I found pumping the legs to be the only thing that really worked, along with burping him every time he had milk!