Gifts for Newborns Which Mum and Dad Will Appreciate

It can be really difficult knowing what to buy for newborn babies, especially if you are not a parent yourself.  Sometimes a quick visit to a baby shop will offer the needed inspiration and everything will work out.  One the other hand, there is the possibility, that the more baby gifts you look at the more confused you will get.  There are huge amounts of merchandise in the shops which is marketed for newborns, but what do new parents really want or need?

The marketing divisions on the major toy manufacturers have made a few decisions for you.They have decided that you will most likely only want to buy gifts which are in the correct colours; ie blue for boys, pink for girls and beige and white if the parents decided not to find out the sex of their baby at the scan stage.  If you are considering a soft toy remember that they will probably not be of any interest to the newborn for the first couple of months as newborn children cannot hold a toy.  If you are looking more at plastic or wooden toys, then these will probably not be played with until the baby is sitting well or crawling (if a hard toy is given to a baby who is still wobbly sitting they may fall on it and hurt themselves).  

Sometime, especially it if the first grandchild in a family, you know that the new parents will be inundated with toy gifts for newborns.  So what are the other options for gifts for newborns?  The obvious choice would be clothes.  Unfortunately newborns don’t need much of a range of clothing, which limits how much fun you can have buying baby clothes.  There are wonderful newborn baby clothes, but it is sometimes the case that the parents rarely get a chance to put the baby in them.  Firstly, newborn size will not last for very long.Secondly, babies are most comfortable in vests and body suits, socks and mini shoes are all rather fiddly and a lot of fuss for a new mum who has many things to get to grips with.  Finally, it is worth remembering that some expectant mothers get very excited and do go a bit mad before the baby is born and buy half a shop in preparation.

So if you are still not sure about the best gifts for newborns, what about looking for something for mother and baby?  There are some gift sets out there for bathing and creams for skin.  However, many new mothers are very cautious about what they will put on their babies skin, and will just wash their little bundle in warm water.

Then, of course there are gifts which are not really ‘gifts for newborns’, but more ‘gifts for new parents’.  There is the obvious, champagne, some mothers may be a little cautious if they are breastfeeding, but most will manage a glass to celebrate.  There is chocolate, which every breastfeeding mother should be eating plenty off to keep up their strength and milk supply.  Finally, if you are looking for an aromatherapy experience it is important to choose something which will be safe for mum.  Lavender is now recommended as a natural antiseptic (and is much nicer than salt), so anything lavender based is likely to be suitable and even healing.