Favorite Brands for Babies

Best Bang for Your Baby Buck

• What: Favorite Brands for Babies
• When: Birth to five years
• Why: Durable, high-quality, years of use
• Where: At home

If you’ve survived your pregnancy, baby shower, and delivered your first child, you will soon discover how much stuff a baby can generate. From clothes and diapers to furniture and equipment, the amount of stuff can really add up. If you want your purchases to go the distance, use this list of my favorite brands of baby items.

Skip Hop: I love Skip Hop. Their affordable baby products, from diaper bags to play mats, last much longer than other brands I’ve tried. They use easy to clean materials that hold up to daily use and wear and tear. Some of my favorites include the Versa Diaper Bag and Pronto Changing Clutch, which I never left home without. Once your kids get a bit bigger, Skip Hop’s backpacks and water bottles can go with them anywhere, and will easily last through multiple kids.

Boon: You can’t go wrong with Boon products. We still use most of our Boon items on a daily basis. The clever design appeals to parents, with durable materials and bright colors. Their Grass Bottle Drying Rack still resides on our counter to dry kids’ water bottles, snack bags, and a variety of other items long past the bottle feeding stage. Our Boon Frog Pod still scoops and stores bath toys, making clean up after bathtime a breeze (especially if you share a tub with your little ones). And the Boon Night Light with its three balls and changing colors continues to soothe our kids every night years after we first got it.

Nuk: This brand makes great kids’ drinking gear. From their first sip at a bottle to sippy cups and more, you can’t go wrong. I love their hard spout cups and we still use ours after more than eight years. My kids also loved their soft spout training cups, and I loved that the parts interchanged with their bottle system. That means you could add handles to their bottle, or switch spouts freely between bottles and cups, which come with easy to read measurements, unlike some sippy cups. They also offer a 360 cup, which makes practice simple for the real thing, without all the messy spills. 

Zutano: You can’t beat Zutano for anything made of cloth. From baby hats to blankets, I love their bright colors, soft durable fabrics, and adorable gender neutral designs (though they offer plenty of blue and pink options as well). My kids all have a Zutano blanket that they still love, and each one of them sported a stretchy Zutano hat well into the toddler years. The whimsical designs fit well with a wide variety of themes, and will definitely last through more than one child. You might spend a bit more for this brand, but you will get every penny and more out of each purchase, and you can often find good deals, too. You cannot beat their baby booties for staying on wiggly little feet, and not having to replace lost socks and shoes will actually save you money in the long run.