Newborn Essentials Checklist: What You Really Need

You're thirty-odd weeks in, you have a list with sixty items on it, and every version of that list you've found was written by somebody who sells all sixty. That's the real problem here, not the shopping.

So this is the version I wish I'd had: what the NHS actually says a newborn needs, roughly how many of each, what's fine to borrow or buy used, and the things you can leave off without a second thought. Five minutes, and probably a few hundred pounds.

What a newborn actually needs

The NHS keeps a list, and it is startlingly short. For clothes it suggests at least six all-in-one sleepsuits, four to six vests or bodysuits that popper under the nappy, and two cardigans in wool or cotton rather than nylon. Then hats, socks and mittens for the weather you're having.

For sleeping: a cot, crib, carrycot or Moses basket, a firm flat mattress that fits it snugly with no gaps, a waterproof mattress cover, at least four fitted sheets, and either two baby sleeping bags or sheets and a cellular blanket.

Then nappies, cotton wool or unscented wipes, a changing mat, barrier cream, something to bath the baby in, muslins, and a rear-facing car seat. That's the list. Everything else is a preference, not a requirement, and some of it is a preference you haven't formed yet, because you haven't met the baby.

How many of each, and in what size

Six sleepsuits sounds mean until you realise you'll be washing every other day anyway, and generous until the day of three outfit changes before lunch. Both happen. Six is the right number.

Size is the bit worth getting right, and almost nobody does. Newborn fits for a matter of weeks, and it is what every visitor will buy you, so by week two you have a drawer of it and nothing above it. Buy sparingly in newborn, weight the rest towards 0–3 and 3–6 months, and let other people cover the tiny end. More on what size baby clothes to buy as a gift if you're the one doing the buying.

What goes in the cot, and the long list of things that don't

This is the section that saves you the most money, which is a strange thing to say about safety guidance.

The Lullaby Trust's position is that a baby needs two things to sleep on and under: a firm, flat, waterproof mattress, and lightweight bedding. That's it. Their advice is to leave out pillows and duvets, cot bumpers, soft toys and comforters, weighted or bulky bedding, anything designed to hold a baby in one position, and pods, nests or rolled-up towels on top of the mattress. They also suggest the room sits somewhere between 16–20°C.

So half the nursery aisle is not a purchase you need to make. The bumper set that matches the curtains, the sleep positioner, the sixty-pound nest – none of it is on the list, and the guidance is the reason. The NHS's own advice is that the safest place for a baby to sleep for the first six months is in a cot in the same room as you – which is a decent argument for a Moses basket you can move about, rather than a nursery decorated by thirty-two weeks.

Nappies, changing and the bath

Buy one pack of newborn nappies and one of the next size up, and no more. You don't yet know how big this baby is, or which brand won't leak on them. Stockpiling is a nesting activity that ends with four unopened packs in a size that lasted a fortnight.

For changing, a wipe-clean mat and barrier cream cover it, and the NHS list has cotton wool and unscented wipes sitting alongside them.

For the bath, a washing-up bowl genuinely works, and so does the big bath with you in it. I've written separately on how often a newborn actually needs a bath – the answer is less often than you think, which is one fewer thing to get right.

Feeding, whichever way it goes

You can't buy your way to certainty here, and you won't know which kit you need until the baby is feeding. The NHS list covers both routes: nursing bras, breast pads, nipple cream and a pump on one side; bottles and sterilising equipment on the other; muslins for everyone.

Get the minimum of whichever you're planning on. Plenty of us end up doing both, or switching, or something we hadn't planned at all, and none of that is a failure of preparation.

What you can honestly leave off the list

Opinions rather than guidance, so take them as such. The wipe warmer. The nappy bin, which is a bin. The top-and-tail bowl, which is two bowls. Matching nursery furniture bought before you know whether you'll want the baby in with you. Newborn shoes, on a person who cannot walk.

And on the question everyone asks: the NHS is clear that not everything has to be new. It gets specific about two things, the cot mattress and the car seat, and it's worth reading those two rows properly.

The gap nobody plans for: week ten

Here's the pattern I'd bet money on. Everything arrives in the first fortnight, almost all of it newborn-sized, and the people who sent it are lovely and entirely uncoordinated. Around week ten the baby has grown out of the lot, the visitors have stopped coming, and you're buying bodysuits online at eleven at night.

That's the gap worth filling deliberately, and it's the one thing on this page I'd plan for. Our gift sets are sized 3–6 months as standard for exactly that reason – they land when the drawers are bare rather than competing with the newborn pile. Everything is hand-packed in our UK studio and arrives gift-ready, so if somebody asks what you need, that's a straight answer to give them.

If it's muslins you're short of – and it will be – the Nursery Collection muslin, comforter and wrap set covers the mopping-up end of the list, with a comforter for the pram and the sofa rather than the cot. And if you're buying for somebody else on a tighter budget, the Baby Gifts Under £25 collection is the sensible place to start.

Common questions

One last thing

If you finish this and your list is half the length it was, that's the article working. Nobody has ever regretted buying less before the birth, and the shops don't close when the baby does arrive.

Tell me the one thing on your list you're still not sure about – that's the bit I'd most like to write about next. Comments here are read before they appear, so don't worry if yours doesn't show up straight away, and I'm on Instagram at @babyboxshop1 if that's easier.