Best Baby Products for New Parents of 2023

The UppaBaby Mesa V2 hit all the marks of a quality, easy-to-use infant car seat. Our baby tester loved this seat, snuggling right in and falling asleep almost immediately every time we used it. The harness is comfortable both for an infant (with the infant insert installed) or an older baby, which wasn’t the case for all the seats we tested. It’s also easy to tighten or loosen the harness as needed, with just a push of a button.

The Mesa V2 weighs a little under 10 pounds, putting it on the lighter end of all the car seats on the market. It was thin enough to fit well into the backseat of our Honda CRV, and its strap-based system made it easy to install.

Some car seats require a kickstand, but the Mesa uses a belt that autoretracts as soon as you latch it in, securing the seat into the car. The Mesa comes with a base but if you ever find yourself without one, you can also use the “European routing system” to thread a seatbelt through the back, which keeps the car seat secure. To remove the car seat from the base, you only need to grab the handle on the back of the seat; it’s a one-handed release.

The only true downside to the UppaBaby Mesa car seat is that you’ll need to buy into the slightly pricier UppaBaby system if you want to attach the car seat to a stroller.

If budget is your priority, you can also browse our list of strollers under $200, such as the Summer Infant 3Dlite Stroller, which is a top pick by our testors.

Read More: The Best Car Seats

There’s a lot to love about the Guava Family Lotus Bassinet. Not only is the Lotus great at being a bassinet, but it can transform into a pack and play as well. While it’s on the expensive side, if you add up the price of buying a high-quality baby bassinet plus a separate play yard, the Guava Family Lotus makes for a sweet package dealfor $299.

In addition, the Lotus has the best and most compact fold of any product we tested. Did we mention that it folds up into a backpack—which is also included? While portability isn’t important to everyone (and not all bassinets we tested even had a way to fold-up) the compact design is easy to move and great for exploring the world with your newborn baby or your toddler—or even just for setting up in the living room. It’s also quite convenient for when it’s not in use, as it makes storing it especially easy in even the smallest apartments.

Read More: The Best Bassinets

The Uppababy Cruz V2 is our favorite stroller, hands down. It’s wide enough to be stable, yet narrow enough to easily fit through doorways. It’s cozy enough to hold a baby, but also adjusts to accommodate a preschooler. The large wheels are large enough to absorb bumps, yet it’s slim when folded, and it stands on its own.

The five-point harness keeps your baby safe without being difficult to buckle and unbuckle, and the UppaBaby Cruz’s folding mechanism is convenient and clever, though it’s not a one-handed fold.

The stroller looks and feels luxe, but it only took 10 minutes to put together and the storage space is outstanding—the basket holds up to 30 pounds.

Read more: The Best Strollers

The Joovy is equal parts luxury and economical compact. Some of the extras, like the snack tray, aren’t necessary—but you will be thankful that they are included anyway.

Tiny when folded, you can store this stroller just about anywhere in your home (or car) without thinking twice. It can accommodate a car seat, has added storage in the back in the form of a zippered pouch for wallets and keys, and has a reclining seat for kids in need of a nap. It checks all of the boxes, and then some, making it a great choice for almost everyone. The Kooper falls square in the middle of the compact stroller price point, making it a good investment.

Read more: The Best Lightweight, Umbrella, and Travel Strollers

The Nanit Pro is one of the best smart baby monitors on the market. With easy setup, a user-friendly app and basic subscription features that provide must-have information to parents, the Nanit provides value most in that first year of life.

Parents can expect high-resolution views of the baby's crib from their smartphone, and, for those with two babies, the Nanit offers a split-screen view for simultaneous monitoring of both children. It also features a night light, and temperature and humidity readings.

The Nanit's biggest boon is for parents looking for peace of mind against SIDS and just in general. The Nanit features breath monitoring, thanks to its breathing band that counts breaths per minute and sends data alerts to the camera and app, in real time. On Nanit’s website, parents can also purchase wearables for older babies and toddlers, such as sleep sacks and pajamas.

Unfortunately, the Nanit offers a significant drawback: Its subscription ends after just one year, only continuing as a paid service thereafter, and the app only offers access to two people, which means additional caregivers are a no-go.

Read more: The Best Baby Video Monitors.

The Happiest Baby Sleepea, designed by Dr. Harvey Karp, boasts itself as the world’s first 5-second swaddle. With its double zipper that can open from top or bottom, inner arm wrap with extra-quiet Velcro, and breathable cotton and mesh to reduce overheating, this swaddle was the number one winner in multiple rounds of testing.

This swaddle was a game changer, especially for babies who had several dirty diapers in the night during those first few weeks home. This swaddle allowed for easy diaper checks and changes and babies settled into the swaddle almost by the time the zipper was up.

One of the babies slept so soundly in this baby swaddle that mom was reluctant to switch it up to continue testing. And the other, a veritable swaddle Houdini, failed to bust out of this swaddle even during an extra-long night of sleep. Overall, we have very few negative things to say about the Sleepea.

Read More: The Best Swaddles and Swaddle Blankets

The Skip Hop Moby 3-Stage Smart Sling Tub was one of the most comfortable baby baths we tested, largely because of a mesh sling that can be set up to accommodate a newborn in a full-recline position as well as a just-learning-to-sit baby in a partial recline position. You can also remove the sling entirely for a baby who can sit upright.

Appropriate for babies from newborn to 6+ months (up to 25 pounds), this tub is a little over two feet long and about 1.5 feet wide and a foot tall, which means it takes up about half the length of a standard adult bathtub. It has a hook that allows for easy storage on a shower curtain rod or towel bar, and a drain that empties the water easily post-bath. You can also wipe down the plastic sides of the bath with no problem and the mesh sling dries quickly, reducing the likelihood of developing mold or mildew.

The Skip Hop Moby is also stable, meaning that it doesn’t slide around in the bath while your baby is being cleaned. And because of the mesh swing’s flexibility, you can easily reach the baby's nooks and crannies for cleaning. Our tester baby cried every time bath time ended because he wanted to stay in the Moby for longer.

Read More: The Best Baby Bathtubs

If you’re introducing a bottle to a baby who has been exclusively breastfed, the Comotomo Bottle is an ideal choice. Our baby took to the squishy, silicon bottle quickly, as it comes closest to mimicking a breast, compared to the other bottles we tested. After just a day of using these bottles, we immediately added them into our family’s rotation.

The Comotomo bottles are wide-necked, which means they’re easy to fill with refrigerated or pumped breast milk, or to mix formula in with minimal spillage. The top of the bottle is easy to open and close, and the nipple pops out for straight-forward cleaning, plus there are few crevices for dried milk to get stuck in. We loved that this bottle can be put in the dishwasher (top rack!), and it’s also microwave safe.

During our leak tests, which involved dropping the bottle (with a cap on) from hip-height, letting our 11-month-old son shake the bottle, and tucking it into a diaper bag during trips to and from the grandparents’ house, the Comotomo was the best of the bunch. These bottles are slightly squishy, which means they’re also easier to store than most of their competitors, and they don’t retain that sour-milk smell that can sometimes permeate plastic bottles.

The Comotomo comes in 5-ounce and 8-ounce iterations, in various colors. You can also buy a transitional sippy-cup spout for the bottle.

Read More: The Best Baby Bottles

The Diaper Genie Complete has arguably the best diaper disposal mechanism of any that we tested—at least in terms of cleanliness and odor control. Inside the bin there are two spring-loaded arms that pin the bag shut and create a little chamber at the top. Just drop the diaper in, close the lid, and the dirty diaper gets released into the bag—without you having to force it with your hand.

The refill system is basically one gigantic, long trash bag that is condensed into the familiar ring shape. You pull the bag through and tie it off at the bottom. When the pail is full you just pull it out, cut the bag using the attached blade, and tie off the loose ends. This lets you fill up the pail several times before having to replace the refill ring, and you can empty it right away if there’s a particularly smelly diaper.

Read more: The Best Diaper Pails

The Ruvalino Backpack is more backpack than diaper bag, aesthetically, giving it a gender-neutral appeal that my husband and I loved. No matter who was on baby duty, the Ruvalino was a non-embarrassing option that drew the admiration of our parent-friends, too.

Beyond looking good, it’s functional. The backpack has plenty of pockets and two large compartments, which meant we could easily fit a full-size load of supplies inside—diapers, wipes, diaper cream, a change of clothes, toys, snacks, and several bottles.

The Ruvalino comes with a changing pad and insulated bottle pockets on the inside of the bag, plus two exterior pockets that fit both wallets and taller baby bottles. One contains a wipe slot, if you want to use the outer pocket for easy-access wipes. The Ruvalino even has a laptop pocket for the days when you’re headed out on your own.

The Ruvalino doesn’t open as wide as some of the other diaper bags we found, which means items do occasionally get lost in the bottom, but the organizational pockets help with this. We especially appreciated the diaper pockets, which tucked the diapers off to the side to provide more room for digging.

You can wear the Ruvalino as a backpack, thanks to the padded shoulder straps, or you can carry it as a purse, using the two small top handles.

Read more: The Best Diaper Bags

Because every baby has a different preference when it comes to swings, the Graco Duetsoothe Swing + Rocker’s variable swing directions are key. You can spin the seat 180 degrees, meaning your baby can swing from side-to-side facing either direction, or from front-to-back. Overall, we think this swing is likely to soothe your baby, no matter their swinging preferences.

The Duetsoothe contains many useful and fun features: a mobile with three stuffed bears, 10 subtle classical music songs (and a range of volumes), white noise in the form of five nature soundtracks, and a two-speed, battery-operated vibration setting. This was also one of the quietest swings we tested—unlike many of the other models. And it slows down when you reach in to touch your baby or remove them from the swing, then speeds up again once you’ve removed your hands.

The seat—which was fairly recumbent—has a 5-point safety harness and a padded headrest. It contains an infant insert, and can be used for babies from 5.5 to 30 pounds. (Note that the weight limit on the stand-alone rocker is only 18 pounds.)

A few downsides: The DuetSooth swings at six speeds, but we found that anything over the 4th speed was too fast and risked rolling our baby from side to side, as well as hitting other things in the room because of the swing’s width. It was also fairly difficult to build.

Read More: The Best Baby Swings

The Journey GO won our award for best baby carrier. They all came in small, compact boxes with a picture of a model wearing a baby on them. Right from the box you can see all the features and different ways to wear the carrier.

The Journey Go features breathable 3D mesh and moisture-wicking fabric with five different carrying options, making it perfect for your journeys on the go. The 5-in-1 design allows you to wear it for newborns, facing in, facing out, on your hip, and on your back. It was easy to set up and we noticed right away that even with so many configurations it is still lightweight.

Some of the things we liked right away with this carrier is that you can use it for newborns starting at 8 pounds (no infant insert needed) all the way up to 45 pounds, so it will truly grow with your family and take you up to the toddler years. The carrier is also breastfeeding friendly.

The biggest con for this carrier is that your newborn must be at least 8 pounds in order to safely use it, so if you have a tiny baby or a preemie you’d have to wait a few weeks to start using it safely.

Read more: The Best Baby Carriers

The Beaba Babycook 4-in-1 is a compact all-in-one option that both steams and purees your food. It features a straightforward design that makes it very easy to use and was by far the quietest of the bunch when it came to the blending portion of the food making. It steams in minutes, and with a touch of a button, creates smooth and creamy purees in under one minute.

You’re able to easily control the amount of water that goes into making your purees, which is a nice plus. You don’t need to figure out how much time to use, either—just add the correct amount of water, press the steam button, and it figures it out for you and alerts you when it’s done.

The Beaba is very easy to clean and most of the parts are dishwasher safe, although you can’t see inside the water tank, which makes it pretty impossible to check if there's mold or bacteria growing inside. You can clean this out with a white vinegar descaling method.

The manual was almost too vague, although with a close look it was easy to figure everything out pretty quickly. And while the steam basket isn’t quite as large as some other models, it makes a sufficient amount of food.

The aesthetics here are great: the Babycook is offered in a few different colors, like a rose gold model with gold touches that look surprisingly chic for a baby food maker. All in all, it makes excellent purees and doesn’t compromise on style, so it was hard to beat.

Read more: The Best Baby Food Makers

This sleek-looking booster seat has the longest product lifespan of any of the booster seats we looked at. It works for children as young as 15 months and can be used until your child is a big kid.

In accommodating such a big age range, there are some product trade-offs. The boost is on the shorter side, so depending on your child and your table, this seat may not provide enough height for the youngest kiddos, and without a tray, that could be a problem.

But whenever you use this booster seat, you’ll find that it’s solidly functional. The dining chair straps are easy to click and adjust. All the straps are removable, which reduces some clutter, while the non-skid feet ensure that you won’t sacrifice stability for older kids and travel. It also helps with cleaning and the straps’ gray color works well to camouflage any lingering food stains. The comfortable foam cushion and plastic seat back both are easy to clean and can be separated to get into nooks and crannies.

Finally, thoughtful details make this booster easy to store—the back folds down and the straps can be secured to the underside of the booster or stored inside it. This booster seat’s age range, portability, quality materials, aesthetics, and ease of cleaning mean that it is the best booster seat for tables for most people.

Read more: The Best Booster Seats for Tables

The Sound & Sleep from Adaptive Sound Technologies offers a top-notch sound machine experience. From the sleek tear-drop design to the excellent sound, it exudes quality across the board.

This sound machine offers 10 distinct sound categories, each with three different “richness” settings, which give you a total of 30 sounds to choose from. The richness setting allows you to tweak the variables that get layered into the sound.

It is also the only sound machine to feature an adaptive mode, where the internal microphone monitors your room’s ambient noise level and adjusts the volume accordingly.

The Sound & Sleep easily got loud enough to drown out competing sounds in our noise masking tests; it completely blocked out the sounds it was put up against. Both testers also noted that at every volume level, the speaker produced high quality sounds from clear highs to soothing bass without distortions.

It is one of the biggest of the units we tested, both in weight and size, which makes it difficult to recommend traveling with. It has a headphone jack but doesn’t offer a nightlight, clock, or app— and it’s on the higher side, price-wise. If that’s not an issue for you, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better sound machine than this one.

Read more: The Best Sound Machines