Based on our own experience, our standard new baby gift has gotten us tears of grattitude one one occasion, and many many thanks.
Here’s the thinking: what’s the one thing most new parents want? sleep.
Why do babies cry and wake-up? In addition to the usual suspects of hungry, poopy, you have: too cold/hot, cold fever&pain (also from shots…), gas pain, collic, teething pain, etc.
So we put together a little night-time go-back-to-sleep kit:
In an insulated luch bag, which can be used to carry bottles and food later on, we place:
-big bottle of infant Tylenol (not the kids, the baby version) Their pediatrician or public health nurse will tell them the right dose.
-bottle of simethicone solution for gas for babies (brand name Ovol in Canada)
-gripe water (flavoured water that has been known to distract babies out of colic crying, no real medicinal value)
-tube of baby oragel teething pain gel
-couple of soft cotton newborn hats (like tuques, if you’re Canadian…)
-pen light flashlight, to see what you’re doing when you’re preparing a dose of tylenol at 3:00 am without turning on the room lights and further waking baby.
-tube of J&J 3in1 diaper rash cream
If they are very close friends, or you’re very generous, you can also give them the Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby’s First Year (very useful, lots of info, well put together, approved by Mrs. Trupa, MD) or a temporal artery scanning infra red thermometer. These are eletronic thermometers that can tell you the body temperature of an adult or infant by just wiping accross the forehead. Our son hates the in the ear kind, and wiggles too much for an underarm/rectal one.
Hope this helps,
BTW, those cloth diapers are awesome for waxing your car too, and cheaper than the cloths they sell with the car wax.
