When you’re getting a baby gift, what you’re really doing is buying something for the parents. Sure, you want the newborn to laugh at, snuggle or coo over your carefully selected item, but what you really want is to please the ones who take care of her.
The best baby gifts will hold an infant’s attention, help the parent with time-tested pain points like naptime or tummy time and hold up longer than it takes for a baby to grow out of them. What doesn’t help? Products that don’t work the way they’re supposed to, or gifts that work once or twice but can’t stand up to a baby’s “love.”
From blankets to bodysuits, changing pads to nursing covers, these are items that you can feel good giving at the next holiday, baby shower, sip-and-see or baby girl birthday. They should last until you’re looking for the best gifts for 1-year-olds.
These dolls look sweet and snuggled all wrapped up in their swaddles — but open the blanket, and they become bumblebee wings. The babies can also be taken out of the blankets entirely (they’re wearing outfits underneath).
Parenting truth: You can never have too many bibs. Bumkins bibs — named best bibs overall by the Good Housekeeping Institute — were found to wipe clean easily after meals, and, when they really get soiled, they can be tossed in the washing machine. They also come in a huge variety of prints.
How we choose the best toys and gifts
Before including our favorite picks in an article, the Good Housekeeping Institute does rigorous testing to ensure we’re recommending only the best. Many of our toy choices come from our yearly Toy Awards, where we test each item based on the following criteria:
✔️Safety: Our engineers and analysts make sure that each toy reaches all safety standards. They also assess things like pinch points and make sure toys won’t shatter into small pieces to pose a potential choking hazard.
✔️Ease of Use: For both toys and gear, we look at each toy to evaluate how simple it is to assemble, how well it’s constructed and how durable it is.
✔️Kid Approval: Aside from testing each toy for skill-building attributes, like how well it develops social-emotional skills, all our final toy decisions come from more than 100 children, ages 1 to 15, who assess the fun factor!
