If you love shopping for clothes, chances are that you’ll also enjoy shopping for baby clothes, because there are just so many to choose from! Ranging from affordable vintage or second-hand shops to the more luxurious baby boutiques, there’s definitely something for everyone no matter the budget.
Even if you’re only just shopping baby clothes for a friend or a family member, you’ll probably get lost in a sea of baby clothing as soon as you step foot into the store. With so many options to pick from, how do you know if you’re choosing the most suitable clothing for the baby?
There are a lot of aspects you need to consider, such as fabric, size, comfort, quality, and more. No need to pick your brains out over this — we’ve got you covered with a comprehensive list of things to look out for to ensure you’re getting the best and most comfortable outfits for your little baby at home.
#1 Fabrics
Babies have extremely sensitive skin, so choose fabric materials that are soft and gentle on their skin. We know that you’re really excited for the baby and want to play dress-up with all the frills, ruffles, and bows you can find, but at least wait until the baby is 6 months old to start experimenting with different fabrics like lace, tulle, and other ‘itchy’ material that might cause rash or skin irritation.
The safest choice is to always go for organic fabric such as cotton or rayon. They are soft, breathable, and relatively affordable in many styles and colours.
Try to avoid brightly-coloured clothing because such brilliant colours usually indicate the presence of fluorescent dye used in the fabric. Besides, soft, pastel colours are more soothing and less stimulating for your baby’s vision.
Photo by Jordan Nix on Unsplash
#2 Comfort
Closely connected to #1, you need to make sure that the clothes you choose for your baby are lightweight, breathable, and comfortable enough. Another reason why cotton is the top choice for baby clothing is its absorbent property that mops up your baby’s sweat and keeps them dry and airy. It’s important to keep your baby feeling cool and breezy, even more so during the long, warm spells of Malaysian weather.
If you want to help your baby cool down in the heat, give them a warm herbal bath with our TYT Baby Herbal Bath sachets. It contains peppermint and bitter gourd that soothes the skin, cools down the body, and prevent nasty skin irritations like heat rash and nappy rash.
Synthetic clothing like nylon may trap moisture between the layer of clothing and your baby’s skin, causing discomforts like rashes and prickly heat. Watch out for tags and stitching as well — opt for tagless clothes with neat cotton stitching instead.
Keep in mind that babies have an incredible growth spurt making them grow out of their clothes fairly quickly. To overcome that, buy baby clothes that are one or two sizes bigger to accommodate for when they grow bigger in a few weeks’ time. This way, you’ll get double or triple the amount of wear out of that outfit, it lasts a whole lot longer, and you’ll get to save more for buying other baby necessities too
Photo by bearfotos on Freepik
#3 Safety
There are a couple of big no-no’s for baby clothing elements, especially for babies less than a month old: beads, tiny buttons, sequins, rhinestones, drawstrings, ribbons, and the whole nine yards. These items pose choking and strangulation hazards for your baby’s inquisitive little hands. But that doesn’t mean that baby clothes have to be plain, drab, and dull; on the contrary, colourful prints, patterns, and firmly stitched embroidery are perfectly fine.
You might also consider buying little mittens and socks for your baby if you’re worried they’ll accidentally scratch themselves with their fingernails. Nonetheless, you should always be mindful about their body temperature as their hands and feet may get too warm inside the little coverings after some time.
Photo by bearfotos on Freepik
#4 Practicality
Forget the bells and whistles for a moment and think about what your baby does the most at their age. Is your baby still spending a majority of the day sleeping in the cot? You’ll probably only need onesies and pyjamas. They don’t even need shoes at this point, so you can save the matching baby converse sneakers for later when they actually start learning to walk.
Baby clothes come with all sorts of fastenings: buttons, snap-buttons, zips, velcro, envelope necklines, and more. Before purchasing the outfit, make sure that it’s easy to slip your baby in and out of them because a typical day will require 5-6 changes of clothes due to sweating, spit-ups, accidents… you get the point. You’ll realise very quickly that ensuring your baby’s head isn’t covered in poop after a major accident is way more important than having your baby look their most fashionable with complicated straps and buckles all over and across. Also, don’t forget bibs — you’re gonna need plenty of bibs especially when you’re starting to introduce more solid foods to their diets.
Image by heymattallen from Pixabay
#5 Easy care
Let’s all face it — babies go through more changes of clothing than models at Paris Fashion Week on a daily basis — for the many reasons stated above. That means you as the baby mama (or baby daddy, we don’t discriminate here) are going to have lots and lots of laundry to do. And if your baby’s clothing care tags have a dozen different washing instructions, you’ll probably be at your wit’s end by the middle of the day.
Instead, choose easy-care fabrics that can just be simply thrown into the washing machine under one setting. Again, the best choice is usually cotton or cotton-blends because they are extremely low-maintenance, easily washed, and don’t shrink or shed like their knitted or woollen counterparts.
Image by heymattallen from Pixabay
Buying clothes for babies and toddlers can be lots of fun, but it can also be quite daunting for the inexperienced parent. We hope that our little list of clothing tips is able to help you choose the most suitable and most adorable outfits for your precious little baby.
Happy shopping, and happy new year 2021! Stay home, stay safe, and always shop online!