These Are a Few of My Favorite Things… 4 to 6 Months

by Meghan

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This is the second installment in Our Favorite Things series. Check out our first post, covering the first three months, here. We hope to share with you what we loved, and what we didn’t, so you can learn from our trials and tribulations and hopefully save yourself some cash along the way. As with all things kid-related, every kid and parent is different – so feel free to comment and share your views too!

 

Favorite Things 4-6 Mos

Favorite Things

Sleep Sacks
Our daughter was never a fan of the swaddle, and we abandoned it fairly early. However, then I worried about her being cold. Given the safety concerns with loose blankets, we found the sleep sacks to be the perfect solution. They became part of our bedtime ritual – last feeding, diaper change, put on Sleep Sack, read a story and off to bed she went. The Sleep Sack is loose enough on the legs to not be confining, and the arms stick out on the top. It keeps a blanket on them all night, no matter how much they move around, without worry that it will get trapped over their face or head.

Our pick: Halo Sleep Sack

Sleep Sack

 

Halo makes sleep sacks in different varieties including light weight, heavier quilted weight or fleece for cooler weather, and also a version that includes detachable Velcro pieces for easy swaddling of baby’s arms, if that’s your preference.

 

 

 

 

Play Mat and Lamaze Animals
Around the 3-4 month mark, when infants start to become more active and engaged, our daughter fell in love with her play mat. From even before 3 months until well beyond 6, we used the play mat nearly every day. She loved grabbing and kicking at anything we could hang from it, and loved that it played music and had flashing lights. We left it up in her room until she started walking – she loved to use it when she was learning to stand.

Our Picks: Fisher-Price Rainforest Melodies and Lights Deluxe Gym and Lamaze Animals

Play MatLamaze AnimalsThere are literally hundreds of Play Mats out there. We liked this one because of its ability to play music, flash lights, and all the loops it provided to attach things to. You can attach the animals that it included or others – like the bright and colorful Lamaze animals. Lamaze animals are made of a variety of colors, materials and fillings within every animal to provide a full sensory experience for your little one. Our daughter LOVED this peacock – each tail feather offered a different sound and texture – squeak, rattle, crinkle, smooth, velvety, soft. These were great for the car too, and easily attached to the arm of the infant carrier for entertainment on the go!

 

 

 

Drool Bibs
Around the latter months of this stage, most babies begin full fledged teething, even if actual pearly whites still won’t be seen for weeks or even months. Our daughter was the toothless wonder until she was nearly 10 months old, but she started drooling at 4-5 months… and drooled for months. There were literally days where without a bib, she would soak through her entire shirt in less than an hour.

Our pick: Aden & Anais Nibble Bibs

Nibble BibsMade from the same, high absorbency material as their Dribble bib, the Nibble bib is designed for babies as they start to feed themselves, allowing their arms greater freedom of motion. However, this free range of motion and high absorbency also makes it the perfect drool bib, and snap closure makes it much more difficult for your little one to yank off than the cheaper, smaller Velcro varieties. As with most Aden & Anais products, these aren’t cheap, but they were totally worth it and their adjustable neck closure (three sets of snaps) allow you to use them for months to come.

 

 

 

 

Diaper Ointment
Diaper ointment is a necessity at any changing station. No matter how often or quickly you change your little one, their sensitive little tushy is easily irritated. There are many varieties of diaper ointment. We swear by one, and in my family, it’s now being used for the second generation.

Our pick: Dr. Smith’s Diaper Ointment

Dr SmithsDr. Forrest Smith was actually my childhood pediatrician, growing up in San Antonio, Texas. He had his own special formulation of diaper ointment – a non-greasy, creamy white paste, guaranteed to clear any sign of redness in less than 24 hours. Our daughter has only had diaper rash once – on a flight home from Texas, she started having explosive diarrhea that lasted through two weeks, two doctor visits and a stool sample test before finally clearing up. The first bout on the plane started the rash, but religious application of Dr. Smith’s throughout the illness kept it at bay. My pediatrician was shocked she didn’t have any irritation given the length of her illness.

Dr. Smith used to sell his ointment to his patients in little white jars with black tops. Fast forward 30 years, and it is now mass produced and sold nationwide. If you can’t find it at your local drugstore, Amazon sells it. It is not cheap, but nothing else works like it. Buy the large $25 tub, and it will last you 3-6 months, even if applying it at every changing.

 


Not So Favorite Things

Aquaphor
Before my mom shipped me Dr. Smith’s Diaper Ointment from Texas and before I discovered I could get it on Amazon, other moms and my pediatrician recommended Aquaphor for skin irritation, diaper or otherwise. I hate this stuff. It is like thick Vaseline, and I don’t think it helps. It was first recommended to us when my daughter had baby acne around 4 months old. It was winter and with the heater, her poor little skin would get so dry. I’m pretty sure this stuff just made it worse. Fast forward nearly 2 years later and I still have a massive jar of the stuff that works better as a paperweight than anything else.

Bottle Warmers
My fellow mommy friends all rushed out to buy these – I’m glad I didn’t waste my money. After using them for a couple of weeks, and finally overcoming the trial and error of adjusting warming time with amount of milk so as not to scald your baby, many of them started growing mold. They were so difficult to clean, most of them abandoned them all together after a month or two.

Not sure why you need to spend $40 or more when you already have all the necessary instruments for this purpose in your kitchen. It’s called a glass measuring cup and the microwave. Fill cup with water, heat in microwave for 1-2 minutes, drop in cold bottle of milk for 1-2 minutes and you have a warmed bottle, that won’t scald your baby. It also doesn’t require any additional clean-up and takes the same amount of time as the bottle warmer.


These made our list… let us know what would make yours!

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1 comment

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things… 7 to 12 months | Playground Parkbench November 24, 2014 - 6:08 pm

[…] Part 2: 4-6 months […]

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