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Here is the 3rd part of our baby registry checklist guide, bath essentials.
If you found this page and want to see the other parts, here are links to each:
- Comprehensive Baby Registry Checklist (this is long, the broken down “parts” are below if that is easier to read)
- Baby Registry Checklist Part 1: Clothes
- Baby Registry Checklist Part 2: Feeding
- Baby Registry Checklist Part 4: Diapering
- Baby Registry Checklist Part 5: Health and Safety
- Baby Registry Checklist Part 6: Bedding
- Baby Registry Checklist Part 7: Baby Gear and Travel
- Baby Registry Checklist Part 8: Nursery and Toys
Supplemental Posts:
- Create Your Own First Aid Kit and Baby Medicine Stash
- Save Money on Your Remaining Baby Registry Items
Good to Have– Bath Essentials
Infant Bathtub
Get a baby bathtub that works until they can sit in the tub by themselves. We have the Angelcare bath support and love it.
If you are going to use your sink in the beginning these are a popular, and cute, option.
Baby Hairbrush
Even if your baby is born bald as all get out, you are going to eventually want a baby brush. Try to get one that comes with a brush for cradle cap just in case, and if your baby doesn’t get cradle cap, great! You can still use the brush that helps treat cradle cap to massage your baby’s head.
We bought this one and use the soft brush every day, which can be used to prevent cradle cap.
Baby Shampoo & Soap
Get something formulated for babies. This way you don’t have to worry about all of the different chemicals in adult shampoo and body wash products.
We use Honest Company’s Calming Lavender shampoo + body wash and love it. I have heard great things about their other scents as well (specifically the almond one) but we have stuck to this one. We use their lotion as well for our baby daily too.
They also have an unscented one as well.
You do not need baby conditioner yet.
Bath Thermometer
We love this thing. We use it every time we give our baby a bath.
I know you can also check the temperature of the bath with your elbow and see if it is too hot, but both my husband and I LOVE hot showers and baths so we aren’t a very good judge of what is “too hot”. Enter the “white hot” duck.
This thing has a heart on the bottom that turns “white” (really just gets noticeably lighter) when the water is too hot.
We leave it in the bath while we are giving our baby a bath, she doesn’t play with it yet, but we think it is cute.
These are inexpensive and are fully sealed so mildew doesn’t grow inside.
Elbow Saver
To me, this is something we definitely wanted. But, it may not be something you need right away.
I’ve found that while our baby is still so young (currently 4 months) our baths aren’t super long. We aren’t at the point where we are playing in the bath yet. So, my husband and I aren’t spending a lot of time leaning on the side of the bath. When she gets more interested in toys we will likely be spending more time leaning on the elbow pad.
With that in mind, I would register for an elbow saver (sometimes they come with the knee pads as well, but the knee pad might not be necessary depending on your situation).
Bathtub Spout Cover
Let’s face it, babies aren’t graceful. They topple over, they face plant from sitting positions, and they are still learning their environment. With that in mind, a bathtub spout cover can help keep bathtime safe.
After all, you don’t want baby bonking their head on the bathtub faucet just because you didn’t want to spend some money on something that seemed like something you didn’t need.
We haven’t ordered ours yet as our baby is still in her baby bathtub, but plan on ordering either the Skiphop faucet cover or the Ubbi cover.
Nice to Have, Not Necessary:
Baby Specific Towels
How many?: 2-4
So, we have several baby towels and we love them, but are they any different than regular towels? No. They just have a little hood on them, which we only use when we are drying our baby for a few seconds.
Baby towels are very cute, but you can use regular towels for them.
If you do buy baby towels get 2-4 of them, depending on how often you do laundry and how often you plan on washing your baby. We have 5 towels, our favorites are these ones and this one (I love lemons). Both of these styles are very absorbent/
The ones in the picture are these Burt’s Bees ones. We don’t own these, but I love all of the Burt’s Bees baby things we have!
And no, you probably can’t get away with just one. Unless you are a laundry goddess and lucky…
Which I am not.
Also, no matter what, your baby is going to pee on the towel you are drying them with at least once. Then what?
Baby Washcloths
How many?: 6-12 depending on how often you do laundry.
Again, you can use regular washcloths. BUT I have found myself strictly using the “baby” washcloths we have when bathing our baby.
We bought some basic organic ones from Target that came in a 6 pack. We bought two different colors, white and grey, so that the white ones could be for washing baby while the grey were used for cleaning extra messy diaper situations.
This way the washcloths are kept separate since our other ones get used for all kinds of cleaning throughout the house… So I wanted our baby to have her own set.
You can buy a pack of 6 from Target for less than $3. We have 12 white ones and 24 (we started with 12 each) grey ones because well, babies are messy.
Baby Lotion
We have baby lotion we use on our baby, but our pediatrician recommended just using coconut oil if we wanted. Which we did for about a month then switched to using the lotion.
We have the Honest Company’s Lavender body lotion (came in a pack with the body wash and shampoo) and we love it! We use it nightly to give our baby a little massage. There is also an unscented one if you are worried about scents.
Shampoo Rinse Cup
You can use a large cup instead.
BUT my husband really loves our Skip Hop whale cup. He uses it pretty much the whole time we are washing our baby.
So what makes it different than using a regular cup? The design makes it so you can put it against the baby’s head so they don’t get water in their eyes.
Bath Kneeler
You can just use your regular bathmat, unless it isn’t very thick then you are going to want one of these.
Also, if your significant other is helping you and your bathmat isn’t very big someone is going to be very uncomfortable.
We have the kneeler linked above with the elbow saver and use our bathmat as well. My husband will kneel on one and I will use the other.
Bath Toy Storage
Ok, so you know you are going to end up getting all of these bath toys for your baby to play with eventually. And with an abundance of toys comes a need to have somewhere to store them.
Yes, you can just use anything you would regularly store items in, but the nice thing about those that are designed to store baby bath toys is that they have mesh bottoms. You know, so the toys don’t just stay wet and are less likely to get mildew/mold.
Some of them you can use as a scoop to get the baby toys out of the bath quicker, like this Munchkin one or this Ubbi one.
Bath Toys
You won’t need them for a while, but if you wanted to add a few to your registry go for it.
As a side note, be aware that the squirty bath toys can get water trapped inside them (duh, they are squirt toys after all!) which can cause mold/mildew to build up. Gross.
So be sure you are cleaning all of your baby’s bath toys regularly, especially those squirty ones if you choose to get them.
Don’t Need
Baby Robe
Completely unnecessary but incredibly adorable.
But come on, you are only going to use it for a few pictures, and what, a minute before you get your baby dressed?
Well, that’s the end of part three – Bath Essentials list of our baby registry guide. To go to the next part click here!