Newborn Essentials Checklist

A newborn needs somewhere safe to sleep, a way of being fed, nappies, clothes, a car seat and a clean adult — and no brand is named on this page, because this site sells nothing, takes no commission and has tested no product. What it can tell you is what each category is for, roughly how many of the thing you need, and which items usually get bought twice. What it cannot tell you is which one to buy. Anybody who tells you that, for free, is being paid by somebody.

The list below is organised by what the first six weeks actually contain rather than by shop department, and the second half of the page is the part the other lists leave out: what to keep off it, and why.

Somewhere safe to sleep

This is the only category where the specification is published and not negotiable, so it goes first. She needs her own flat sleep surface — a cot, crib, bassinet, Moses basket or travel cot — with a firm, flat mattress that fits the frame with no gaps, a waterproof cover, and a fitted sheet. It goes in your room, beside your bed, for every sleep for at least the first six months.

• A cot, crib, Moses basket or travel cot One, and it can be second-hand if the frame is sound and it meets current safety standards.
• A firm, flat mattress that fills it One, new. It is the item this page would tell you least to economise on.
• Fitted sheets Three or four, so one is on, one is in the wash and one is in the drawer at two in the morning. That count is a rule of thumb rather than guidance.
• A sleeping bag or a light blanket Two or three, sized for the room you actually have rather than for the season on the label.

Feeding, whichever way you are feeding

Both routes need less equipment than the shops suggest, and plenty of families end up using both.

• If you are breastfeeding: nursing bras, breast pads, somewhere to sit that supports your back for forty minutes, and a water bottle you can open one-handed. Everything else is optional and can wait until you know whether you want it.
• If you are using bottles: bottles and teats, formula if you are using it, and sterilising equipment — that last one is the item people forget until the first night.
• Muslins More than you think. They are the one item almost nobody regrets over-buying.

Nappies and changing

The NHS's figure is the one to budget against: young babies may need changing as many as 10 or 12 times a day, older babies around 6 to 8, and any baby as soon as she is wet or soiled or the skin is sore and red. That is a lot of nappies a week and it is why the newborn size runs out faster than anybody plans for — buy one pack of the smallest size, not six, because the bands overlap and she may be past it in a fortnight.

• Nappies One pack of newborn size to start, then buy to fit rather than to a chart.
• Cotton wool or wipes, and a changing mat The mat goes on the floor as often as on a table, and the floor is the one nobody falls off.
• Nappy cream, nappy sacks, a bin Small things that decide whether the room is usable at three in the morning.

Clothes, in the quantities a laundry cycle survives

Six or seven of each of the things that get changed daily is the usual answer: bodysuits, sleepsuits, socks, a hat, scratch mittens, and something warm for outside. That count is unsourced — nobody publishes a wardrobe — and it exists only so that a wash going wrong on a Tuesday does not become an emergency. Buy little in the newborn size and more in the next one up.

Getting out of the house

A car seat is the one thing you cannot leave hospital without if you are going home by car, so it is the one item to sort out early rather than in the last fortnight. The AAP's published list of what an infant or toddler uses is rear-facing-only seats, convertible seats and all-in-one seats, and which of those is right depends on her age, size and needs.

Its other instruction is worth following literally: read the vehicle manual and the seat manual every time you install it, and get professional help with the installation — expectant parents in particular should consider working with a certified child passenger safety technician before the baby is born, so the ride home is a solved problem rather than a car-park puzzle. A pram or sling comes after that, and either can wait. What goes in the bag for the day itself is a shorter list, and the hospital bag checklist has the published version of it.

Keeping her clean, and keeping you functioning

A baby needs very little: a bath or a bowl, towels, a soft brush, nail scissors or a file. You need rather more than the lists admit — food you can eat with one hand, painkillers you are allowed to take, a phone charger with a long cable at the feeding chair, and somebody's phone number. The second half of that list is what makes the first six weeks survivable, and it never appears in a shop.

What to leave off the list

This is the section that makes this page different from the twenty above it in the results, and none of it is negotiable, because a shopping list does not outrank safe sleep.

Nothing weighted. Nothing weighted goes on or over a sleeping baby, at any age, for any reason — the AAP is explicit that it can put too much pressure on a baby's chest and lungs, and the federal guidance lists anything weighted among the things to keep out of the sleep area entirely. Not a swaddle, not a sack, not a blanket: nothing weighted, ever.

Nothing in the cot but a fitted sheet. No cot bumpers, pillows, duvets, loose blankets, soft toys, pods or nests — the NHS names those, and the reason is that the cot must be clear of anything that could cover her face and head. Babies go down on their back for every sleep, day and night, on a firm flat mattress, in a cot clear of blankets, pillows, bumpers and soft toys.

No sleep positioner of any kind. Whatever it is called on the box — a wedge, a nest, a support, a shaped insert — it belongs to the category the guidance tells you to keep out of the sleep area, and this site will not print one on a checklist at any price for any reason. If a product's whole pitch is that it holds a baby in a position, that is the pitch to walk away from.

Said plainly: the cheapest safe cot is safer than the most expensive unsafe one, and no purchase on any list improves on an empty cot in your room. Safe sleep basics is the page that never becomes optional, and the nursery checklist does the room itself.

What to borrow, and the two things not to

Almost everything here can be borrowed, handed down or bought second-hand: clothes, the cot frame, the bath, the pram, the changing mat, the muslins. Babies outgrow things before they wear them out, which is why so much of it is available barely used.

Two exceptions. A mattress has a published specification — firm, flat and returning to shape when pressed, filling the frame with no gaps, with a waterproof cover — and a mattress that has held a dent for two years no longer meets it. A car seat is the other, and the reasoning here is passed on rather than published: you cannot check what a used seat has been through, and its whole value is what it does in a crash you have not had yet. If either is a stretch, ask — a midwife or health visitor knows what local schemes exist, and asking is not a failure.

When a list is not the answer

Nothing on any checklist settles whether feeding is going well, and no purchase does either. Those questions belong to a midwife, health visitor, GP or pediatrician who can weigh her and watch a feed. A week of notes on a printed day sheet or a newborn rhythm sheet makes that conversation shorter than trying to remember it. This page is general information, not medical advice, and it cannot see your baby.