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Essential baby registry tips

12 September 2009 120 Comments

handmade-adelaide-baby.com

handmade-adelaide-baby.com

Today, very little research is put into the creation of a baby registry. This is mainly due to the convenient ready-made lists your store of choice hands you, along with the zapper. Those generic baby registry lists are categorized, itemized and tell you how many of each item to get.  While it’s a great guide, I’m going to tell you how to make it even better.

These three essential tips will ensure you are registering for the best, most useful and safest products to meet your individual needs (keyword needs, there’s a lot out there you will never use):

  1. Take a new mom with you
  2. Three must-have books on baby gear (below)
  3. Online ratings and reviews

1-Take a new mom or two with you: she will tell you what products she used, which ones were useless, what her baby liked and disliked, what she needed more or less of, and so much more.  Granted, every mom and baby pair have unique needs, so pick a friend who you feel has similar family values. My friend had me register for Dr. Sears’ The Baby Book as well as extra wash/burp cloths.  She had me skimp on the clothes and bibs - come to find out that you receive more clothes and bibs as gifts then you can fit in the closet!

2-Three must-have books on baby gear: Consumer Reports Best Baby Products provide you with recommendations on the safest and best gear per category. Additionally, most of the product reviews include safety rankings, such as strollers and car seats. Compare the recommendations from Consumer Reports to the reviews in Baby Must-Haves, by Parenting Magazine’s mom survey, that contains brand recommendations, hundreds of priceless tips, and my favorite, a “Skip, Save, or Splurge” feature.  The list of three books:

  1. Consumer Reports Best Baby Products, 10 edition by Editors of Consumer Reports, Sandra Gordon
  2. Baby Must-Haves: The Essential Guide to Everything from Cribs to Bibs
  3. Baby Bargains, 8th Edition: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on Baby Furniture, Gear, Clothes, Toys, Maternity Wear and Much, Much More!

    3-Online ratings and reviews: The sites with the highest number of product ratings and reviews are Babies R Us and Amazon Baby. In addition you can sort the products by best selling and/or  highest rating.  And definitely skim through the user reviews to help with your decision making.

    Finally, a personal tip from me: check all baby personal care products with the cosmeticdatabase.com to find the toxicity levels. You will be shocked to find that popular brand-name products (even those claiming to be sensitive or natural) contain high levels of toxins that you and I don’t want our precious newborns exposed to.

    Newborn baby systems are not equipped to process and eliminate toxins as adults are. So if your store doesn’t carry milder brands, go ahead and buy those items yourself and leave it off the registry. The CosmeticDatabase also created a Safety Guide for Baby & Children’s Personal Care Products for you to print and take with you - you will love it.

    Good luck and enjoy the excitement of creating your registry (and start a couple of months before the shower)!

    More from RaisingRoots:

    BabyBites: developmentally nutritious information
    Feed your soil: recipes for your body and soul
    Top rated baby products

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