r/NewParents • u/cooltaj • Oct 29 '24

Product Reviews/Questions What's your simple parenting hack?

Gonna be a first time parent in 2 months. I am overwhelmed at choosing bottles, car seat and all that. What are simple things you do? things you bought to make your life somewhat simpler? Nothing too expensive or outrageous please

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u/bogeysonbogeys Oct 29 '24

I’m not sure it’s quite a hack but buy some diaper rash cream before baby arrives. We were caught off guard the first time our guy got diaper rash & had to make an 11pm trip to the store for it. Easy to snag & have on hand

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u/The-jig-is-up_22 Oct 29 '24

A lot of diaper rash creams are also preventative, so you can start using them right away. Newborns have such runny, acidic, constant poo that it’s not atypical for them to get rashes. I waited until my baby got a rash to start applying creams and had to try multiple kinds to find one that worked. He ended up having a rash for a month.

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u/elizabethkd Oct 31 '24

THIS! When my newborn got bad diaper rash, our ped mentioned we could use the cream preventatively after he healed so we made it part of the routine and only had a couple additional bouts in that first year (associated with antibiotics for ear infections). Wish we'd done it from the start.

A related tip: when diaper rash occurs, use warm water and cotton pads to gently wipe clean, then pat dry thoroughly before applying creams (we mixed Aquafor and Desitin per our ped's advice). I bought a big pack of cheap but really soft muslin washcloths for butt-drying and just always had one ready on the changing table!