KALEE: When we do stroller testing at Wirecutter, we set up a little obstacle course. We put bags of sand in the seat. We don’t have babies that we’re swerving, swerving around the office all day long.
This episode is called: What You Actually Need for a Baby
ROSIE: Hey, friends.
CAIRA: Hi.
CHRISTINE: Hey there.
ROSIE: So today’s topic is all about gear, gifts, stuff people need and maybe don’t need for babies and young kids. We’ve talked about this episode for a long time. We’ve gone back and forth on whether we should do it at all.
CAIRA: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It’s a very specific life stage. It’s either you’re in that life stage, you’re pregnant, or you’re adopting, or you’re going to have a baby, or you are trying to figure out what to give someone in your life who’s having a baby.
ROSIE: That’s right.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. So this episode isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely hardcore for some people.
ROSIE: Totally. I mean, my feeling about this is that, yeah, not all the folks listening are going to be first-time expecting parents, but I would guess that most aren’t further than a degree of separation from someone who is. Maybe you have a sibling who’s expecting a child, grandchild, a cousin, a friend, and you’re trying to cut through the noise of all the marketing. There’s so much out there suggesting you need about 100,000 different products to raise a baby or toddler the, quote, “right way.” Stressful.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. But there are some really big-ticket items, strollers, car seat, cribs, some of these things that you feel like you got to get it right. You don’t want to get the wrong thing. Some of this stuff has safety implications. And so, you really want to make the right choice.
CAIRA: I don’t have kids. Y’all know this. But like y’all said earlier, I will have to start thinking about people in my life having babies and what I need to bring to show up for them. It’s going to come up more and more.
CHRISTINE: Today, as always, we have someone on the show who can really help sort of cut through the noise in this category. Kalee Thompson is our senior editor overseeing all of our baby and kid coverage, and she has a ton of experience testing gear, using gear in her own life, and overseeing a big team of people who have kids, and they’re constantly sort of sharing information. They’re looking at what is new. They’re testing it out.
And she’s also a parent. She has a teen and a tween at this point. So she’s a little farther out, kind of like me, but she also is very in touch with what is new and what is fresh in this category. She edits all of our baby gear reviews, and she’s been doing that for about eight years. So she’s just really a wealth of knowledge.
CAIRA: Yeah. We’ll talk to Kalee about noise around marketing and capitalism and social media when you’re trying to figure out what you actually need to buy, plus the stuff you really don’t need and what you can get safely used. We’ll be right back.
CAIRA: Welcome back. Our guest today is Kalee Thompson, senior editor of the team responsible for Wirecutter’s coverage of health, fitness, and, of course, baby and kid.
CHRISTINE: Kalee, welcome to the show.
KALEE: I’m so happy to be here.
ROSIE: So, Kalee, in the spirit of vulnerability and connection, let’s start at the top here. I want to know, to what extent did you feel pressured into buying a bunch of gear and stuff prior to welcoming your first kid?
KALEE: I would say that I was really resistant to the idea that I would need a lot of stuff.
ROSIE: Really?
KALEE: Yes. I personally am somewhat of a minimalist. And this was also a while back, so there was no Instagram. I think there was less exposure to the sort of constant barrage of influencer stuff that new parents are probably more subject to now. So yeah, I think I went into it feeling like I didn’t want to get a lot more than I really needed. I did not do a registry, which, in retrospect, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that. I think it was a little bit extreme.
CAIRA: So what did people get you then?
KALEE: So my baby shower was all books.
CHRISTINE: I find it kind of refreshing that you didn’t have a registry, honestly. Rosie and I were chatting recently about how the new trend is for children to have registries for their birthday parties.
KALEE: Oh my goodness.
CHRISTINE: So I feel like there has to be a limit.
KALEE: I mean, actually, the book shower was lovely, and we are still reading some of those books, and it’s so sweet to see the inscriptions and remember who gave us which books.
ROSIE: That’s really sweet. Well, I remember googling, “What do you need to buy before you have a baby?” straight up when my wife was pregnant, and we were about to become first-time parents. We were going to have twins. It felt like there was very, very little I could control. Admittedly, anxiety, not the best starting point when you’re about to begin shopping for anything, but especially for things that are really expensive, and because of the way capitalism, marketing, social media, peer pressure, all of this works.
I felt like there was this huge responsibility to buy the, quote, unquote, “right things.” And if we didn’t, somehow we would be starting off on the wrong foot as parents. I remember a lot of this pressure. My question for you, Kalee, is this: What is the bare minimum you need to take a baby home? Bare minimum.
KALEE: It’s actually pretty limited. I mean, I think babies need much less than you might think. But certainly, the number one thing is a car seat, an infant car seat. And if you have your baby in a hospital, which most people do, you are required to have that seat properly installed before you can bring the baby home. So that is really right at the top, I think, of everyone’s list. You need a safe, secure place for the baby to sleep. That could be a crib, a bassinet, a pack and play, could be a cardboard box. I mean, there’s a lot. There’s a wide variety of options.
ROSIE: My niece slept in a little cardboard box.
KALEE: Really?
ROSIE: Yeah, when she was a real newborn, and that worked.
KALEE: I had a time when I was traveling with my older son when he was an infant, and we literally did the thing where we pulled a drawer out of a dresser, emptied it out, and put him in there.
CHRISTINE: That’s so depression era of you.
KALEE: It was. It was. I think I took a picture of it. Yeah. It was memorable. But beyond that, pretty much everyone is going to want the items that you need to move a baby around, whether that’s a stroller, a cloth carrier. I think for most people, you’re going to want both of those things, diapers, some basic feeding supplies, bottles. If you’re planning to nurse, I think it’s really wise to be prepared with a comfortable bra or two. You might want a simple breast pump to start and formula on hand possibly as well.
CHRISTINE: Kalee, all of those items really resonate with me. I remember I’ve had two kids, and I think those really are kind of the most important, most essential things to have at home for your baby. Some of those things like the car seat, something to sleep in, like a crib or a bassinet, and then maybe a stroller are pretty big-ticket items, and we are going to talk about those a little bit later. They tend to be the most expensive things on a lot of people’s registries.
But before we get into that, I want to back up a little bit and talk about the things that other people in your life might want to give a new parent. Let’s say you’re a grandparent or an uncle or an aunt or a friend, and you want to give something really meaningful and cool and nice to the new parents. I’m wondering if you have any guidance on how people should and can approach giving gifts for a new baby, things that the parents will actually appreciate.
KALEE: I think a lot of people will create a registry, especially for a first baby, and especially if finances are a concern, and honestly, I think they are for the vast majority of people. I do think it’s really helpful to buy off the registry just like you would for a wedding. Of course, include a gift receipt, but I think that’s a good place to start. Not everyone has a registry, and of course, it’s fun to buy things off the registry, especially grandparents and relatives who maybe are thinking of buying a larger-ticket item.
You can often get a lot of pleasure out of giving a gift that they’ll see a child use over time. You could offer to buy the new family a stroller or a crib of their choice, I think something like that. It’s a very generous gift. And in theory, it could be something that’s fun to shop for together. So that’s one idea. Beyond that, I think kids just really need caring adults in their lives, and I think a gift that shares with the new family, with the new baby, something that you love is really nice.
So books, I think, fall into that category. I remember we had a friend that we knew from hiking who got our first son a sweet little hiking mug. I think those kinds of things can just be very heartfelt and memorable in the long term.
ROSIE: Two things I think about a lot. I have friends who are having first and second kids, and we will often go in on these big-ticket items as a friend group. And so, if they’re 2, 3, 4, or 500-plus dollars, breaking that up amongst a group of people can be really helpful. The other thing that I loved receiving and love giving, giving a book, gifting a book that meant something to me as a kid, and writing an inscription the way you would in a card, I’ve felt, is really meaningful to receive and hopefully to give as well.
KALEE: Yeah. That’s so sweet.
CHRISTINE: Kalee, I think that when people are thinking about the other things that they might want to have for a new baby, if you go into any big store that sells baby gear, you’re seeing hundreds of items. Some of these things you might need, you might like. Maybe some of them you don’t really need. So I’m going to run through a list of things that I think people commonly think that they’re supposed to have, and if you could shortly tell us why you might want this thing and why you might not. All right?
KALEE: Sure.
CHRISTINE: All right. A baby monitor with video.
KALEE: I do think that that is something that the majority of new parents will want, and we have a guide to all the options there, which are quite a few. But if you’re saying to yourself, “I don’t think I really need a baby monitor with video,” you probably don’t, and you can also get an audio monitor, which is both cheaper and easier. So that’s an option.
CHRISTINE: Diaper pail.
KALEE: This is a controversial one. We have spent a ridiculous amount of time at Wirecutter discussing whether stink is the number one criteria. Stink control is the number one criteria for a diaper pail or not. I don’t think it’s necessary. A lot of people don’t think it’s necessary. You can use a regular closing garbage can. But if you really don’t want any stinkiness, a diaper pail can be pretty helpful.
CHRISTINE: A changing table.
KALEE: I would really recommend just getting these inexpensive foam pads that you can attach to the top of a regular dresser. You can get a dedicated changing table, its own piece of furniture, but it’s not really necessary to do that.
CHRISTINE: Baby bouncer.
KALEE: Definitely optional, but a lot of people find that their baby loves a baby bouncer, and the BabyBjörn bouncer, in particular, is just one of our all-time favorite top picks.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. I found the baby bouncer essential for getting my kid to go to sleep. So for me, it was essential. Bottle sterilizers.
KALEE: No, you don’t need a bottle sterilizer.
CHRISTINE: But why might someone want one?
KALEE: I guess if you have a particular concern and your doctor is telling you maybe, you want that. But, I mean, I guess it could make cleaning easier, but it seems like overkill.
ROSIE: We did have one, and it was. . .Again, two babies, and it made a huge difference in terms of washing the volume of bottles that we needed to wash. Was it absolutely necessary? No.
KALEE: Right.
ROSIE: Did it help? Yeah, it kind of did.
CHRISTINE: All right. Wipe warmer.
KALEE: I would be a hard no on that. I think there’s just a lot of things that I wouldn’t necessarily get it preemptively, but if you later find that your baby is screaming bloody murder every time a cold wipe touches their butt, that could be your solution.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Sometimes you got to just try what you got to try when you’re desperate. Special laundry detergent. Baby laundry detergent.
KALEE: I do not think that that is necessary, but again, it might be something to go to if you discover that you are having a problem. You want to keep it pretty simple with babies.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. I also think that the Tide liquid detergent that we recommend is quite good for babies. I’ve talked to our laundry expert, Andrea, about this. That is a good one if you have any concern around skin sensitivity.
KALEE: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: All right. Last one. Bottle warmer.
KALEE: We do have a guide to bottle warmers, so we have some recommendations, but our overall conclusion at Wirecutter has long been you really don’t need a bottle warmer. You can warm your baby’s milk in basically a glass of warm water.
CAIRA: I don’t have kids. My brothers don’t have kids, and none of my friends have kids yet. But I do sense that it’s happening soon, might be happening soon. So do you remember any specific gifts you received that made the most impact?
KALEE: Yes. I remember some of our closest friends gave me this very nice, it seemed very fancy at the time, nursing pillow that they had bought at a local boutique, and it was just so soft and comfy, and we posed both of our babies on it for newborn photos, and we used it as a couch pillow for years afterward. And that was just so sweet, because I wouldn’t have found that myself.
Another really close friend of mine gave me a hiking pack, like the sort of rigid baby carrier that you use to bring a baby hiking on your back. And that friend, we’d done a lot of traveling together before we had kids, and it just felt like a really thoughtful gift and sort of like a vote of confidence that I’d still be doing the things I liked to do as a single person after I became a parent, and as well as just very generous. Those things are pretty expensive.
So those really stood out, and then there were just so many really adorable clothes and cute outfits, and there were definitely things that I probably got at the time that seemed a little over-the-top. But now, when I look back at the old baby photos, I really do remember where the clothes came from and the special things that people gave me. Yeah. They’re just so cute, and your baby is only going to be little for that short time. So it can be really cute to just have some adorable outfits.
CAIRA: Dress them up.
KALEE: Yes.
ROSIE: I do think when giving clothes, it’s helpful to give a larger size maybe. What do you think about that, Kalee? I tend to sort of try to go a year or 18 months.
KALEE: That is exactly what I would recommend, and so many people, I think, get a lot of newborn clothes, and then the baby never even wears them before they outgrow them. I think I always would buy it in the one-year-old size. They can grow into that, something to grow into.
ROSIE: So, Kalee, let’s say you’re keen to get a gift but aren’t necessarily inspired to get something for the baby. What’s your advice for folks who want to get a gift for new parents? Christine, I know, is always talking about, like, “Forget the baby.”
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
KALEE: I mean, the most wonderful thing is if you have a friend who can organize the meal train for you, and there are online services, websites that help you do that, but I think that that’s just the most kind, helpful thing. We actually have a great guide to the best gifts for new moms, and it includes both some very practical and whimsical ideas, from frozen food that you can order from afar to really nice bathrobes, nursing cover-ups. There are some really sweet jewelry gifts and thoughtful books for the mom in that list.
Also, just the self-care kind of stuff, like a really great face mask. Maybe some dry shampoo. Right? A lot of things that, in those first few weeks especially, you’re really going to be at home and looking for ways to comfort your body and your mind as you adjust.
CAIRA: I’ve seen a lot of videos of people on social media giving new mothers sushi boats after they give birth, because you can’t have fish during your pregnancy. I think that’s very thoughtful.
KALEE: That’s kind of only sort of true.
CHRISTINE: Actually, just remembering back to having babies, and I think that in the weeks after having a baby, it can actually be pretty stressful if you don’t have enough help, like if you don’t have a family member who’s there to help you all the time. And I just think somebody popping in and offering to clean your bathroom or just doing little things for the parents where they’re just so exhausted, that can be really quite meaningful. So I think those gifts can continue after the baby shower or whatever. That’s actually the period of time that I think the parents might need a little bit more help.
CAIRA: Kalee, I’m curious if you have any absolute don’ts in terms of things to gift at a baby shower, things you should maybe try to avoid.
KALEE: I think that’s tough because people are so different. So I think, obviously, you have to know the person. But some common things that we’ve found over the years, I think a lot of parents end up being annoyed by loud toys, things that are playing really annoying songs in a very screechy tone. So that might be something to keep in mind.
CAIRA: So don’t get somebody else’s kid hooked on PAW Patrol and then leave?
KALEE: Yes. Exactly. I think electronic toys generally, there’s a lot of marketing around these so-called educational electronic toys, and I think. . .Not to stereotype, but I think a lot of grandparents can be susceptible to that. You end up getting these gifts that might not be what the parents are hoping that their kids will entertain themselves with.
And the other thing is just more recently, obviously, there’s a lot of growing concern about plastics. So I think there’s going to be a lot of new parents out there that are just nervous about anything plastic that the baby is going to be putting in their mouth.
ROSIE: So to recap, I think the biggest advice is buy from the registries to whatever extent possible. I understand that parents have oftentimes done the work and the research to figure out the things that they actually want. And then I think also, I love your advice on books, Kalee. I think that can be really meaningful if you want to supplement something from the registry with something that maybe reflects a hobby the parent likes or something that you want to do with the child or with the parent. I think that’s really beautiful.
CHRISTINE: Okay. We’re going to take a quick break, and when we come back, we’ll talk with Kalee about the essentials, the big-ticket items, the car seat, the stroller, something to sleep in, and what to consider before you purchase those big-ticket items. We’ll be right back.
CHRISTINE: Welcome back. Today, we’re talking with Kalee Thompson, senior editor of Wirecutter’s baby and kid team, and we’re talking all about baby gear, the essential things you need and the nice-to-haves.
ROSIE: Earlier, you walked us through the essential gear folks should have to bring home a newborn. I want to zoom in and focus on three of the big ones, car seat, stroller, and something to sleep in, like a crib or a bassinet. Car seat first. Kalee, what do folks need to know when considering buying a car seat? It’s a big one.
KALEE: So if you’re going to be driving anywhere with your baby, you obviously need to have a car seat, and you need to have it installed correctly. And what we’ve found over years of research, talking to dozens of experts about car seats, all the car seats sold in the U.S. are basically safe. I’m not going to say they’re all the same.
But the biggest factor is really that you have a car seat that is the correct car seat for the size of your child, and that you have it installed correctly in your car. And that installation, as pretty much any parent knows, can really be a pain. So when we’ve been reviewing car seats, that is really a very top-level thing that we’re always looking at, is how difficult is it to get a good install with this car seat.
CAIRA: And Kalee, when you say that all car seats in the U.S. are safe, is that because of the regulatory system? For them to even show up in the store, they have to have been processed thoroughly and made sure that they are safe?
KALEE: It’s a pretty regulated category, and the car seats that we recommend also do have, for the most part, additional safety features. But in our guide to infant car seats, we have three picks. The Graco SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX is our top pick. These car seats also, just some of them have ridiculous names, like a lot of baby products do. So it can be very confusing to sort through the different options, which is where, hopefully, Wirecutter’s guides can really come in handy, because a lot of times, you’ll see slight variations.
It might be $50 less expensive, and we’re always trying in our guide to give parents guidance of what’s really the difference between these different seats that have very similar and often very confusing names. Another car seat that we really love is the Chicco KeyFit 35. The Chicco KeyFit 30 is also a great seat. Those are fantastic options that we’ve been recommending for a very long time. And then as an upgrade pick, we’re now recommending the UPPAbaby Aria, which is a more expensive car seat. It costs about $350, where the other picks are more around the $200, $250 range.
CAIRA: Wow, that’s kind of expensive. Is it ever okay to just get a used one from a friend or buy one used?
KALEE: It’s not a good idea to buy a used car seat. I mean, the expert advice is do not buy a used car seat, and that is because if a car seat has been in a crash, it is no longer safe, and you don’t want to be using a car seat that’s maybe been in a crash that you don’t know about.
CAIRA: So it’s like a helmet in that way.
KALEE: It is like a helmet.
CAIRA: Okay.
KALEE: Yeah. You’re right, Caira, that it is a pretty expensive item. And I think that if you have someone that you really trust is telling you, “This car seat has never been in any sort of a crash. I’m handing it down to you,” that’s obviously a personal judgment call. Another factor is that car seats do expire. So it’s generally a pretty long. . .but there is an expiration date, which is really just about materials degrading over time.
CHRISTINE: And Kalee, if a new parent is just a little insecure about whether they’ve installed their car seat correctly, what is your recommendation? Is there a place people can go to get checked out?
KALEE: Yes, and that’s a great idea, and I think a lot of new parents do do that even before their baby is born. That’s really the best time, and a lot of hospitals offer that service for free, fire stations. So there’s different places where you can do that, but that’s a great idea.
CHRISTINE: Let’s turn to strollers now. This, I remember, was such a journey for me when I had little kids. I was first shocked by how expensive strollers can be, and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I remember not really knowing there’s just so many options. You can get strollers that will fit your actual infant car seat. They’re kind of a system, and maybe you want to go with the same little caddy that pairs with your car seat. There’s the full-size strollers. There’s umbrella strollers. There are jogging strollers. There’s just so many.
And I think it also might depend on where you live. I had babies in New York City. So having a stroller was like my car. But my sister who has kids in a small town and drives a lot, the stroller was a completely different thing for her. So how do you think a parent should really think about this purchase before they’ve had the baby? They don’t maybe know what everything is going to look like once the kid is a little bit older. But for that first infant stage, what do you think they should be thinking through?
KALEE: I think right at the beginning, you just have to really think through your own needs. And just like you said, where do you live? How are you going to be using this stroller? Are you keeping it in your trunk? Are you walking it up and down a flight of stairs every day, or maybe four flights of stairs? All of those things really impact what kind of stroller you might want.
When my kids were babies, I lived in Los Angeles. I was walking everywhere. The sunshade was a super important feature. You might want a really good-sized basket if you’re also using your stroller to lug groceries. So there’s just a lot of different factors to think of. I think a good place to start is just look around you at the people in your neighborhood. What kind of strollers did they have? You could always start conversations with other parents about what they like and don’t like about their stroller.
Also, in our guides at Wirecutter, we really have a lot of guidance trying to direct people to what kind of stroller might be best for them, and a lot of it comes down to size and features. Obviously, a bigger, more full-featured stroller is going to do more. It’s going to be more versatile. It’s also going to be more expensive, generally larger. And I think a lot of people end up realizing that they really wish they had a smaller stroller, especially people that are having to carry the stroller once you have the kid in it. There’s a lot of factors. What kind of stroller did you end up getting, Christine?
CHRISTINE: We had a Maclaren, and it was fine. But I think in retrospect, living in New York City, using a stroller so much, I would advise my past self to spend more on the stroller, to have gotten a stroller that was a little smoother, a little nicer ride. Caira is looking at me and laughing, because she knows that I always go for the really inexpensive-
CAIRA: I do.
CHRISTINE: . . .transportation. But again, I didn’t have stroller storage. I lived in a three-story walk-up, and I had to keep my stroller inside my apartment. So I wouldn’t have been able to kind of lug an UPPAbaby up my stairs.
KALEE: But maybe you would have liked the UPPAbaby Minu, which is the UPPAbaby’s travel stroller, which is much smaller and easier to carry.
CHRISTINE: I think that’s probably right. It would have been worth spending more on a small luxe stroller.
CAIRA: Whenever I’m in a nice neighborhood in New York, like the Upper West Side or Williamsburg now, I see these parents pushing their babies around in what genuinely reminds me of spaceships, and I always wonder how much people are paying for these things.
CHRISTINE: Oh, so much.
CAIRA: So what is the range? How much should regular people spend on a stroller?
KALEE: There are some that are just really, really over-the-top. The most expensive strollers that we recommend are the larger UPPAbaby strollers. That’s about $700.
CAIRA: Ooh.
KALEE: So other than some of the double strollers, that’s, I think, the most expensive of our picks. But there are definitely many strollers that are well over $1,000. Those are great strollers, but you do not have to spend $700 to get a good stroller.
CHRISTINE: When you go drive a car, like you’re going to buy a car, you go and do a test drive. Right? You can also do this for strollers. What’s your advice when somebody is going to test-drive a stroller? You’re in a store. How are you supposed to tell if something is nice or not, and to really envision what it will be like when you actually have this baby?
KALEE: When we do stroller testing at Wirecutter, we set up a little obstacle course. We weigh the strollers. We put bags of sand in the seat. We don’t have babies that we’re swerving, swerving around the office all day long, unfortunately. We’re trying to evaluate how easy are they to turn around tight corners. Is it going to be difficult to navigate a grocery store with one of these strollers? Another thing is really how easy they are to fold and unfold, especially when you have probably a squirmy baby in the other arm. Are you able to manage this stroller at the same time you’re managing your baby when you’re by yourself?
ROSIE: A stroller, I think, is one of those things where it’s like, “Don’t be aspirational. Really think about what your life is like.”
CHRISTINE: Absolutely. I also think that can change.
ROSIE: It does, and that’s why I have four strollers now.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Yeah. I had three. When you’re pregnant, sometimes you think you’re going to buy one thing and it will be the thing that you use. But in my experience, it was like buy the caddy that works for the infant car seat and then figure it out later, and my needs changed. We moved. I had a second kid. I needed a different stroller. Life changes, and you might have to get something different.
KALEE: Yeah. And that’s the time when. . .Look at Facebook Marketplace before you-
ROSIE: For selling too.
KALEE: Yes.
ROSIE: When you’re trying to offload these things that you paid a lot of money for, the next parent might have the same criteria that you had.
KALEE: Yeah.
ROSIE: Okay. So the next category is something for this kid to sleep in, or these kids. What should people keep in mind when deciding on a crib or a bassinet?
KALEE: The most important thing in the big picture is that babies are always sleeping on a firm, flat surface. There shouldn’t be any blankets or bumpers or other items in the crib with them. That’s all about really having a safe sleep environment for the baby. A lot of it just comes down to how your life is set up. And the nice thing about a bassinet and a number of the bassinets that we recommend is that they’re really designed to be pulled up right next to the adult bed.
There’s also just simpler bassinets that you can just keep right there by the side of your bed. I just used a regular pack and play when my kids were little. Again, knowing what I know now, I might have gotten something that was a little bit more convenient, but that works fine. And then when you’re getting a crib, I mean, there are so many options, but a lot of it is really about. . .It’s a piece of furniture. What kind of style crib are you looking for?
ROSIE: Talk about the SNOO.
CHRISTINE: And for people who don’t know what the SNOO is, this is the sort of prestige bassinet, if you will. Right? It’s like almost $2,000.
CAIRA: Oh my God.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
KALEE: Yeah. It’s about $1,700 if you buy it new. So the SNOO is a so-called smart bassinet, and it was really the first of its kind. And what it does that’s different than any other regular bassinet is that it automatically rocks and soothes the baby back to sleep, and the baby is in a swaddle that is actually attached to the mattress surface inside the bassinet.
We first reviewed the SNOO when it was brand new back in, I think it was 2017, and we ended up passing around the same SNOO for many years after that. It actually just kind of died last year. I think we had 10 different babies sleep in the same SNOO. Some people absolutely love it and some people don’t like it at all, and it’s really a mixed bag. And we’ve been sort of tracking this, trying to track it for quite a few years now, and I would say it’s almost 50/50.
It’s really mixed, and it’s very expensive. So we do recommend it. We’ve since then tested out a number of other smart bassinets that have been introduced, and we do think that it’s definitely the best of its kind. It’s a really well-made product. You can now rent them. You can definitely buy them secondhand. There’s a lot to consider with it, and we do have a whole stand-alone guide about the SNOO if you want to find out more about it. We’ve tried our best to sort of get a big-picture assessment of what people really think of it.
CAIRA: Kalee, I know that you’re a fan of used gear, of all of these essentials. What do you think are things that people can buy used?
KALEE: Except for car seats, most things you can at least consider buying used, and you can just google CPSC recall, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and find out if there’s been a recall on that product.
CAIRA: Before we wrap, we usually ask all of our guests one final question. What’s the last thing you bought that you’ve really loved?
KALEE: I recently got a new travel mug, the Zojirushi. Is that how you say it?
CAIRA: Zojirushi.
CHRISTINE: Zojirushi.
ROSIE: Zojirushi.
KALEE: Yes. I had one of these mugs years ago. I feel like it was the first Wirecutter gift that I ever got maybe, and I loved it. I lost it. It’s been many years, and I just got a new one. It’s just the perfect size. It’s so light. I can put it in my bag. It’s not going to leak. Yeah. I’m so happy to have it back.
ROSIE: Kalee, thank you so much for your insights on how to think about this. It’s a really vulnerable time for a lot of people. A lot of great insights. Really, really appreciate having you.
KALEE: Thank you.
CHRISTINE: Thanks, Kalee.
ROSIE: So, Kalee, fantastic, so much experience, both anecdotal and through her work here at Wirecutter.
CAIRA: Yeah.
ROSIE: What did you all take away from this episode?
CHRISTINE: So I am no longer in the baby gear buying phase. But speaking as a parent who’s 10, 12 years out from stage, I’m just going to double down Kalee’s advice that it is so worth getting used gear when you can for some of this infant stuff. It’s like you’re only going to have it in your life for a certain period of time. A lot of it is lightly used. I think it’s a great way to go.
That said, I will part ways on used strollers. I did buy two used strollers when my kids were little, and they were kind of both a little janky, a little busted. And for my life in Brooklyn with uneven sidewalks and using the stroller all the time, I would have advised myself to just spend more on a stroller, get something new, get something nice, because I will be using it all the time. So that’s my takeaway and that’s my advice.
CAIRA: That’s a good one.
ROSIE: There are definitely cases for buying new, and I think group gifting is a really important thing to think about. A lot of these items are really expensive, but I think, again, baby monitor, diaper pail, baby bouncers, a lot of these things you can buy for very little, used, or gift from other people who’ve aged out of them.
CAIRA: Yeah. My takeaway is that I am far from being able to afford a baby. But for people in my life who will start doing that for themselves and building their families, I am going to stick to the registry, because they’ve probably done the research. I’m going to trust that they know what they need, and I’m just going to get it for them. But if I want to deviate and maybe do something a little extra special, it never hurts to maybe organize a food train or offer to help clean something for the parents, because the parents are going to be exhausted.
CHRISTINE: I love that.
ROSIE: Couldn’t agree more. If you want to find out more about Wirecutter’s coverage, if you want to check out any of the products that Kalee recommended, any of her reporting, any of the guides in the baby/kids section, check out the website. We’ll link a few in the show notes today. That’s it for us, Caira, Christine.
CAIRA: Bye.
CHRISTINE: See you later.
ROSIE: Peace.
CAIRA: The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman. Today’s episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter’s deputy publisher is Cliff Levy. Ben Frumin is Wirecutter’s editor in chief. I’m Caira Blackwell.
CHRISTINE: I’m Christine Cyr Clisset.
ROSIE: And I’m Rosie Guerin.
CHRISTINE: Thanks for listening.
CHRISTINE: Part of parenthood is about keeping your children’s expectations low about what you will provide them.
ROSIE: Set the bar so low.
