15 Practical Gift Ideas for Exhausted New Parents
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As the resident parenting reviewer here at WIRED, I look at a lot of parenting gear. From baby monitors to the best strollers, there's a ton of gear to consider when you're a parent. I'll never forget how overwhelming it felt to make my baby registry before I was a mom—what would I need? How could I possibly know before meeting my kid and finding out what parenting was really like?
Now I've got a better idea of what's handy, as do other fellow parents here at WIRED. If you're gifting for a new parent, these are some of our favorite innovative solutions to make the gross, grueling parts of early parenthood just a little easier. Members of our Gear Team have tried them all. And yes, some of them are pretty cute.
If you're looking for more early-days gear, don't miss our guides to the Best Baby Monitors, Best Strollers, and Best Breast Pumps. If you're shopping for older kids, check out our guides to the Best Stem Toys or the Best Subscription Boxes for Kids.
Updated November 2024: We've added the Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) and Philips Hue Starter Kits to this guide. We've also updated our Kindle recommendation to the newest Kindle model.
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Adrienne So contributed to this guide.
- Photograph: Beis
A Sleek Diaper Bag
Béis The Diaper PackI adored this diaper bag for my early parenting days. For the first year, everything is small (like your baby!) and I found the Béis Diaper Pack (9/10, WIRED Recommends) was the perfect companion. The bag is perfect for errands and short outings and can fit plenty of diapers, wipes, extra onesies, a couple of soft toys, and a 5-ounce bottle. It also comes with a changing pad, which sits in its own pocket. It's too big to truly wear as a comfortable hip pack, but it's the perfect size for any parent to sling across their back before scooping up their infant.
- Photograph: Amazon
Transform a Stroller Into a Rocker
Rockit RockerThis is one of my favorite gifts we got that wasn't on any registry or list we had. Our best friend gifted us the Rockit after seeing that we could attach it to any stroller and use it to lull our baby to sleep. And it worked! It was handy to turn on whenever we took a long pause on a walk, like at a farmers' market booth or chatting with a neighbor, to keep my son from waking back up due to the lack of movement. It can't full-on move the stroller back and forth like the Cybex e-Gazelle S (8/10, WIRED Recommends), but it's the next best thing.
- Photograph: BabyBjörn
A Cozy Carrier
BabyBjörn Baby Carrier MiniDo you ever try something and immediately regret not having it sooner? I tested this baby carrier right before my son turned 1, and as soon as I strapped it on, I wished I'd had it from day one. The cross back was much more comfortable to me than the big hip straps that are on other carriers, and the soft jersey feel felt like everything a baby wrap promised to me without the struggle of, well, baby wrapping. It's only designed for that first year or until baby is 20 pounds, but I'd have used this every day if I'd had it with my little baby.
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
A Thermostat for Baby's Room
Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Generation)OK, the thermostat itself doesn't go in the nursery—it'll still go on your regular thermostat spot, wherever that is in your home—but the Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) (9/10, WIRED Recommends) comes with a temperature sensor that you can place in any room in your house, and then have the thermostat turn on the AC or heater based on that room's temperature instead of whatever room the thermostat is in. It's super handy, since keeping everything nice and temperate for a little one can be the difference between a good night's sleep and a bad night's sleep. It can be a safety factor, too, if you live somewhere that gets especially hot or especially cold. It's easy to control in the app to set up schedules, and the thermostat will learn schedules over time and suggest things too.
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- Photograph: Loop
For Overstimulated Moments
Loop Experience 2Being a new parent is an onslaught of exhaustion combined with a lot of noise, especially if you have a fussy baby. There are some days where babies just need to cry it out; some kiddos are just colicky and tend to cry more than others. If your parent friend is talking about how much they can't handle the crying anymore, get them a pair of Loop Experience 2s.
These earplugs are designed for concerts to make the music a safer decibel, but I found them handy to grab on meltdown-heavy days so I could still hear my kid, but didn't want to rip off my skin anymore at the sound of screaming. This helps me stay calm, which in turn, helps baby calm down, too. Plus they come in fun colors and have a tiny case you can easily attach to your keys (it's where I keep mine!) so it's handy for sudden loud locations.
- Photograph: Beaba
A Quick Masher
Beaba BabycookIf you want to buy a new parent something they might not get for themselves, you might want to consider a baby-food maker. Many new parents might think it's a luxury, especially with critical grandparents shouting, "In my day, we mashed food with forks!" But for a year, the Babycook helped me feed a hungry baby who was just too grouchy and impatient to gum down cut-up pieces of cooked carrot.
Whenever WIRED reviewer Adrienne So was cooking dinner for the rest of her family, she simply threw a couple pieces of food into the Babycook. You can steam and mash with single servings or multiple ones, in an appliance that takes up very little room on the counter and is easy to clean. She could cook several days' worth of food at a time and either freeze it or store it in the fridge.
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- Photograph: Brenda Stolyar
A Brand-New Kindle
Amazon Kindle (2024, 11th Generation)There's a new Kindle on the block, and even though I'm not a new parent anymore, I'm dying to be gifted it this holiday season. (Mom, if you're reading this, I'd like the matcha green color.) Getting a Kindle when my son was three months old for my birthday was the best gift I could have hoped for, and I recommend it to all my fellow parent readers. It's handy to grab and easy on the eyes for those 2 am feedings you're trying to stay awake for, and it was so nice to grab a book instead of scrolling through the internet during those wee hours of the morning or during another short daytime contact nap. I grabbed a library card and started getting books through Libby to send to my Kindle, but you could add a Kindle gift card (or give a gift card if you know they already have a Kindle!).
- Photograph: Philips
Convenient Lighting
Philips Hue Starter KitsSmart lights are great. You can use them to achieve all kinds of things. As a new parent, they're great for having gentle lighting for the nursery at the touch of a button, or creating mood lighting for their bedroom to help them wind down at night or wake up in the morning. Smart lights can be set on a schedule or activated by voice or motion sensors, so your favorite sleepy new parents can change the lights without having to get up and reach the light switch. And if you've ever been trapped under a sleeping baby you don't want to disturb, you know how convenient that can be. Philips Hue's starter kits are a great bundle to gift, since it includes the Philips Hue Bridge to connect the lights to, a couple of bulbs, and sometimes other handy accessories to pair with their new light bulbs.
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A Double-Walled Kettle
Beautiful by Drew Barrymore Beautiful Electric KettleNew babies mean little hands you have to keep safe from hot surfaces. If the parents in your life are obsessive tea drinkers like I am, or pour-over coffee fans, get them our favorite electric kettle as a gift. Not only is it beautiful on the eyes and easy on the wallet, but it has a ton of preset temperatures for their tired brains to quickly tap the one they need, and it's double-walled, so swinging baby hands (and eventually rambunctious toddler hands) won't get burned if they accidentally touch it.
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A Nose Unplugger
FridaBaby Electric NoseFridaThis is a fact: Newly born humans are so small that they can't blow their own noses. Amazing! Through the first year and especially into a cold-infested toddlerhood, this handy electric nasal aspirator has been worth its weight in gold. It's been much easier to get this aspirator into my son's nostril and hit the On button rather than wrangle both him and a tube, then manually sucking the snot out before he rips his head away from the contraption.
Frida has a whole line of attractive, no-nonsense solutions to other common baby issues, like passing gas and cradle cap, but the nasal aspirators are our favorite (though I'm also a fan of the cheaper, manual nasal aspirator). Every parent needs a fast, effective way of giving their little disease vector some nasal relief.
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- Photograph: Eufy
A Good-Looking Baby Monitor
Eufy SpaceView Baby MonitorThis video monitor looks nice and will serve a parent even after their child can start crawling, moving around more, or getting out of bed. An easy choice is the affordable (in the world of baby monitors) Eufy SpaceView. It doesn’t require Wi-Fi and instead uses more reliable FHSS radio connection. It's simpler to set up and more secure than using Wi-Fi. Check out our guide to the Best Baby Monitors for more suggestions.
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
A Great Wearable Pump
Imani i2If your mom bestie is lamenting about wanting a wearable pump, buy her the Imani i2 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). It's much more affordable than other wearable pumps, but just as powerful and easy to use. There's no app, just a motor and handful of controls on the top of the pump, and the silicone shields are super comfortable for pumping. I got some of my best pumping results with this zero-frills pump.
- Photograph: Parker Hall
A Great TV Streamer (and No Lost Remote!)
Google TV Streamer (4K)This might not be your friend's first kid. That's a great thing, but if they've got a toddler around the house while dealing with the newborn stage at the same time, things might be going missing. Maybe their keys (grab them a Bluetooth tracker!) or maybe their TV remote, which is especially heartbreaking when you're already exhausted and can't figure out where it went.
Google's new TV Streamer (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is easy to set up, pretty on the eyes, and is a nice improvement over the previous Chromecast experience. You can even use it to monitor and control your smart home devices and video feeds. But best of all, there's a button on the primary device to make the remote beep so that it's easier to find.
- Photograph: Aura Frames
A Digital Photo Frame
Aura CarverAnother place to put those thousands of photos on your phone is onto a digital photo frame. I love using Aura's frames since you can add photos easily through the Aura app, or just connect it to a folder in Google Photos. Little ones change so much in their early months (and all the years after), so it's such a treat to see a photo pop up with how small your child was just a few months ago.
It's easy for family members to add to, and easy to add to other digital photo frames that might be at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They want to see the photos too, after all!
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- Photograph: No Reception Club
A Bag for Frequent Travelers
No Reception Club Hideaway DuffelIn some ways, traveling when your baby is little is easier than wrangling them during the toddler years (less need for entertaining!).
For those parents who you know love to travel, or can't avoid plane trips even though they've got a little one, No Reception Club's duffel bag is supremely handy. It has an included organizing insert, multiple ways to carry it, and several pockets to keep everything—including, perhaps most important, an insulated pocket in the front. It's perfect for baby bottles, pumped milk, or even toddler snacks that need to stay cool.
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