Neccesary baby products! What really works!

Having a baby is so exciting. You want to do everything right and you want to give them the best. Being parents for the first time, you seem to buy the brand name you recognise the most. It's kind of like a honeymoon at first. It takes you a couple weeks before you wake up and join the real world. Babies are expensive. Products don't always work the way they are suppose too. If you enjoy spending extra money, great! Nock yourself out! For the rest of us who have to work for our money, here are some suggestions of what worked for me.

• DIAPERS - Babies are so little when they are first born that the best thing is Huggies newborn. Hospitals know best. Most of them use Huggies. This is only for the first couple of weeks or until they grow into stage 1. Huggies is a great diaper, but they are very expensive. I have found others that will work just as well for about half the price. Parent's Choice is Walmart's brand. This would be my diaper of choice. They are basically white, which I like. I hate it when there are bunnies and bears or whatever else and you can see the babies diaper through their cute little outfit. The fastener tabs are elastic so they fit very snug and are comfortable for your baby to move in. I have also tried Targets brand of diapers. They are also good, but they do have little green characters on them. Kroger's Ultra diapers are pretty much the same diaper and also have characters on them. Shopko's brand of diapers are terrible because, the tabs come undone all the time. As long as you keep pants on your baby, they are okay, but as soon as the clothes come off, so does the diaper. I've had one to many experiences with that.
• Wipes - There are a couple of things I look for in a good wipe. They need to be thick enough that they don't rip when you use them. They also need to be wet enough to clean off whatever it is you are cleaning. Huggies wipes are very thick but, they are not very wet. Kroger Value brand are wet enough, but they are really thin. I really like the Kroger Ultra from Smiths and Parents Choice from Walmart. Make sure you buy scented. The unscented smell terrible and then your baby smells terrible.
• Babywash - There are so many kinds of babywash and shampoo there is no way you could try them all. Don't waist money on buying shampoo, because the baby wash is used to clean their hair also. Alot of products will dry their skin outor cause rashes. The best one that I found is just Johnson's baby wash. Huggies brand works good too. Don't use Breck for babies. It's too drying.
• Lotions - I have tried several lotions. What I look for in a lotion is, a good smell that is not overwhelming and does it keep their skin moist all day. The best one I found is Johnson's. They different scents to choose from. I personally like the cocoa butter and the cucumber melon. Gerber's grins and giggles is a good brand too. It works best to apply the lotion immediately after your babies bathe when they still have moisture on thier skin. This helps to seal the moisture in. If they are dry, then you can get your hands wet before you put the lotion on. This will help seal in moisture also.
• Diaper rash ointment - I am not a big advocate of useing ointment every time you change your babies diaper. If you change them often and make sure you wipe them clean every time you do a diaper change, you shouldn't need ointment. Occasionally, your baby will be a little red and the best thing to use is bag balm. It doesn't smell pretty, but it's basically medicated petroleum jelly. Their bottoms are irritated and sore, so it protects their bottom and makes it easy to clean them off when they need to be changed again.

I hope these will help you on your new venture as a mommy or daddy. After haveing 5 children, I have bought alot of products that dissappointed me. I wish someone would have told me what worked for them. These made my life and my giggly bundle of joy, a whole lot happier.