Must-Have Baby Items For 6-12 Months
There are so many changes after 6 months! Baby is probably sitting up or going to be soon. He or she starts eating solid food! Here are my favorite, must-have items for this fun and exciting 6 month period in baby’s life.
Feeding
Feeding Littles & Solid Starts Instagram accounts
We did Baby Led Weaning with Wyatt, plus purees. Baby Led Weaning means that baby eats whatever you eat, but it just has to be cut up or served appropriately and safely. We did purees too because BLW is honestly a little scary in the beginning and I wanted to make sure he was getting in some solids. However, doing BLW I swear is why Wyatt will eat just about anything and everything.
These accounts were so helpful with suggestions on safe and easy starter foods. They’ll show you how to cut and serve foods as baby gets older, too.
This is great for cutting things up and giving them a little bit of “grip” so baby can grab them more easily. Like avocado, cooked carrots or zucchini, mango, etc. Rolling the cut up veggies in breadcrumbs also helps, by the way!
Starter Straw Cup (Honey Bear)
I have read from feeding therapists and probably also from the 2 accounts mentioned above that sippy cups don’t teach baby a real skill they need. Adults don’t drink from sippy cups; we drink from straws and open cups. So I tried straw cups initially and even tried sippy cups too out of desperation because Wyatt couldn’t quite figure out the straw, but then he also couldn’t figure out how to lift and tilt a sippy cup into his mouth. We dealt with this for a few weeks. Then I was told about these honey bear cups and how you can squeeze the bottom of it to push water up through the straw when the baby has his mouth on it, and this helps him learn to suck. Wyatt got the hang of it after just one day! Game-changer for us.
Wyatt graduated to this next, after he figured out how to pull the straw out of the honey bear, and he turned it into a game. Plus, I didn’t love that those don’t close without taking the straw out. We’ve been using these for months now.
My husband calls these Wyatt’s “art smocks” LOL.
Don’t waste your time with the neck bibs. Babies get food ALL.OVER. Not just their chest! These long sleeve bibs spare you a lot of wiping down. They are machine washable but I air dry them and don’t put them in the dryer.
Baby will start to throw things! Including food, but there’s not much you can do about that. I like these for the high chair and stroller, so his cups don’t fall all the way to the floor/ground. You can also attach toys to them and the stroller.
Speaking of high chair, I looove our Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair. Yes, it’s expensive, BUT, it’s easy to clean and it grows with the baby/child. It holds up to 300 lbs! And the finish is free of toxic chemicals and formaldehyde. I had seat cushions on it and actually took them off to make it even easier to clean. I also recently took off the tray and he sits right at the table now, but the tray is linked here.
Travel
This stays in our car. We have brought it on trips and use it when we are at friends houses, parties, etc. Really easy to clean because of the plastic layer on the tray.
One of you gave me this tip! We keep them in the diaper bag in the car for restaurants so Wyatt isn’t eating directly off a restaurant table.
This is one of my favorite purchases from the last few months, period. I don’t know why but Wyatt started getting so upset in the car starting around 10.5 months. So I started giving him toys to play with, but obviously it’s hard to see him while driving and looking back to see him in the headrest mirror is dangerous. This camera makes it so much easier to glance over at the dashboard quickly to see what he’s doing.
I am part of a Carseat Safety Facebook group and this is a very highly recommended convertible car seat. It’s considered one of the easiest to install, and it allows the child to rear-face up to 50 lbs which is ideal (others only allow fear-facing to 40 lbs). It was easy to install, I like the way it looks and I feel good about its safety for Wyatt. FYI you could use this starting at newborn size, but you lose the ability to use it with a stroller.
Toys
Toys? Don’t bother.
Just have some red solo cups, wooden spoons, basting brushes, empty water bottles and cold cans and bottles around the house and on hand and you’re good.
Other
I never started having to throw away clothes that got so soiled they were unsalvageable until Wyatt started eating solids - due to the messes from eating, and the poops ;)
Then I discovered this stain remover and it is the best I’ve found so far. Make sure you let it sit on the stain for a few minutes.
Facebook Support Groups for tips and tricks, and to ask your own questions
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