View All
View All
View All
View All
View All
View All
Second-time mama Namita discovers heaps of cool new baby products on the market since giving birth six years ago
Figuring out what you need for a newborn baby can be daunting…everyone has their version of the baby products ‘must-haves’ list! I distinctly recall buying way too many things for my son and feeling bad about not using many items lovingly purchased for him.
With Baby #2 on the way, I wanted to be a bit smarter about what I was going to stock up on…I had kept some of my son’s old things but given the six-year age gap, I knew I had a fair bit of new things to buy and so I sat down to dust off the old excel sheet.
I was also really curious to learn about what new baby products were on the market- given the progress in tech in the last six years! Of course, the basic items such as swaddles, wash cloths, onesies, pacifiers etc. will always be needed and on the list…but what were the cool new baby products out there? I did tons of research online and snapped up a whole bunch of new products in no time. Watch out, mama, the nesting phase can be dangerous to the wallet!
Fast forward to baby girl being born and now that we’re a month in, we have a real sense of the items from my list that are super useful and impressive. As you can probably imagine, I once again bought way too many things (and way too many pink things!), so here I am distilling down the top 10 baby products that have really wowed this mama!
Click through our gallery to see Namita’s Top 10 picks!
Read more: Downloadable Baby Checklist: Must-Haves vs. Nice-to-Haves
Lead image by Snuggle Me Organic
A lot of mums may have heard of this New Zealand-based company and brand, but for this second-time mum who had been out of the newborn scene for many years, I was like Haakaa? Who? What? Well, I sure am glad I looked into (and bought) this product because for any breastfeeding mum, as you well know, each drop of breastmilk is like precious gold! When baby latches on one side, you attach the Hakka milk collector with its suction funnel onto the other breast …and because milk let-down happens at the same time in both breasts, you can actually collect a fair amount of breast milk in the cup while baby nurses on the other side! Genius!
Priced at around $30. Find it in Singapore at Amazon.sg, Kiddy Palace, Mothercare, Motherswork and Pupsik Studio
Available on Amazon Prime here in Singapore, this amazing underwear is a must-have for Caesarean section mamas… especially mums like me who absolutely hate wearing a binder post-surgery! I find the binder (usually given at the hospital) to be most uncomfortable as it doesn’t fit my short torso well at all. To the rescue comes the c-sec panty by UpSpring, tightly binding and holding in everything in place in those critical few weeks post-surgery. There is even a silicone panel that aligns with the scar for added comfort.
Read more: Ultimate Guide to C-Sections in Singapore
This product was my all-time “Wow what a miracle!” find. A few days after my delivery, my friend Emily messaged me to ask how breastfeeding was going. The truth was, I was in agony…nipples cracked and damaged by poor latching. Emily told me that I had to get my hands on the silver nipple cups right away and that they would change my life. I was in so much pain and discomfort that I hardly believed her but I did take the sensible decision to check on Amazon Prime and within two hours these miracle silver cups were in my hands. The Silverette cups are literally nipple covers made of real silver by craftsmen in Italy! – in fact Italian women know about these one-size fits all cups and use them regularly! Within hours of wearing the silver cups, I was healing…it was truly amazing! The antibacterial and speedy healing power of silver is incredible and whoever invented these should win a Nobel Prize!
Read more: 15 Things to Know Before You Breastfeed
Find Nursing Silver Cups on Amazon Prime or at Mother & Child
I have distinct memories of soggy bottles and pacifiers coming out of our steam sterilizer and in Singapore’s heat and humidity, everything damp always smells a bit funny, plus having bottles sitting out to dry didn’t feel very sterile to me! So when I heard about the UV Sterilizer (thanks to a post and discussion on the parenting Facebook group Storks Nest) – that not only sterilizes but also dries bottles (and toys and phones and lots of things!) and also acts as a good storage unit for these items – I was pretty much sold!
There are a number of brands on the market but the Haenim UV Sterilizer won me over with its Apple-esque looks and also it was on $100 off on Qoo10! At $269 (on sale) this is WAY more expensive than your typical steam sterilizer and definitely takes up some counter space but trust me, you will have absolutely zero regrets! This might be one of my favorite purchases (after the silver cups of course!)
Find it at Motherswork, Kulily.com or Qoo10
I held on to my son’s adorable Stokke mini crib but I knew I wanted something to pop inside as a sleep aid. I did a TON of research on this topic as these products are slightly controversial. Many retailers no longer sell a well-known brand in this space due to studies showing that newborns should not be allowed to sleep on such sleep aid products, but two brands that have met safety ratings and approvals are Dockatot and Snuggle Me. You should never use any baby lounger unsupervised, but these are great for supervised lounging, tummy time, or as a changing pad.
Snuggle Me is a 10-year-old American company and their product is organic. After watching a ton of YouTube videos and reading many mommy blogs reviewing this product, I was sold! I did get my husband to drag one back from the US (purchased on Amazon) but it is available here in Singapore.
My newborn looks so snuggly and cozy in this product and it is easy to clean and move around the house!
Hatch is a super cool company founded by a mum and dad in the US who were winners on the show Shark Tank! Their products – a changing table with a built-in weighing scale and a sound & light machine – are heavily tech-driven and perfect for the tech-savvy parent looking to sync baby products with apps.
We bought the Hatch Baby Rest, which is an adorable phone-controlled (via the app) night light and sound machine — perfect for white noise during the newborn phase! The best part is the product grows with your child and teaches them about waking up at the right time with the help of different light colors.
Find it at Amazon.com or www.shop.hatchbaby.com
I had the Boppy feeding pillow from my son’s time but the Boppy Lounger is just perfect for squirmy newborns that need to be fed via bottle or syringe. It’s the perfect little cushion for newborns to relax on, and can be easily moved around the house or packed for on-the-go. Great for tummy-time too, the Boppy Lounger is very well-priced at US$30 and can be purchased on Amazon.
I kind of drove myself crazy looking for the perfect diaper bag…and truth be told, in the end I just gave up! I realized that I have so many lovely totes sitting under-utilized in my closet that a diaper bag insert might be the perfect choice. The diaper bag insert organizer allows you to turn any large tote into a diaper bag! This is the one I bought on Amazon.
Now most mums know about this one, but for the few like myself who have been living in a cave (and who also detest pumping), this is a very important item for the baby products shopping list! If you’re a breastfeeding mom who pumps, the importance of hands-free means that you can distract yourself with some Instagram while pumping or read a book or get that much-needed PowerPoint presentation done! Simple Wishes is an amazing brand.
Find it at Motherswork and Pupsik Studio
Placed over the tummy and chest, the dream pillow filled with beansprout husks are traditionally used in Asia to comfort babies and make them feel as though a hand is gently being placed on them for comfort and security while sleeping. The husks are cooling, and can also be adjusted to change the weight on baby.
Find it at Pupsik Studio
