I’ve had a few months to use and form opinions on a large number baby products. One of the most important items in a new baby’s home is a diaper bag. There are a zillion and one different diaper bags to choose from, so how do new parents find the right bag? And, what do you put into that bag once you’ve found the one for you?
First, the bag. Like I said, there are tons out there to choose from, and a lot of the decision has to do with personal style. I ended up with the “deluxe tote” from Little Company. I found this bag at Target for $50.00. This bag has a lot of excellent features – a removable changing pad, a thermal bottle carrier that attaches to the side of the bag, cell phone and pacifier pockets on the outside of the bag, and a zippered clear pocket on the inside where you can store wet clothes. If I were to purchase a bag now though, I think I would look for something a little larger, as we are always stuffing that bag full – when you need to pack diapers, wipes, 2 extra sets of clothes, pacifiers, bottles, water, formula, burp cloths and maybe a toy or two. Target has an excellent selection of diaper bags online. The local store I went to didn’t have as many, but that might have been specific to that store.
So, the things inside the diaper bag. I have found the small travel cases for wipes to be very handy. We’ve used one from Pampers and one from Huggies. I like that the Pampers one had a push and release top. I like that the Huggies one can fit a few more wipes inside. These are small plastic cases that hold about 20 wipes or so – perfect for day trips. As for the wipes themselves, I like the thickness of the Huggies wipe – it doesn’t feel like the pee is going to soak all the way through the wipe and onto you. The Huggies wipes are also quilted which is nice. However, the travel wipes are folded in a way that is almost impossible to get them out of the container. They aren’t folded together so that one pops up following the one that you pull out. Instead you have to feel around for the seam somewhere in the middle of the container, and I find that I often nearly rip the wipe trying to get it out. The Pampers wipes are not at thick or nice feeling, but they do come out much more easily.
Clothing doesn’t need much of a review – there’s just too much. I will say though, that I love the Carter’s tag-less outfits. One suggestion we got before Xander arrived was to cut the tags out of his outfits so they wouldn’t irritate the back of his sensitive little neck. This sounded logical, so when I washed all of his outfits I got at my baby shower, I started to cut out the tags, until I realized that I didn’t know what size the outfits were without the tags (oops) so the tag-less became my new favorites.
I think that babies pretty much choose their favorite bottles and pacifiers. We had decided pre-baby that we wanted to use silicone nipples and pacifiers versus the latex, as the latex seems to break down faster. Our baby let us know around 1 month the kind of pacifiers he preferred. He likes the ones that have a flat bottom instead of the oval shape all around. Nuk from Gerber makes a nice one. Our favorites though are the Evenflo Vizion Pacifiers. They have the shape that Xander likes, and a soft foam backing so that he doesn’t get that red mark around his mouth after using a pacifier. They come in a little container and have covers for the nipples, which I like quite a bit (keeps them cleaner).
As for bottles, Xander didn’t really seem to have a preference exactly, but he seems to suck better with Avent bottles. There are lots of bottles who advertise that they reduce colic, etc., but since Xander has never had a problem with that, I can’t speak to which bottles might actually do that. We initially purchased a few 4 ounce bottles, and then realized that it made a lot more sense to buy the larger bottles since we can use them when Xander starts drinking more than 4 ounces in a feeding, and they are actually more comfortable to hold. So, I would recommend buying the larger bottles, and then you just have to purchase replacement nipples as the baby gets older and better at sucking.
For a while we had a tiny bottle of Purell hand sanitizer in the bag as well – quite handy for those diaper changes on the go. Recently I discovered some hand sanitizer I like much better. It’s moisturizing and scented, and my new favorite diaper bag product. It’s from Caren. I found it in a hotel gift shop, but they’ve got a good online store. I think that Purell has become sort of the kleenex of the hand-sanitizing world. It’s the one product that you see everywhere, and we sometimes forget that other companies make hand sanitizers as well. At any rate, if you ever get a chance you should pick up some of this – I think it’s far superior to the Purell brand.
We are still sampling diapers, so I’m not quite ready to write a review of them yet. However, I am impressed that a Huggies diaper (size 1) was able to hold almost 12 hours worth of urine when Xander slept through the night, so at this point, they are a pretty exciting diaper in our house 
Avent, baby supplies, baby wipes, bottles, diaper bags, diapers, Evenflo, Huggies, pacifiers, Pampers, Purell, Caren, hand sanitizer
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An interesting side effect of being pregnant or being a new parent is that companies love to give you free samples of stuff. I can remember getting a free diaper bag filled with Similac supplies, and Enfamil regularly sent me cans of formula or coupons. Pampers just sent me a diaper, and I’m sure I’ll get some samples from Huggies and Luvs again sometime soon. It’s great – all that baby paraphernalia can get expensive, and who doesn’t love free stuff, right?
