Newborn Baby Basics On A Budget
August 9, 2009 | Filed under Family & Friends, Reviews
I’m ignoring all the little bits and pieces (like clothes, nappies, sterilisers, etc.) and concentrating on big ticket items. The type of items that expectant parents are most likely to purchase mistakenly or incorrectly. Keep in mind all advice is given based on Australian baby care practices, standards, products – however, there should be some overlap with products in other countries.
For the first six months or so, there’s only a handful of items that you really need. We at the largest baby chain in Australia (the one I work for) generally advise for the first few months:
- cot
- car seat
- pram
- bath + stand
Everything else on top of that is icing on the cake, to be purchased only if you have money to spare and want to dress up the nursery.
A Cot
You’d want to get the type that converts into a toddler bed. That way, rather than using a cot for two years (max!) only, you can get a few more years use out of it – anywhere up to five years so that you get your money’s worth. This is an expensive example of one but there are cheaper cots (of better quality – Australian made, Australian timber) which all convert into toddler beds – a good quality cot like this which converts into a toddler bed will cost you about $500AUD.
In terms of safety in a cot, you want the space within the slats to be wide enough to fit a baby’s limb, but not wide enough that their head will fit through. That’s how Australian safety standards work – you’d also want there to be no obvious drop mechanism for the side of the cot – it should have hidden drop mechanisms so that baby fingers don’t get caught.
Cot mattresses you can get for about $90AUD for a foam mattress, and $150AUD for an inner spring mattress. Now if you were getting a cot-only rather than cot/toddler bed combination, you can get away with just a foam mattress since you’ll be using it for two years only. But if you’re getting the convertible cot, you should go with an inner spring mattress (better for toddler backs). Make sure that any mattress you get has one waterproof side – trust me, you won’t regret it. You can always get waterproof mattress protectors for cots as well though, should the mattress you buy not have one built in.
Car Seats
Don’t bother getting capsules. You shouldn’t have a baby in a capsule for any more than five months because of the curve of the capsule – it’s not good for baby backs, so considering the short amount of time you’d use it, it’s simply not worth the money. Instead, go for a infant car seat – most types these days will accomodate 0-18 kg, which for most children, is from newborn to about four years old. At this point, they’d move onto the booster seats with a H-safety harness, but you don’t need to worry about that yet!
Now all infant car seats here in Australia have three different uses. First, you have them in the rearward-facing layback position which allows the baby to lie down flat-ish for the first few months. Once they reach about six months old, you swing the seat around so that it faces the front of the car, but on a recline (rather than bolt upright). Once they reach about 14ish kgs, you can change the seat so that it sits more upright, rather than on a recline.
In terms of car seat safety, you want a seat that properly anchors into the car with an anchor point. Without knowing anything about car seat brands in other countries, I’ll suggest some good Australian brands: Safe n Sound, GoSafe, Safety1st, Britax, Graco…they’re all essentially the same seat (as all Australian car seats have to comply with standards). Price-wise, there’s not much difference as they’re all really equally as safe. I’d budget about $250AUD for a standard seat, and up to $400AUD for a deluxe seat.
Prams
You choose a pram that suits your lifestyle. If you do a lot of walking on pavement or any surface other than lino in a shopping centre, you’d want a three-wheeled pram for better manouevrability, and you’d want a pram with actual bike tyres (e.g. with inner tube, etc.) as they last better than plastic wheels. This is an example – they tend to be bigger and more expensive than a normal pram, but they’re also better quality and will last you for years. If you don’t see yourself using a pram for anything other than occasional forays into a shopping centre, a simple layback stroller like this is more than adequate. Plastic wheels, lightweight, etc. With both types of prams, the most important thing is to ensure that the back lays down flat for a newborn.
Prices range anywhere from $100AUD for a cheap layback pram with plastic wheels, to $500AUD for top of the range. $350AUD for a three-wheeler is reasonable.
Baths and Change Tables
While you could just buy a baby bath by itself, and put it on the floor, I’d actually recommend buying a proper bath stand. It’s better for you – bending over a bath on the floor or whatever will be dreadful for your back. Save your health and get a bath on a stand so you don’t have to hunch over. If possible, I’d also get a self-draining bath with a draining tube, so you don’t have to lift the entire bath to tip out the water – that’ll save your back too! You could get the bath/change station in one, but if you read the next paragraph, you’ll see I don’t really think it’s necessary.
You don’t necessarily need a “change table”. If you buy a foam change mat for the house, any flat surface (floor, bed, table whatever) should be fine as you would have a hand on the baby at all times. I do recommend that you keep a little basket of everything you’d need for nappy changing (nappies, baby powder, baby wipes, etc.) close to wherever you designate as the “change area”. And of course, you’d have a portable change mat for when you’re out and about anyway.
General Stuff
In terms of things that you can get second-hand – cots are okay as long as they comply with standards (a lot of older hand-me-down cots have slats that don’t comply), but mattresses you should always buy new. Car seats you need to buy new, as should prams. Baths you can get second-hand. If you’re having a baby shower, you shouldn’t need to buy that many baby clothes or baby linen – those tend to be the gifts that people will give at showers, especially if you hint towards it!
That’s really the basics you need for the first couple of months (things like cradles, bassinets, change tables, rockers, etc. are additional things to dress up a nursery, they’re not really necessary items). After the first five/six months, you can start thinking about other things like high chairs, activity centres, etc.
8 Responses to Newborn Baby Basics On A Budget
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I’ve never come across a capsule but it looks very uncomfortable regardless of age. A bath stand is a good idea.
Charlie on August 10, 2009 #
The babyco links wont load for me so I can’t see exactly what you are talking about but I can imagine what you mean.
I was lucky I got most of this for free.
1. cot – secondhand from my sister as she moved back up North and didn’t want to pay costs for truck removal to take it up there when she could get a new one cheaper. She was back again in 5 months though and trucked the new one down anyway
2. car seat – Safe’n'Sound on sale at Target for $119 and it was the last one there and had no box so they gave it to us for $100. It’s original price was around $230 and is proper Australian Standards etc.
3. pram – We have three prams. One we bought for $150 from Kmart which Seb used from newborn til 11 months. The other was a gift from my mum which is hardly used (except those times Carl has the car and the prams in the boot and I am at home and want to walk to the park/shops). The third we bought last month as it is just a simple $35 stroller that is smaller and easier to take anywhere.
4. bath + stand – Again I got a secondhand newborn bath from my sister (why she spent around $100 on a bath that can only be used for 4 months is beyond me) then after that she gave me her bigger baby bath which he still uses as we don’t have a bathtub in this house. No stand with the bath but I sit on the ground next to him whilst he has a bath anyway.
Our change table was also secondhand from my sister (it came matching the cot)
Bobbi-lee on August 10, 2009 #
You may not think it completely necessary, but swings really are god’s gift to parents for children that won’t sleep or calm. It’s amazing how quickly the motion soothes them. I would have never thought it necessary until I saw it in action with my little sister. The swing calmed her down when no amount of rocking from anybody else would.
And diaper genies. But I have a high gag reflex, so maybe it’s just god’s gift to me, haha.
Stephanie on August 10, 2009 #
Very informative. :)
It just makes me want a baby even more, damn it!
I’ve been having baby fever lately.
Caity on August 10, 2009 #
Amanda’s getting ready for the next stage in her life… =P
Mish on August 10, 2009 #
My one comment on this is that I found it easiest to bathe the baby in our kitchen sink because it was the perfect height and we had one of those swinging spouts so I could push it over to the other side of the sink (we have one of those double sinks). It really worked out perfectly because you could sit all the bath supplies in the other sink and be able to manage everything quite easily.
That works for the first 3 months and then after that I bathed her with me in the bath. So if your budget is tight tight and you have really nice sinks, that’s always an option. It’s what my parents did with all of us.
Otherwise, all your suggestions are spot on. I’d also recommend some form of baby carrying device (I bought a sleepywrap but I’ve yet to test it – http://sleepywrap.com) for times when a pram isn’t as convenient such as taking a train or wandering around the house.
Erin on August 11, 2009 #
Good article! Just talking about babies clothes i always choose natural fabrics such as linen or cotton, no synthetics for baby.
Jovile on August 11, 2009 #
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