10 Baby Must-Haves: 0-6 Months
There are a lot of lists and ideas out there for what babies must-have from 0-6 months, or should I say, what parents should get for their baby’s first 6 months.
I know everyone probably has mixed ideas on what their essentials are, but I can so easily come up with 10 baby must-haves that helped us survive 0-6 months with our little one.
1. White Noise Machine
Now, I am doing my best to put these in order for how helpful we found them or how much we used them. Some are hard to decide, but the white noise machine is a no-brainer #1!
Our little girl slept in our room in a bassinet for the first six months. The first month especially we struggled so much with her sleep. Even though I always sleep with white noise - a humidifier specifically - we read that loud white noise can help a lot.
Luckily we were gifted a white noise machine/night light/diffuser combo at one of my baby showers - I will link below - and it worked so well for us! We used the stream sound with the night light every night and it’s worked wonders from the time we started using it.
She still sleeps with it now with her crib in her own room. It’s magical, I swear.
2. Baby Lounger
In the beginning, we did not have any sort of baby lounger and I had zero intentions of getting one. It was sort of an accident - an extremely helpful, amazing accident.
We were actually looking for something sort of easy to use as a travel bassinet and found a lounger on Amazon that was a reasonable price and had good reviews. Even though we ordered it to be a “travel bed” for B, I went ahead and put it in her bassinet when it arrived.
She has been sleeping in it ever since, even now in her crib!
Brighton has been sleeping through the night since she was two months old and I am confident that this is a huge reason why.
3. Fisher-Price Kick & Play Piano Gym
This has seriously been one of the absolute best toys ever.
When Brighton was a newborn she loved just laying on the mat and looking at the lights while listening to the music.
Now that she’s getting older, she will kick and kick at the piano while smiling at herself in the mirror and grabbing at the toys above her head. It just keeps growing with her and allowing her to use it in different ways!
The piano has different levels for the older your baby gets and it even rotates so your baby can play with it while sitting up. Then you can take it off the mat, as well, so they can walk around with it once they get to that stage!
Not only that, but the toy arch that hangs above their head will move as well to adjust with them when they can sit up.
The Fisher-Price Kick & Play Piano Gym is easily one of the top necessities for your 0-6 month old!
4. Fisher-Price Sit-Me-Up Floor Seat
Piggybacking off the Fisher-Price Kick & Play, their Sit-Me-Up Floor Seat has been another absolutely must-have for us.
The “frog seat,” as we call it in our house, has been a game changer since Brighton has been able to hold her head up. She was always wanting to lean up or sit in our lap even when she was nowhere close to sitting up on her own and this helped her do so in the most perfect way.
Attached to the front of the seat are toys that hang down and help keep her entertained as well. We take it everywhere - to her babysitters, to my parents when we stay there - it’s so easy to fold down and carry with you wherever you need to take it.
Months three through six would have been difficult without the “frog seat” for sure!
5. Swing
I seriously don’t think we would have been able to ever set Brighton down during her first few months if it wasn’t for our Graco swing.
The one we have is a combination of a bouncer and swing and it includes a mobile, sound machine and you can add batteries too to get vibration settings as well.
With Brighton, we of course used the white noise and it worked great for us. We could put her in there if she was already asleep, about to fall asleep, or sometimes she would happily just lay in there and hang out!
6. Sleepsack Swaddle
Brighton did not like her arms being swaddled at all. But even with that, the sleepsack swaddle was still an easy must-have for us.
We swaddled her with her arms out and she still loved being snug and swaddled up.
Around five months we switched her to a sleepsack without the swaddle, more as a wearable blanket, and she is still wearing that to bed every night.
7. Desitin
Desitin was an absolute life saver for us!
In her first 2-3 months when Brighton was all breast milk, she had the breast milk poops all the time and we had to try SO MANY THINGS to get rid of her poor little diaper rash.
Bumping up slightly in diaper size, letting her little booty breathe from time to time and Desitin were total lifesavers when it came to helping and preventing her diaper rash!
8. Wipeable Changing Pad Cover
A must-have. A staple. Don’t even get any other kind of changing pad cover.
I know, I know - there’s so many cute options out there. But your cute (and probably more pricey) options are going to get ruined with baby pee and poop, okay!?
I cannot tell you how many times the changing pad being wipeable has come in clutch for us. Brighton has peed on it multiple times and there was even once when she just decided to let out a fun breastmilk poop right as I took her diaper off.
Thankfully we had the wipeable changing cover because if not, it would have been an absolutely nightmare to clean up.
9. Gripe Water
Gripe water worked wonders for us when it came to hiccups and occasionally fussiness. Hiccups specifically though, it was incredible how well it worked!
When Brighton got the hiccups we would give her the appropriate dosing of gripe water, usually less even, and 9/10 times her hiccups immediately disappeared. It was sort of crazy how well it worked for her.
I have heard mixed reviews on how well it works from baby to baby, but it is definitely worth a try - especially if your baby is easily irritated with hiccups!
10. Dr. Brown’s Bottles
Another one that I have heard mixed reviews on… but we will not use any other bottle for any children we may have to follow.
Yes, I will admit, their downfall is all of the pieces to the bottle you have to wash.
But they are anti-colic bottles that thankfully kept Brighton colic-free through her early months. And that is totally worth it.
Now do I have absolute proof that she didn’t get colic because of the Dr. Brown’s bottles? Well, no. But it’s not worth the risk if that is something that helped her so we will definitely be using them from here on out!
There are multiple necessities that helped us and Brighton through the first six months of her life. But looking back over her first half-a-year of life, these are easily 10 baby must-haves for us in those first six months.
Leave your must-haves in the comments below!
