Layette Items – The Basics

There is an amazing variety of clothing and other layette items available for your new baby. This can seem overwhelming to expectant parents. It is hard to know, before the child is born, which items will be useful. Here is list of some of the common items and how many you will need for your baby.

One-pieces: These are undershirts for your baby that usually have snaps between the legs to allow for easy diaper changes. They are very useful, especially in summer, since they make very easy outfits for your baby. It is usually recommended to have a week's worth of these items, which is about 5-7.

Sleepers: These are very useful for winter babies. If the weather is cool, having a week's worth of these will be very handy. If your baby is born in the summer, you will not need as many as your baby will not wear them as often.

Hats, booties, and socks: Newborns lose heat through their heads, so hats are a useful item, especially in cold weather. Babies do not really need shoes until they start crawling, but they will need socks or slippers to cover their feet. About 7 pairs of socks is a good number. Babies tend to lose socks easily, so an alternative is slippers with elastic around the ankles to prevent them from falling off. Just make sure the elastic is not too tight.

Receiving Blankets: These are multipleorphose small blankets that you can use to wrap up your baby, or put over your shoulder to catch spit up. Really, you can never have too many of these, although 5 to 7 is usually the recommended number. It is nice to have a couple in a slightly larger size to swaddle your baby, since babies become very adept at wriggling out of their swaddling blankets. A bigger blanket helps prevent this.

Towels and washcloths: Usually two hooded towels will suffice, although you may want to have more, depending on how often you give your baby a bath and how often you plan on doing the laundry. Newborn babies may not need a bath every day, and in fact, a daily bath may dry out their sensitive skin. Small baby washcloths are more convenient to use than any of the baby bathing sponges, since they can more easily reach into the wrinkles in your baby's skin – and if your baby is chubby, there will be lots of rolls! Again, about 7 washcloths is a good number. More is better than fewer, since you will find these very useful for wiping your baby even when out of the bathtub.

Crib linens: About 4 crib sheets is a good number. You will also want to consider a protective cover for your crib mattress, to minimize the damage from inevitable diaper leaks. Crib blankets are nice, but the easiest way to keep baby safe and warm is to buy a warm sleeper or bonting bag. This will cover your baby and stay in place.

These basics will provide the foundation for your baby's needs. It is a good idea to think of the season when considering additional items, such as a snowsuit for winter or sun hats for summer. Also, it's better to hold back when buying clothing rather than overdo it. You may find that your baby receives a lot of clothing items as gifts and you will not need to buy much for him or her yourself.