Any new parent will no doubt agree – preparing for your new arrival is an exciting time but it’s also completely overwhelming. When my wife and I found out we were pregnant, I think we were more concerned with trying to figure out what we needed to GET for our baby than the idea of actually taking care of and raising our baby.
Baby products and accessories are a multi-billion dollar industry and it’s easy to get lost chasing your tail. Advertisers make you feel like you absolutely must have their product if you want your child to prosper. They don’t come out and say it but entire product lines include subtle messages to parents:
“You don’t want to deprive your kid, do you? Then you cannot pass on this…in fact, get two just to be safe.”
Don’t believe me? Walk into a store like Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby and ask them the simple question, “what do we need for a newborn?” They’ll look at you with a knowing smile…and then they’ll ask you to go get a second cart!
Don’t get me wrong…there ARE a few absolute must-haves for parents but the truth is you don’t truly NEED everything advertisers would have you believe you need. So, as new parents, how are you supposed to know? And once you know WHAT you need, how do you then decide on which brand or model to go with?
Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer to that question. But my wife and I started with one simple criteria…safety.
We asked ourselves what we needed to ensure the safety of our baby. Once we put on our “safety glasses,” it was easy to eliminate the “it would be nice” items from the real “must-haves.”
There truly are very few must-haves. At the top of the shortlist are car seats, strollers, cribs & bedding, diapers (of course), and some clothes. The rest is just gravy.
But, again, how do you choose which brand or model to go with once you’ve figured out what you need? For each baby product, there are literally dozens of brands with hundreds of models to choose from. How can any parent be expected to make a decision with all those looming choices?
By developing a system of elimination.
For example, when I first started researching which infant car seat to go with, I had no idea where to start and it was definitely overwhelming. So I came up with a system that quickly narrowed down the top options on the market to a select few. I then spent time researching not what the advertisers said about each brand / model but what other PARENTS had to say about each and made my decision from there. And the cool thing? It took me less than one hour to eliminate all the fluff and decide on the Chicco KeyFit 30 (which my wife and I are very pleased with).
So what’s the system? It might sound complicated but it’s actually really easy. First step…head to Amazon.
Amazon has a cool feature that allows you to sort by different categories but it’s their “filters” that make up the system I use for ALL my major purchases, not just baby-product related.
In the case of infant car seats, I chose the category “infant car seats” and then added filters. The two filters I used were “4-stars” or above and “25 user reviews” or greater.
The reason I chose these filters is that (1) if a product does not have 4-stars, it’s likely not a very good product and, especially in terms of safety, you probably shouldn’t even consider buying it and (2) if a product does not have at least 25 reviews, either that means it’s not worth writing about or there’s just not enough information on the product to make an informed decision.
I then sorted the results by “highest average customer review” and listed out the top 3-5 options. These are the best of the best and you know these are most likely quality products.
The best part of Amazon is the user reviews. These are REAL reviews by REAL people who actually OWN the product you are thinking about buying. They give the good and the bad of each product and, most of the time, you learn more about a product from these reviews than you would from the manufacturers themselves.
So once you’ve narrowed down your top 3-5 options, it’s time to get your hands a little dirty by jumping in and absorbing the information contained in the different user reviews.
In the case of infant car seats, I was able to quickly pare down the top options to the Chicco KeyFit 30, the Graco SnugRide 35, the Safety 1st onboard 35, and the Britax Chaperone (all in less than 3 minutes). It then took me less than one hour of searching the customer reviews of each product to realize the KeyFit 30 was our best bet.
So when you find yourself overwhelmed trying to figure out what you need as a new parent, take a deep breath, take it slow, and develop a system that lets other parents who’ve already been there done that to help you make your decision. After all, as a new parent you have more important things to worry about.
Author Bio:
Paul is a proud new daddy of a beautiful baby girl and he has a website devoted to real baby product reviews by a REAL dad. You can read more about Paul’s reviews at New Dad Reviews.
