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9 picks · Bottles, burping and the first six months of mess.
Feeding gear comes in two eras. For the first six months it’s bottles, burp cloths and a drying rack, used many times a day and washed as often. From six months it’s high chairs, bibs and plates that cannot be launched across the room. For that first stretch, buy a small mixed set of bottles before committing to a brand. Babies have strong, unpredictable opinions about nipple shape, and a full case of the wrong bottle is money straight in the bin.
★ Top pickA starter set of vented, anti-colic bottles.
Start with a small mixed set. Babies have strong, unpredictable opinions on nipple shape, and a case of the wrong bottle is money gone.
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A long bottle brush and a drying rack.
You'll wash bottles several times a day for a year. A dedicated rack keeps the counter from becoming a bottle graveyard.
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◆ Budget pickPlain cotton prefold cloth diapers.
Skip the cute shaped ones. Flat cotton prefolds absorb more, wash better, and cost a third as much. Buy a dozen; you'll use every one.
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Wipe-clean silicone bib with a catch pocket.
Fabric bibs need washing after every meal. Silicone rinses in four seconds, and the pocket catches roughly half of what is dropped.
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◆ Budget pickA high chair for sitting and dropping food.
The IKEA one is famously the best value in the entire baby category: wipes clean in seconds and costs almost nothing. The Stokke is the buy-once version that lasts into adulthood.
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One-piece silicone plate-mat that sticks to the table.
A plate that can’t be launched across the room is worth the premium. One-piece designs beat separate suction rings.
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Weighted straw cups and small open cups.
Speech and dental guidance point away from hard-spout sippy cups towards straws and open cups. Start straws around six months.
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✧ UnderratedMix a day's formula at once.
If you use formula at all, mixing a batch in the morning instead of six times a day is a quality-of-life improvement. Almost nobody puts this on a registry.
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Warms a bottle in a couple of minutes.
Not strictly necessary. A jug of hot water works, but at 3am with a screaming baby, three minutes feels like thirty.
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If you’re exclusively bottle feeding, plan on eight to ten so you wash about once a day. If you’re mostly nursing with an occasional bottle, three or four is plenty. Start with a small mixed set to find a nipple your baby accepts before buying in bulk.
Generally no. After the first sterilisation, hot soapy water and proper drying is enough for a healthy full-term baby. A dishwasher on a hot cycle does the job too. Premature or immunocompromised babies are a different case. Ask your provider.
Use a high chair once they can sit up unsupported with steady head control, usually around six months, which is also when solids typically start. Look for a footrest; something to push against makes a real difference to how long a baby will sit and eat.
Hard-spout sippy cups are discouraged by both speech and dental guidance because they encourage an immature swallow pattern. Straw cups and small open cups are the recommended route, and babies can start learning both from around six months.