After a twitter conversation at 3am this morning on the confusing world of baby clothes, I thought I’d put down a guide to dressing your baby. (warning: some of this post is tongue in cheek and opinions are all mine so please do not be offended if you like to dress your baby in frills )

So lets start with the basics

Vest
Otherwise known as a bodysuit in the US. This is the basic staple item in your babies wardrobe. They are worn as underwear under all other clothes and you will need about 12 in each size as your baby grows.

Zara modelling a vest

You can get long sleeved, short sleeved, sleeveless, patterned, ones with funny sayings, plain etc but I find the basic white sleeveless vest is best. It goes under everything, is easy to put on and take off and is unisex so when second baby arrives (as I am discovering) it doesn’t matter whether it’s a boy or girl as you can just dig out all the old vests and recycle them.

Vests have the added advantage that you can dress baby in vest alone for feeding or if it’s warm in summer. Remember the basic rules of baby clothes, the less they wear the less washing you have to do and the less hassle it is when changing nappies!

Vest as daytime wear

OK so the second staple item is babies wardrobe is…

Sleepsuit
Otherwise know as a romper suit in the US. This item of clothing is pretty much all you need for baby until they are about 6 months old. They come in 1001 different colours and patterns and this is where you can show off your babies individuality whilst still letting your baby be comfortable.

Not just for sleeping in though!

“But sleepsuits are just nightwear” I hear some of you cry. Well seeing as babies do pretty much nothing except sleep and lie down for the first six months of their life it seems the most logical thing to dress them in. It’s all very well having fancy clothing but to be honest if you were spending all day lying down wouldn’t you prefer to be in your pyjamas? Zara was pretty much in sleepsuits all day everyday until she was crawling. They are comfortable, quick to change, practical and you can get some gorgeous ones. As a busy mum I don’t have time to take off trousers, dresses, tights, socks, shoes etc everytime I need to change baby so sleepsuits it is.

Don’t confuse the sleepsuit/romper suit thing with items you can buy in the UK called romper suits, these tend to be similar “all in one” items of clothing but tend to not have feet in them and be a bit more “dressy/daytime wear” than sleepsuits.

Zara modelling what I would call a romper suit

So that’s the basics covered, then we move onto what I call…

Photo Clothes

These are the clothes which tend to be given as gifts (usually by people who haven’t had children) and tend to be pretty impractical. You know the type, frilly dresses, tights, fiddly fastenings and anything which looks cute but is a faff to put on and take off. You will find that these items are usually worn once and once only, it is of course obligatory that you get a photo of baby wearing the clothes to send to the person who gave it you but after this they will more than likely be retired to the back of the wardrobe and maybe brought out for a special occasion if they are lucky.

Shoes and Socks
Again an item of baby clothing that I just don’t “get”. I wouldn’t wear shoes if I was lying down all day so why would I put them on my baby. To be honest baby will just keep kicking them off anyway and you will spend half of your busy day just putting shoes back on. Of course shoes also need pairing with socks which also never actually stay on for more than 5 minutes and are a washing nightmare, you will lose at least 3 in every wash cycle and you will build a lovely collection of odd socks. My advice, avoid buying shoes and socks for as long as possible, Zara got her first shoes when she was 11 months old and only then did she really start wearing socks. The bonus about sleepsuits is that they cover the feet and so shoes and socks are not needed!

Jeans
Now this is my pet hate so I’m sorry if I offend anyone here but in my eyes jeans are a major no no for babies until they are able to at least crawl. Would you like to lie around in jeans all day, they can’t be comfy and I can’t think of any reason why a baby should wear jeans. Fair enough when they are starting to crawl and they need a bit more substantial clothing to cover knees but until then they just seem pointless to me.

Character Clothes
Again another one of my pet hates, no offence to anyone who loves Disney or other character clothes for their baby but I don’t do “branding”. Why pay for more expensive character clothes when you can get gorgeous normal clothes? Again fair enough when baby is old enough to have favourite characters they want to wear but before that they are just overpriced in my opinion. They also date photographs and take away from the main focus (ie the child) so stick to funky patterns, stripes, spots, stars, flowers etc and steer away from Mickey and Minnie!

Hats, Scratch Mitts, Booties
I was gifted so many of these with Zara and I don’t really recall using any of them except maybe one hat if we were going out somewhere. If you need scratch mittens then try and buy sleepsuits with them built in as separate ones always come off and are a faff to wash. I don’t even know what use booties actually have?

I think that’s all the basics covered so if you stick to the following guidelines you can’t really go wrong:
1) Always remember the less baby wears, the less washing you will need to do and the easier it is to change nappies.
2) Avoid anything that you wouldn’t like to spend all day lying around in yourself.
3) Stock up on vests and sleepsuits, it’s all you really need for the first 6 months.
4) Don’t buy loads of clothes in 0-3, you will get loads of presents in this size when baby arrives. If possible ask people to buy 3-6 month sized clothes instead otherwise you will have more 0-3 clothes than baby can ever possibly wear in 3 months!