Saturday, January 12, 2008

Buying Baby Clothes Online

Today’s parents have more options available to them when it comes to finding and purchasing clothes and other items for their babies than ever before. With the advent of the internet, shopping for baby clothes has never been easier as there are numerous online retailers that can provide almost anything a parent needs. What follows are some of the best web sites for buying baby clothes online.

Discount Baby Clothes

Not surprisingly, some of the best physical discount stores that carry baby clothes are also some of the best online retailers. When looking for baby duds at an acceptable price the kings online are Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Each company offers direct sales from their web site, have pretty much everything you could need in terms of baby clothing and layette needs, and offer it all at prices that won’t make you spit up your Isomil formula. Each offers clearance items and baby registry services as well. Other good sites with slightly higher, but still mid-range, pricing belong to Old Navy and Land’s End.

Designer Baby Clothes

For the parent that wants to dress little Kelly or Clay with a bit more pizzazz and who doesn’t mind paying considerably more to do so there is E-Luxury, a site that offers the full line of Baby Dior products and the direct web sites of several other designers who deal in baby clothing. Baby Phat has their own site as does Anne Geddes who recently launched a line of her own baby wear based on her famous photographs. If you’re looking to shop for as much as possible under one electronic roof there is Chic Baby Boutique, who carries most of the Mak the Yak and Baby Om clothing lines.
Let Your Browser do the Walking

There are literally hundreds of other web sites out there that offer baby clothes at all price ranges and designed to meet all specifications. If you’re interested in organically grown cotton, there’s a site that specializes in baby clothing made from those fibers. If you want punk rock designs on your baby’s T-shirts, there are sites that offer just that! There are sites that offer political slogans on baby sized clothing, “alternative’ baby clothing, and sites for baby & toddler tuxedos and evening gowns. If you can imagine it, you can probably find it somewhere on the internet where there is someone just waiting to sell it to you.

About The Author

Kirsten Hawkins is a baby and parenting expert specializing new mothers and single parent issues. Visit http://www.babyhelp411.com/ for more information on how to raising healthy, happy children.

Buying Baby Clothes At A Discount

Dressing your little darling doesn’t have to cost a fortune

It is no secret that having and providing for a new baby is an expensive job. With the expense of those all-important early doctor’s visits, necessary items for the nursery, and the rising prices of formula, diapers, and various infant accessories, it seems a wonder that anyone can afford to reproduce anymore. While it’s difficult to argue in favor of cutting corners when it comes to your baby, there are a few ways that you can save money on some of your baby related purchases. Baby clothes and layette needs are fortunately one area where you can afford to save a few bucks without diminishing the level of comfort and care that your little Nick or Jessica receives.

Secondhand Baby Clothes

This is a sore spot for some parents and not without good reason. The thought of putting “used” clothing on your baby can come with numerous unspoken horrors and various levels of mental anguish. After all, how do you know where that used Onesie has been? Fortunately, concerned parents can rest their minds easily and put aside the fears associated with purchasing secondhand baby wear by following a few bits of common sense. Used infant attire should only be purchased from a reputable source. A thrift store like those run by the Salvation Army or a good secondhand store that specializes in baby goods (Other Mothers is a particularly good chain in the Western United States) can be considered safe sources since they make a point of sterilizing such items before offering them for resale. Avoid purchasing any items for a baby from a garage sale or “flea market” unless you know the seller personally and even then do so with caution. Any secondhand baby items you do obtain – even those given to you by friends or family members – should be washed thoroughly before you ever put them on your child.

Shopping Online

The internet has been doing wonders for people’s wallets for years. In almost every case items that you can purchase in a local store can be found online for less. Baby clothes are no exception and there are literally hundreds of e-commerce web sites that will be more than happy to sell you everything you need for your baby’s layette and wardrobe at a considerable savings compared to what you’ll pay at the local Babies ‘R’ Us store. In addition to baby clothing, almost every other conceivable baby need can be met online for less. In many cases you can get free shipping as well. The web won’t save you from the occasional midnight run to the local 24 hour grocer or Wal-Mart for emergency diapers or formula, but it’s a veritable hero in most other regards.

Other options for saving money on baby clothes and accessories do exist, and most are fairly common sense approaches. Buying infant wear from Kmart, Target or Wal-Mart is certainly going to cost you less than shopping at Dillards, JC Penney, or Sak’s, for example, as will choosing off brand or no-name items instead of Baby Dior and Weebok’s. Babies cost enough money as it is, there’s no reason not to put a little green back in your pocket now by saving on baby clothes when you know you’ll be shelling it out for braces and piano lessons later in life.

About The Author

Kirsten Hawkins is a baby and parenting expert specializing new mothers and single parent issues. Visit http://www.babyhelp411.com/ for more information on how to raising healthy, happy children.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Three Kinds Of Baby Clothes

When buying baby clothes parents are suddenly inundated with multiple choices that can become quite confusing. How many cute and adorable outfits does little Bill or Hillary need? How many “Onesie” body suits are enough? For little people that grow so quickly there are certainly a wide variety of clothing options, how does a new parent know what to get?

To help settle the dilemma and answer these questions, parents need to keep in mind a simple “rule of three.” Babies need three kinds of clothes. Clothes are needed for daytime wear, for going out, and for sleeping. The baby sleepwear will likely outnumber the other varieties since sleeping is what babies spend most of their time doing, but the numbers of each outfit will vary in direct relation to the number of times the parents are willing to do laundry.

Baby Daywear

The clothes you have for your baby to “hang around” in should be comfortable, easy to access for diaper changes, and simple. These are the articles that your baby will spend most of her time in and they’re bound to get dirty. When the baby spits up, spews strained beets all over the place, crawls around on the floor, or does any of the other relatively messy and somewhat disgusting things that babies do, these clothes are going to bear the brunt of the abuse. As such, you probably don’t want these things to happen while baby is wearing the beautiful Baby Dior outfit that Aunt Edna gave as a shower gift. The best clothes for these day to day needs are simple body suits with snaps at the crotch. Onesies are a brand name of these items, but the term has pretty much entered the language to mean any such article designed this way. You’ll probably want anywhere between five and ten of these on hand.

Baby Sleepwear

Clothing for sleeping should meet some of the same specifications as the baby daywear in terms of comfort and accessibility. Obviously if you live in a colder region or it is the middle of December you’ll want heavier articles than if you live in Phoenix and its July. Babies can still be messy when they sleep, but are usually nowhere near as messy as when they’re up and around. In warm enough climates the same style of Onesies that are used for baby’s daytime activities can double as sleepwear, but if the temperature is cooler you’ll want heavier knit PJs or similar sleepwear.

Dressing up Baby

The outdoor baby wear is where the parents really get to shine. Here is where you can utilize the cute and adorable stuff that was given as shower gifts or that you just couldn’t resist picking up during a routine trip to Wal-Mart. These items should still be examined for practicality, making sure that straps, snaps, bows and such do not interfere with diaper changing or cause discomfort to the infant, but you’re a little freer to show off. After all, everyone wants to coo over an adorable baby. When the adorable baby is adorably dressed, the cooing is that much sweeter.

About The Author

Kirsten Hawkins is a baby and parenting expert specializing new mothers and single parent issues. Visit http://www.babyhelp411.com/ for more information on how to raising healthy, happy children.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Retro Baby Clothing

If it was cool when you were a kid, it’s cool for your kids!

Baby clothing is quite a bit different today than it was when you were an infant. From the designer styles of Baby Dior and Baby Phat to the bizarre offerings of the alternative baby clothing market, there’s now something for every parent to adorn her children with in an effort to transfer a bit of her own personality onto her offspring. One of the latest trends in baby fashions is the “retro” look in baby wear.

Retro baby clothing indicates baby sized tees and “Onesies” that have been printed or screened with images of pop culture past. In many cases the pictures are of icons from before even the parents’ time, making it cool to be the most obscure. Interested parties are not likely to find these offerings at the local Wal-Mart but will instead have to order them online. Fortunately for those interested in giving their children a little piece of the past to wear on their chests, there is no shortage of those sites available.

The most complete and probably best known of these sites is The Retro Baby. Perusing the offerings of the site is like a walk down memory lane for anyone who is in their thirties or has a keen fix on the pop-culture of the 1980s. Designs available here include television references like The A Team, ALF, CHiPs, and Dallas (the Dallas print will be instantly familiar to anyone who remembers the summer that America was wondering who shot J.R.) as well as older images from shows that the parents of today watched in reruns while growing up: Barbara Eden in her silky outfit from I Dream of Jeanie and Clayton Moore in his blue Texas Ranger outfit complete with black mask from The Lone Ranger. Prices for these printed “Onesies” are a bit steep at $14.95 ($16.95 for toddler-sized tees) considering the baby will grow out of them completely in a few months’ time, but even the most stoic of thirty-somethings will have to admit that they are getting a certain dose of cool for their cash.

Retro doesn’t just mean pop culture references, however. Several clothiers are offering styles that are a clear throwback to those worn by kids in the fifties, sixties, and seventies. One such company, Cakewalk Baby, offers flower print designs reminiscent of the post-hippie era of the late seventies; a time when PC meant petty cash, Elvis Presley was still with us, and no one knew what a video game or MTV was. A website called Milena Bee offers these designs and more and is definitely worth a look.

Whether you want to put stills of Bruce Lee from Enter the Dragon or flowery designs from an era gone by on your baby’s body, retro baby clothes may be just what you need to show the world that your baby is cooler than cool. Look hard enough and you may be able to find a tee shirt that says “I’m the Fonz” or “Frankie Say Relax.”

About The Author

Kirsten Hawkins is a baby and parenting expert specializing new mothers and single parent issues. Visit http://www.babyhelp411.com/ for more information on how to raising healthy, happy children.

Special Baby Clothes For Those Special Days


Baby clothes are a necessity more than anything else, but there are a couple of special occasions that make the baby the center of attention. It is moments like this that the mother's keen sense of fashion gets to shine. Here, the fact that the baby will undoubtedly grow out of the outfit quickly is of little to no concern, and style is of the utmost importance. In most cases, so is tradition.

Perhaps the most obvious of these occasions is baby's homecoming. Almost any mother can tell you what they brought their baby home in. Depending on the time of year, this special outfit can range from a fruit print romper to a pair of footsie pajamas. In this case, it is the sentiment attached to the moment that makes the outfit so special. It is a good idea to save this outfit in a memory box for when your child has children of their own, or make it into a treasured stuffed animal. Any way that you think is fitting to preserve the memory works, but doing something to set this outfit aside is important.

The next big day is the baby's introduction to family. What is your baby going to be wearing the first time they meet their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and close friends? If this is a small secular gathering, then something informal is an easy out. However, you may want to dress the new family member up for the multitude of pictures that will inevitably be taken. Of course, there is also the weather to take into account. If the baby is going to be in a hot crowded home, then keeping them cool is they key factor in choosing appropriate attire. A thin cotton dress for a girl, or a onesie works great. Think of the day as an excuse to let others change the diapers for a little while.

There is of course the more common baby coming out, either christenings or a bris. The traditional christening attire is, of course a white garment. This can take many forms, from a gown to a suit, and a whole host of materials. The important thing to remember is that the baby is going to be passed around a lot on a day like today, so make sure that he or she is comfortable no matter how angelic they look.

For a bris, the attire is clearly gender specific. Therefore, baby tuxedos and suits are a hot item. You would be surprised at the inexpensive prices at which you can find a tiny tux. For less than thirty dollars, your baby can be in his very own penguin suit. There are also more traditional items, which are very much like that of the Christian baptism ceremony. That is, long white gowns with blue trim. These are also modestly priced, and generally work for either ceremony (which could potentially be a big money saver for an interfaith marriage).

The special occasion that all mothers look forward to at the end of a stressful but joyous year is the baby's first birthday. This outfit is much like the baby's coming home outfit (except significantly larger), and can be a whole host of different styles or degrees of formality. The most important thing about this outfit is, of course, its resistance to cake stains.

About The Author

Kirsten Hawkins is a baby and parenting expert specializing new mothers and single parent issues. Visit http://www.babyhelp411.com/ for more information on how to raising healthy, happy children.