2 weeks Ago By Brian X. Chen
The Snoo. The Nanit. The Hatch Rest.
Many lists of baby gear mandate certain items, but would be better to chuck those lists out? Last year, when my wife and I were preparing to welcome our first child, we started a list of baby gear – a rite of passage for parents. The difference with our list, or so I thought, was that it would contain only the best stuff because it was vetted by me, a tech columnist with 20 years of experience testing products. After our baby arrived , I learned I was wrong.
It turns out there is no best baby gear, because what worked for other parents often didn’t work for us. Even though I had picked a top-rated stroller, its wheels were inadequate for our neighbourhood’s pothole-riddled streets. The electronic bottle warmer listed as a must-have by many Redditors was too slow at heating up milk for our vocal newborn.
The Snoo, the robotic bassinet with a cult following, did nothing to lull our little one to sleep. Now past the sleepless nights of the newborn phase, my wife and I wound up with a well-rested, content child. What helped, in part, was pivoting to a different approach with baby gear, analysing our particular problems as new parents and looking for ways to solve them.
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