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A Nose Unplugger
FridaBaby Electric NoseFrida
A Mess-Less Diaper Cream
GroVia Magic Stick Diaper Balm
A Wall Print
Pinhole Press 11×14 Framed Print
A Digital Photo Frame
Aura Carver
I love babies (especially my babies!), and I love gear, but I don’t particularly like Baby Gear (TM). Especially if your friend is a first-time parent, a lot of baby gear is specifically designed to trip the paranoia trigger in their lizard brain. It’s cute, and what if your baby really needs it? “Yes, a wipe warmer!” they think, only to find it in their closet years later.
But parenting a new baby comes with a bunch of logistical problems, like stuffed-up noses and sleepless nights. If you’re gifting for a new parent, these are some of our favorite innovative solutions to make the gross, grueling parts of parenthood just a little easier. Members of our Gear Team have tried them all. And yes, some of them are pretty cute.
If you’re shopping for older kids, check out our guides to the Best Stem Toys or the Best Tools for Distance Learning.
Updated for November 2023: We’ve updated this guide with new picks, including the FridaBaby Electric Nose Aspirator, Aura Carver digital photo frame, Beis Diaper Pack, and more.
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Jeffrey Van Camp and Nena Farrell contributed to this guide.
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Photograph: NoseFrida
A Nose Unplugger
FridaBaby Electric NoseFrida
This is a fact: Newly born humans are so small that they can’t blow their own noses. Amazing! Through the first year and especially into a cold-infested toddlerhood, this handy electric nasal aspirator has been worth its weight in gold, according to WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell. It’s been much easier to get this aspirator into her son’s nostril and hit the On button rather than wrangle him and a tube, then manually sucking the snot out before he rips his head away from the contraption.
Frida has a whole line of attractive, no-nonsense solutions to other common baby issues, like passing gas and cradle cap, but the nasal aspirators are our favorite (though I’m also a fan of the cheaper, manual nasal aspirator). Every parent needs a fast, effective way of giving their little disease vector some nasal relief.
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Photograph: GroVia
A Mess-Less Diaper Cream
GroVia Magic Stick Diaper Balm
Babies get diaper rash when their little behinds get irritated from chafing, rubbing, or prolonged moisture. One of the most common treatments is airing them out and applying a barrier cream. Unfortunately, most of these diaper creams come in tubes or tubs that get all over your fingers and are hard to wash off.
A few WIRED parents—including Jeffrey Van Camp, Nena Farrell, and I—love the GroVia Magic Stick. It comes in an ingenious, mess-free tube, is made from a mix of seed oil and beeswax, and contains no petroleum products. It’s worth noting, though, that it contains essential oils, so this might not be the best pick for a baby that has eczema or extra sensitive skin.
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Photograph: Pinhole Press
A Wall Print
Pinhole Press 11×14 Framed Print
I only realized this once my children were old enough to point it out—I have thousands of photos of them on my phone but not very many on my walls. Pinhole Press is my favorite one-stop shop for easy, affordable, and great-looking framed prints. Just drag and drop an image into the frame of your choice to hang in a place of pride. The Plexiglass is also very hard to shatter for when the kids get old enough to start throwing footballs and baseballs inside the house.
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Photograph: Aura Frames
A Digital Photo Frame
Aura Carver
Another place to put those thousands of photos on your phone is onto a digital photo frame. Nena loves using Aura’s frames since she can add photos easily through the Aura app, or just connect it to a folder in Google Photos. Little ones change so much in their early months (and all the years after), so it’s such a treat to see a photo pop up with how small her son was just a few months ago.
It’s easy for family members to add to, and easy to add to other digital photo frames that might be at grandma and grandpa’s house. They want to see the photos too, after all!
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Photograph: Beis
A Sleek Diaper Bag
Béis The Diaper Pack
Nena is constantly recommending this compact take on a diaper bag. For the first year, everything is small (like your baby!), and she found the Beis Diaper Pack (9/10, WIRED Recommends) was the perfect companion. The bag is perfect for errands and short outings and can fit plenty of diapers, wipes, extra onesies, a couple of soft toys, and a 5-ounce bottle. It also comes with a changing pad, which sits in its own pocket. It’s too big to truly wear as a comfortable hip pack, but it’s the perfect size for any parent to sling across their back before scooping up their infant.
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Photograph: Trade Coffee
More Coffee!
Trade Coffee Subscription
This was the gift that we sent Jeffrey when his son was born! It’s also our favorite coffee gift subscription. You can match the coffee to their tastes, and there are more than 400 choices. Depending on how well the baby sleeps, you can also choose to send them a bag every 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 weeks. I also recommend an AeroPress Go to go with it.
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Photograph: Innobaby
A Gentle Baby Sponge
Innobaby Silicone Bath Fish
Oh, the horror—the horror!—of cutting open a child’s little rubber bath toy and finding a nest of black mold within! These soft, silicone bath scrubbers are much softer than they look and come in bright colors and adorable fish shapes. New parents will never need to buy another tiny, ineffectual wash cloth or slimy rubber ball again.
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Photograph: Regalo Baby
A Soft Place to Land
Regalo Baby Sensory Learning Play Mat
Most parents have play mats once their child becomes more mobile. Babies need a soft place to crawl, and something to pad the fall while they’re walking. But many play mats are hideous or bulky. If they’re not ugly, they’re expensive and too small.
Jeffrey’s kid has used a Regalo Baby play mat for a few years, which has is reversible, with either letters or a fun road picture on one side and classier, non-circus colors on the other. It’s also waterproof, easy to clean, and folds down for storage once the baby is in bed. When they get older, it’s a great mat for jumping around, and you can turn it into a little tunnel, too!
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Photograph: Eufy
A Good-Looking Baby Monitor
Eufy SpaceView Baby Monitor
This video monitor looks nice and will serve a parent even after their child can start crawling, moving around more, or getting out of bed. An easy choice is the affordable (in the world of baby monitors) Eufy SpaceView. It doesn’t require Wi-Fi and instead uses more reliable FHSS radio connection. It’s simpler to set up and more secure than using Wi-Fi. Check out our guide to the Best Baby Monitors for more suggestions.
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Photograph: Tula
A Stylish Baby Carrier
Tula Explore Baby Carrier
When your child is very small, it’s often easier to just tote them around in a baby carrier than it is to put them down to try to do anything. I’ve tried around a dozen carriers with my two children, as have other WIRED parents. Tula is a cult favorite among parents for the brand’s stripped-down simplicity, light weight, adjustable sizes, and colorful prints. They have a weight range of up to 45 pounds, so my 3-year-old can still ride in one occasionally, which is nice.
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Photograph: Lalo
Age-Appropriate Toys
Lalo Play Boxes
Babies develop swiftly. The toys that stimulate them and their ever-growing brain are always changing. Lalo’s Play Boxes come in age groups of two months at a time, with a handy guidebook on how to use each toy with your little one. It also makes for a very easy answer to all the times a family member asks, “Does he need more toys?!”
Nena tried the 13–15 Month Play Box with her toddler and saw a ton of enthusiasm for most of the toys. It’s always a bit of a guess what each kid will like, but the boxes come with a handful of toys that raise the chances for success. Her son’s favorites from that box was the push puppy, even though he hasn’t nailed pushing it yet, and the wooden drum (to no one’s surprise).
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Photograph: Yeti
A Hydration Station
Yeti Rambler With Chug Cap
New parents need reminders to take basic care of themselves—especially if they’re breastfeeding and need to drink oceanic quantities of water. Yeti’s water bottle comes in a variety of appealing colors, with a no-sweat painted coating that means it won’t make your hands or bag slimy. Admittedly, the chug cap looks ridiculous, but the clear plastic rim is much more pleasant to drink from than a wide-mouth bottle.
The best part? Unlike most insulated, double-walled water bottles, the Yeti is dishwasher-friendly. Just take everything apart to expose the wide mouth and toss everything on the rack. The last thing a new parent needs is to hand-wash literally anything. You can also check our guide to the Best Water Bottles for some other, cheaper picks.
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Photograph: Beaba
A Quick Masher
Beaba Babycook
If you want to buy a new parent something they might not get for themselves, you might want to consider a baby-food maker. Many new parents might think it’s a luxury, especially with critical grandparents shouting, “In my day, we mashed food with forks!” But for a year, the Babycook helped me feed a hungry baby that was just too grouchy and impatient to gum down cut-up pieces of cooked carrot.
Whenever I was cooking dinner for the rest of my family, I simply threw a couple pieces of our food into the Babycook. You can steam and mash with single servings or multiple ones, in an appliance that takes up very little room on the counter and is easy to clean. I could cook several days’ worth of food at a time and either freeze it or store it in the fridge.
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Photograph: Amazon
Some Fresh Air
Blueair Pure 411
An air purifier is a good nursery investment. I tested Blueair’s bedroom purifier in my children’s bedroom during an especially hellish week of Oregon wildfires. Once I taped down the windows, it kept their room at a good air quality (under 50 AQI) as monitored by a Temtop monitor.
What I like most is that it’s light, so my kids can’t hurt themselves or the purifier if they knock it over. The washable prefilter comes in a variety of fun colors to fit in with their bedroom decor, and when it’s on the lowest level, it’s too quiet for me to hear.
It can only handle rooms of up to 160 square feet. Check our guide to the Best Air Purifiers for more options.
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Photograph: No Reception Club
A Bag for Frequent Travelers
No Reception Club Hideaway Duffel
In some ways, traveling when your baby is little is the easier than wrangling them during the toddler years (less need for entertaining!).
For those parents who you know love to travel, or can’t avoid plane trips even though they’ve got a little one, No Reception Club’s duffel bag is supremely handy. It has an included organizing insert, multiple ways to carry it, and several pockets to keep everything—including, perhaps most importantly, an insulated pocket in the front. It’s perfect for baby bottles, pumped milk, or even toddler snacks that need to stay cool.
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Photograph: Baby Jogger
A Great Stroller
Baby Jogger GT2 City Mini
Baby Jogger’s City Mini stroller is a big favorite both at WIRED and just about anywhere you look, for a reason. It’s well-priced but manages to do more than most: It has suspension and a smooth ride with nicer wheels than most strollers, folds nearly flat, and comes with an adapter that works with a long list of popular car seats. (It’s not a jogging stroller, though; that’s just the brand name.) It handles bumps and terrain well—it’s Nena’s preferred stroller if she’s going anywhere with uneven ground, and Jeffrey also used it for a couple of years.
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Photograph: Amazon
Some Shut-Eye
Snoo
We all have different splurge items that we can’t live without as parents. Jeffrey’s splurge pick for new parents is the Snoo, a robo cradle designed by the powerhouse combination of baby guru Harvey Karp, Yves Béhar, and the MIT Media Lab. The Snoo uses several of Karp’s Happiest Baby on the Block soothing techniques—swaddling, shushing, and swinging—to safely calm a crying infant.
Again, it’s pricey, but you can now rent it monthly. For a cheaper option, we also liked the Graco Sense2Snooze bassinet. It has no app, and the crying detection isn’t nearly as accurate, but it’s a lot safer than bringing your baby into bed or letting them fall asleep sitting up in a car seat or swing. Having a bassinet that can move and do motion can also help keep a little one occupied while you do important tasks, like showering!
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Photograph: Willow
A Breast Pump with Brains
Willow 3.0 Wearable Breast Pump
Nena’s splurge item is Willow’s 3.0 wearable breast pump. It packs more tricks than any other breast pump she tried: It has the ability to track your expression accurately, can pump (and seal!!) the milk into freezer-ready bags, and can adjust its suction based on your flow.
It’s the only breast pump you can actually pop on (after following the steps to get it to suction to your breast) and stop thinking about, rather than monitor your flow and suction levels by angling your head this way and that to see into the pump’s container. It will even stop on its own when it’s full. You can check the app and see exactly what you’re pumping on each side, and watch it adjust itself based on your needs. It even has an Apple Watch app so you can see your pump times right on your wrist.
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Photograph: Thule
A Fantastic Stroller for Year One
Thule Shine Stroller
Nena’s other splurge pick is the Thule Shine (9/10, WIRED Recommends). It isn’t cheap, but it does a fantastic job handling the first year of a baby’s life. It has a few accessories for the infant stage and then is easy to flip to face either inward or outward. The sun shade is large and goes low and does a fantastic job shielding baby’s eyes from the setting sun.
It’s also adjustable for parents, too. The handlebar has four heights, and it was equally comfortable to stroll for my 5-foot mother as it was for her 6’3″ dad.
