what do these terms mean? (in baby checklist)

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1stimemum

Registered User
hi all, I've had some progress on my baby shopping and have a couple of terms that I need some help on :

1. Bottle and teat cleaner? Do i have need something special other than dishwasher liquid to clean the milk bottles? Is this the same as sterilizer tablets or different things altogether?

2. Baby wedge is this the 2 pillows u put on either side of infant to ensure they dont roll over? Is this the same as a bean pillow?

3. Curtains with block out.... I"m moving out of my apt- 9 mths after baby is born so I dont intend to install new curtains that may not fit my next place.. Is there anything I can use that is portable?

All advice appreciated. :flower:
 
1. You can buy specialist baby bottle cleaner from stores such as Eugene club and Bumps to babes. These are usually organic/veg based and is not harmful is baby ingests any. In my personal opinion I think they are a complete waste of money -- we bought it a couple of times but it would never lather properly. Just make sure all bottles and teats are well rinsed after washing with normal dishwashing liquid and you'll be fine. Besides, chucking them into the sterilizer / bucket of sterilizing fluid or tablets after washing eliminates any nasties in the bottles anyway.

2. A baby wedge is different from a bean pillow. It's a firm triangular or sausage shaped pillow which you place on either side of the baby. These are sometimes considered safety risks due to potential suffocation, although we used the one that came in our son's co sleeper. A swaddle blanket would probably be more effective/provide better peace of mind. I would not suggest a bean pillow or anything soft enough to change shape if baby puts any pressure on it for the first few months.

3. We only bothered getting block out curtains when we moved to our new place (our son was 19 months), he was fine with regular curtains even during the morning before, but as he approached toddlerhood became very sensitive to light so we switched. At the beginning, unless your baby is very light sensitive from the get go they generally sleep so much they dont care if its light or dark. This varies from baby to baby but I would suggest waiting to see if you really need block out curtains before you buy them.

Hope that helped.
 
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1)could also refer to the BRUSH used to clean away the bits that you can't reach in the bottle & teat

2) never had one

3) never used blackout curtains. i wanted my kids to be able to sleep anywhere & everywhere, not just in a blacked out, silent room.
 
1. I started out using a special cleaner for baby bottles etc, then stopped because I thought it was a waste of money. I started again because I realised my son`s sippy cup totally and permanently smells like the normal dish detergent. I guess it`s a porous kind od plastic, but I would think that bottle nipples/teats would be also. So for that reason, I would recommend getting a special baby cleaning liquid.

2. I think the wedge is a triangular cushion as Nashua852 said that helps keep the baby in place. I have read that they are not recommended bc of the SIDS risk. Myself, I used two rolled up blankets on either side of my son when he was a teeny tiny newborn, and just made sure they didn`t do near his face.

3. Young babies pretty much can sleep anywhere anytime, but when they get older some are more sensitive. I got some black roller blinds from IKEA for my son`s room but these HK apartments are a real pain to put holes into so it`s still sitting in the corner (though I might cut the top off and just tape it up). I would just wait and see how your baby is doing with sleep. Since you`re moving you can always just put blankets in the window or put dark garbage bags on it.
 
great advice all. I definitely think i'm going to hold off on buying the wedge. I think rolled up blankets might be a good idea. The basic idea is to keep them in place, isnt it to prevent them suffocating.
 
1. I think they mean a bottle brush, it has a big end and a small end for nipples. I never used one for bottles as didnt' use them, but they do work great for water bottle too.

2. Not recommended and completely unsafe and unecessary,

3. agree a young baby will likely sleep anyways, but may need something when older, if you do need it you could just tack up a towel, or tape tin foil over the window. I have done that when first moving and didn't have cutains yet.
 
hi all, it seems most of you did not use a wedge or pillow of anysort. At the shops, salespeople try to sell me pillows, bean pillows, a U shaped head pillow,2 pillows on either side of baby.

During the first six months, does the baby need anything else besides being well swaddled?

Thats what I read but then I started getting all this 'advice' from well meaning people and i got confused.
 
1stimemum said:
great advice all. I definitely think i'm going to hold off on buying the wedge. I think rolled up blankets might be a good idea. The basic idea is to keep them in place, isnt it to prevent them suffocating.
Click to expand...

I used the towels so my babby would stay in place because he was so tiny and looked like he was swimming in the middle of his already tiny bed. I wasn`t afraid of him suffocating because they can`t really move at that point yet.


Advice from others is great, but just do your own research and make your own decisions. I generally don`t listen to a thing salespeople say unless I`m asking them about a particular product.
You don`t have to have every little thing ready for when the baby comes. I tried to do that also, but some things change or don`t work out so you still have to go out and buy stuff after they`re just born.
 
1stimemum said:
hi all, it seems most of you did not use a wedge or pillow of anysort. At the shops, salespeople try to sell me pillows, bean pillows, a U shaped head pillow,2 pillows on either side of baby.

During the first six months, does the baby need anything else besides being well swaddled?

Thats what I read but then I started getting all this 'advice' from well meaning people and i got confused.
Click to expand...


From my impression, the Chinese(and Asians for that matter) do a lot of things differently from western folk, especially when it comes to pillows and the such in the cot. Haha, my baby was born in China and you should have seen all the blankets and wraps they put on him in the hospital - you could barely see him.
You`re right, the baby doesn`t actually need a single thing in their bed. If your baby likes being swaddled, great, then that`s all it needs. Mine hated it, so I just used thin blankets (it was winter then).
 
the salespeople at the shops have ONE purpose only... to SELL you things.

the only NECESSARY things a new born NEEDS:

1) somewhere to sleep (i have heard that people in the past even used an empty drawer from a chest of drawers)

2) clothes, what and how many is up to you and how much washing you want to do

3) diapers, cloth or disposable

4)bottles etc (if you are bottle feeding)

EVERYTHING else is a luxury. some people find somethings indispensible (i LOVED my breastfeeding pillow that i had for my 2nd, but got by just fine without it for my 1st). some people swear by muslin clothes. i just used a hand towel that i already had.
 
From birth until 3 months, my son slept in a bassinet in our room and we didn't need any wedges or pillows to keep him in place as he was swaddled and the bassinet itself wasn't that big so there was really no room for him to turn over (nor did he know how to turn over then). When we moved him into his own cot in his room when he was 3 1/2 months old, we just used rolled up towels, but only until he was about 5 months and then we just removed the towels and now he doesn't need anything to keep him in place. So I don't think there is any need to buy a wedge. However, I do have one of those really long bean pillows that I bought when I was pregnant. That is actually usefully for breastfeeding - but as carang mentioned, is definitely not a necessity.

As for black out curtains - we also don't have those. I preferred to train our baby to stay asleep even without blackout conditions. In fact, in the beginning, for the first two months, we would keep the bathroom light in our room on so that it wasn't pitch dark. We were afraid our son would be scared in the pitch dark!
 
LOL! that's so funny... afraid of the dark... i wonder how much light actually gets into the womb? (i'm not being sarcastic, actually wondering....)

i think it is so funny how we all (myself included) put our own fears onto our kids...believe me, i know i've done it myself.

as for being afraid of the dark, i've found that with my two kids that didn't develop until they were old enough to discover monsters, aliens, dinosaurs etc. (around 2 yrs)
 
Well, I'm sure no light gets into the womb....but for the first few days of his life, my son was in a room with light 24 hours a day as they kept the lights on all the time in the hospital nursery (guess I never went out to check but I am assuming the light was always on). So I just thought that when he gets home, I should try to keep similar conditions so he is not too afraid of being in a new place. And I also kept the light on so that I could easily see him when I looked from my bed into the bassinet.....
 
not to worry futurehkmom. AFAIK the hospital keeps most of the lights on in the nursery (at least at QMH).

ps> my kids still sleep with the light on in the bathroom.
 
no - i didn't have any wedges...just used rolled up towels,

and no - I didn't black out the room since I didn't think it was "natural"...my baby sleeps well anywhere now -light or no light, if she's tired, she'll sleep! she will also sleep with a barking dog in the background! I've conditioned her to sleep with the "unconventional" way I guess...works well for me now! I don't have to worry about going home at certain times for her to nap / sleep!
 
I did use a wedge with my son because he was so small when born (2.4kg, just over 5lb) and he was sleeping in a hammock. I only used it for about 6 weeks till he was big enough.

I only swaddled up to 12 weeks, for the first 8 weeks he was fully swaddled and then I swaddled him with one arm out. As babies gain control over their limbs they like to be free. I then put him in a gro-bag as his arms were no longer flailing around when he slept. Some babies may resist swaddling and they always seem to escape so get yourself a good swaddling blanket with velcro. A good one is the Kiddopotamus.

Kiddopotamus: Products: SwaddleMe
 
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We used black out curtains to try to mimick the darkness of the womb and it ended up with the extra plus that our baby would sleep until 8am until he was more than 1 year old. That's a massive blessing! He also never had a problem when we would travel and there weren't black out curtains though he would get up a little earlier.
 
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