Parenting is a whole new science! You will learn things you won’t learn from books, website, parenting groups, other parents advice, and other channels. It’s something you feel and adjust to depending on your baby’s personality and preferences. It also depends on what type of person you are, your beliefs, your chosen way of life, culture, religion, and many other factors.
There are so many baby products out there today and you may use all of them if you want but at the end of the day, children will grow up and use what adults use too. The milder products are to be used on baby’s sensitive skin as we slowly introduce themto the world. There are many things you can skip buying or they may just fall into your nice-to-have list.
With our two kids growing up in full speed, we realized that many products today are accompanied with really good marketing strategies that we tend to think we NEED them badly to be able to be good and efficient parents to our children. Don’t fall into this trap.
A lot of new and young parents ask this at one point in their parenting journey, “When do we stop using our baby things and switch to regular ones?” We hope these will help you decide when and how. There’s really no exact time for these things. You have to decide on it yourself depending in probabaly a health situation, personal choices, and your readiness too. You’ll just know it sometimes.
Baby Dishwashing Soap
We used these products just with our eldest, Chesca and just until 6 months if I’m not mistaken. If you really wash the utensils and all baby stuff well amd rinse soap well then sterilize most of them, I personally think that there’s no problem if you use regular dishwashing soap for babies too. Remember, our elders didn’t have or didn’t use these products before but everyone and everything turned out fine.
But if you want to be on the safe side and maybe don’t trust that the baby things will be rinsed well after soaping, then organic and baby-safe dishwashing soaps are good to use (maybe until 1 yr old?). We love Smart Steps.
Baby Detergent
Our kids are both sensitive to regular detergents (they have rashes and we observed them itching when they wear newly washed clothes). You may use infant detergent for some time too if you wish. Our kids both have eczema (until now but it depends on the weather and other triggers) and so we used baby detergents up until they were 1 year old. We kept trying several detergents on the clothes from time to time if their skin is ready but sometimes they still get rash. But after a few tries no rashes appeared anymore and we used the regular detergents already. As long as they are rinsed well I don’t see a problem why we cannot use regular ones for kids’ clothes. But if you want gentle products for the clothes and your kids. You can continue using these until the kids are maybe in their tweens?
I saw in the market now that there are fabric conditioners for kids available too but we never had a chance to get one for our children and use one too. I think there’s no need when you fold them well and your detergent smells great and is gentle on clothes too.
Baby Tub
When babies can sit and stand well on their own this is usually the time you can switch from a baby tub to a regular pail if you wish them to be still secured. It’s usually between 1.5 yrs old to 2 yrs old or depending on how ready your child is.
To avoid slipping, it’s best to buy a rubber mat for the bathroom floor. Some buy bath mats so kids can sit there while taking a bath while some buy a bath stool so kids can safely sit there too while taking a bath. We use a regular pail for our 2 and 3-year olds (most popular in the Philippines as timba). We recently got a bigger pail for them since they’re growing bigger and bulkier every week. The regular pails are cheaper and can be used for many things in the home. So we stick to the classic timba.
High Chair and Booster Seat
Both children now at age 3 and 2 years old outgrew the high chairs already. Even when we dine out, they refuse to sit on high chairs unless it’s new high chaira and are interesting to them. We then don’t have the problem of bring high chairs or booster chairs anywhere. These are what we used and they’re still in good condition.
I guess you’ll know that you can say bye to the high chair when your child is tall enough to reach your table and can eat by himself or herself already. Also, when your child can sit still and can be asked not to stand up during meal times. But if you’d like to keep your child at the same eye level as yours, you can still keep it for quite some time.
Car Seat
The car seat plays an important role when it comes to your child’s safety in a vehicle. Since we have two kids and we need the space for passengers, we only have one car seat. Ideally, it should be two but we can now tell our eldest to sit down and stay put the whole trip and buckle up.
The use of car seats for children is being passed as a law in the Philippines and soon there will a law that will require car seats and will not allow kids to sit in front of course.
Car seats can last up until the kids are 5-7 years old depending on the size of your child. They love the car seat and how it elevates their view of the road outside while traveling. This is one baby appliance you can delay removing. Just always keep it clean and make sure you buckle them up. Mothercare’s car seat is a good buy for us!
Baby Shampoo and Soap
We’re still using baby shampoo and head to toe wash for the kids. We’s like to keep it that way for now so they’ll smell like babies too. No Tears shampoo is so important for us.
Baby Lotion
We use baby lotions until this day on the kids. We love baby smell and it keeps their skin smooth and moisturized whatever the weather is. They’re so used to putting lotions too. I think we can use this until they grow up since even adults put baby lotion too.
Baby Utensils
We only used rubber spoons when our babies were 5 months until they had their first set of teeth around before 1 yr old. Up to this day, we use silver small spoon and fork so they’ll get used to silvers at once. We use teaspoons and dessert forks so the kids will get used to using silverwares already.
Playpen / Crib and Baby Pillows
Our children both co-sleep with us until today. We tried to lay them on the crib for several times when they were newborn babies but since they seem to sleep longer when we co-cleep, I kept them beside me since it was an easy setup for pure breastfed babies. It worked out pretty well for us.
We used baby pillows only until they were approximately 6-8 months since we always made sure the kids have companions even while asleep. Some parents don’t actually use infant pillows since studies show that newborn babies will be safer without anything around them. Here’s a useful guide to avoid SID (sudden infant death) and keep baby safe always – click here
Baby or Kiddie Toothpaste or Tooth Gel
We initially used a clear good-tasting tooth gel for our kids but when they had their complete set of teeth, our media dentist told us it’s best to use a toothpaste with fluoride to protect the teeth too from decay and it will be good for their teeth. They loved the tooth gels since they tasted good and they were clear.
When we transitioned, our eldest daughter loved the taste and feeling of mint. We wanted to use a flavored regular toothpaste at first but it turned out she loved regular toothpastes. We were worried about her swallowing the toothpaste but our media dentist said it will be easy to teach her already to spit and small amounts that she will accidentally swallow won’t be harmful and shouldn’t be a cause of worry. Of course, swallowing a lot of toothpaste like half a tube or a tube at one time is not good at all. And so it worked well with our daughter. She loved brushing now when she used to hate it and refused to open her mouth for brush time. On the other hand, we’re still working on the transition from tooth gel to a regular toothpaste with our son. That’s another story probably in the next months.
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