When it comes to baby sleep training, there are tangible items and intangible items. The intangibles are the hard part: setting a nightly routine, early bedtime, and the dreaded cry-it out. However, there are also tangible, physical items that help your baby sleep at night. These are easy, because you just go out and buy them.
The only problem is that there’s a lot of baby gear out there. So I’ve done the hard work and research to come up with my top ten baby sleep items, things that I’ve used to help establish healthy sleep habits for all three of my children.
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| 1. Baby Cereal. When your baby starts eating single-grain cereal, it will change your life. Nothing satisfies a baby’s tummy overnight like a bowl of warm cereal.Stuff them with it whenever you can, especially in the evening. The Gerber cereals are great, but I do like Earth’s Best Organic Whole Grain Oatmeal Cereal. It’s 100% organic and gets great reviews.Get it here with free shipping! | 2. Dr. Brown’s Bottles. There are six patents behind the design of this bottle, which is proven to reduce the amount of air a baby gets while drinking.Less air equals less gas equals happier baby.Dr. Brown’s Newborn Feeding Set starts you off with four bottles, complete with inserts, caps, nipples, and a cleaning brush. | 3. Gas Relief Drops, A.K.A. Mylicon. Gas is one of the main causes of discomfort that wakes babies up at night or keeps them from falling asleep.The active ingredient in gas relief drops, simethicone, helps merge little bubbles into bigger ones that you can burp out. Mylicon is the brand name, but I usually get a better deal with Little Tummys. |
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| 4. Mini Crib or Bassinet. Keeping a mini crib in your room gives your baby a soft place to rest between feedings, or to be soothed after a late-night wake up. They’re also great for the grandparents’ house or vacation home. The DaVinci Alpha Mini Rocking Cribhas a unique feature: you can rock your baby to sleep in it.Right now you can save $69.00 and get free shipping on this mini crib. | 5. Baby Soother or Sound Machine. Having a baby soother or sound machine near your baby’s crib has two advantages: first, it offer an audible sense of comfort that’s part of the bedtime routine. Second, it can help offer some white noise to cover up noisy siblings, barking dogs, and the like.The Graco Sweet Slumber Sound Machineplays either white noise, lullabies, or tracks from your Ipod or Iphone. It has a handy night light as well.Click here for $5 off and free shipping. | 6. Projection night light. You’ll want a night light in the nursery to help find pacifiers and avoid stumbling into baby furniture. Projection night lights have the added benefit that they soothe and entertain your baby by projecting images onto the ceiling.I recommend the current #2 selling baby item on Amazon: The Cloud b Twilight Turtle Constellation Night Light. Right now it’s 10% off with free returns on Amazon. |
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| 7. Overnight diapers. If you want your baby to sleep 8-12 hours, you need the most absorbent diaper possible. I highly recommend Huggies Overnites Diapers. The amount these can absorb surprises me every morning.The Pampers version unfortunately gets horrible reviews, so even Pampers loyalists might want to switch to Huggies at night.You can save 5% when you Subscribe-N-Save on Amazon. | 8. Aden + Anais blanket. This is one essential baby sleep item that you need to buy a certain brand. Aden + Anais muslin swaddle wrap blanketsare legendary. They’re big, incredibly soft, breathable, and perfect for swaddling or just tucking around your baby.You have to buy a four pack, but you’ll be glad that you did. The muslin fabric is about the softest material I’ve touched. We have the pure white ones, but dozens of patterns are available. Read our review of Aden & Anais blankets. | 9. Baby sleep sack or sleeping bag.By the time they’re ready to start sleeping through the night, many babies are kicking out of their swaddles. The next step is the baby sleep sack.The Halo Sleep Sackis a sort of “wearable blanket” made of 100% cotton. It keeps your baby warm and snug, while letting their arms and legs move freely. We have three or four and use them religiously for naps and nighttime.Check out our review of sleep sacks and sleeping bags. |
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| 10. A Great Pacifier. If you’ve read other articles on this site, you know that I’m a firm believer in pacifiers. Not just any pacifiers, but the right pacifiers – the kind that your baby prefers. This varies from infant to infant, but all three of mine started out with the Hospital Soothie and graduated to MAM low-profile pacifiers which are lightweight and easy for them to hold in. | ||
