Essential Child-Minding Gear: Safety and Fun for Little Ones

a lightweight travel stroller, preferably an umbrella stroller

My personal pick: Summer Infant 3Dlite Convenience Stroller

Lightweight is chosen because it enables nanny to take the children more places and do more things. Cadillac strollers that need to be built and unbuilt or require gym-going muscles to lift into and take out of the car are quite nice, but they create a barrier to use by simply being a pain in the muscles. And what’s the point of a stroller that isn’t used?

I recommend specifically an umbrella stroller because it has a handy property no other stroller does: it can be carried like a quiver across the back using a yoga mat strap. You are going to want a stroller that reclines flat in order to be able to use it with newborns; do that and it is all the stroller you will ever need for the life of your child. My recommendation reclines flat, has onboard basket storage, and has its own built in quiver-carry strap.

If you find the stroller handles too short and so are tempted to move away from lightweight and compact, I invite you to consider handle extenders you can DIY out of less than $5 worth of PVC. It looks clunky, but it performs admirably and allows for the best possible stroller experience.

a groundcloth for use outdoors

My personal pick: the Original Monkey Mat

If the children are going on any outdoor adventures whatsoever, they are going to need a groundcloth to separate them from wet and muddy ground at least once in their youth, likely more often. In addition, this can be a more easily cleanable indoor floor-nic blanket for those inevitable meals spent away from the kitchen or dining table. My recommendation is off the market, but was quick to simply stuff into its carry sack; you want something like that — a quick stuff. Folding is delightful … for people without children.

Though my recommendation is officially off the market, used Monkey Mats pop up from time to time on the second hand market. Here is one that comes close and is still being made.

a no-spill bubbles container

My personal pick: Fubbles

There is no tragedy quite like the tragedy of spilled bubble mix, nor quickly reaching the point where bubble mix level is too low to load the wand. Fubbles does one thing and it does it well: make bubble containers that retain the bubble mix no matter how knocked about they get. Yet, there are competitors on the market which do this as well. The aspect that has the Fubbles brand standing out from the crowd is their bubble wand — it is a no fail wand that any child who can blow can use to produce a plethora of bubbles no matter what bubble mix is being used. Accept no substitutes!

And speaking of bubble mix, did you know that it can and will stain clothing? That’s because it contains glycerin which does the staining. To remove the stains, treat them with bar soap or hand dishwashing detergent instead of the usual stain spray which fails to be effective against glycerin. In addition, I recommend only bringing glycerin-free bubble mixes into the home to avoid the staining problem to begin with. I happen to have a favorite home recipe for no-fail bubble mix which has been tested in Fubbles containers and it truly does not fail; it also does not contain glycerin and uses cornstarch instead.

a portable training potty & a seat size reducer

My personal pick: Potette Plus

I have raved and raved and raved about the Potette Plus. It is a stand alone training potty as well as a seat size reducer while also folding up into a flat package AND it holds standard sized grocery sacks to use as a liner in case the little one has to poo and not just wee; I let the wee fall directly on mulch or other soils able to receive without plant death. In addition, I have personally tested the Potette Plus to confirm that it will hold an adult’s bodyweight in the event we adults need to eliminate some waste while far from a proper toilet. I’ve tested it up to 275 lbs.

Recently, Oxo has entered the ring with its Potette Plus dupe. Rather than the handles of the grocery sack fitting around the bottom of the legs of the multi-potty, the Oxo version offers small holes with grippers to tuck excess bag in to. One of the other professional nannies in my orbit works for a family that has the Oxo version. It seems to perform similarly to the Potette Plus. It has not been tested in terms of bearing an adult’s bodyweight; at least not by me.

And finally there is the training potty that I personally own for my own child. It was sent to me by a friend, which is how I ended up without a beloved Potette Plus. As with the multi-potties above, it can fold flat for travel as well as serve as a training potty at home, and has a creative feature for holding a plastic bag under the rim of the seat. However, it cannot serve as a seat-size reducer so one will need to purchase a separate seat size reducer if one wishes to own one. On the other hand, there’s no need for a seat size reducer when the child straddles the toilet as if riding a horse, facing the tank. #nannyknowledgetip This potty has also been tested by The Mister and supports his 275 lb adult weight just fine.

a full coverage bathing suit

Who really wants to have to struggle with a child to put sunscreen on them? Not I said the little red duck. And so, they wear their sunscreen in the form of a full coverage bathing costume. Covering the children from ankle to wrist with UPF clothes that do not need to be reapplied, the only part left to protect from the sun is the face which children tend to tolerate better.

No specific recommendation from me this time ’round. Any full coverage swimsuit is as good as the next.

a separate, personal diaper bag

My personal pick: backpack style with bassinet

I could have sworn that I packed more diapers than that, and where did the wipes and the snacks go? These are thoughts you’ll never have to have when each adult has their own personal diaper bag to maintain inventory of and ownership over.

A backpack style diaper bag is a more even distribution of weight when carried. While any bag that contains diapers is technically a diaper bag, my recommendation is different than a normal backpack in that it has easy stroller hookups to hang from the push bar of a stroller. Except if you followed my recommendation, you don’t have a pushbar. A detachable-for-folding pushbar can be added with some creative PVC work or the hookups could be looped around the individual handholds for an awkward-yet-functional carry.

The recommended diaper bag also contains a bassinet/changing station hidden in its back panel. The bassinet is surprisingly roomy and can zip out entirely when baby outgrows it in order to make that back space into another pocket. It also half zips down one of the sides to make diaper changes in that space easier. But I’ll be honest, I just toss down a changing pad any-old-where so haven’t gone through the admittedly easy deployment process of the bag’s onboard changing station. The sun shade works to keep baby from staring into the sun and damaging their new eyes, the bug netting works (or no bug wants to eat my child and thus has fooled me into thinking the bug netting works), and the toy arch helps when stuck waiting somewhere away from home. Do recommend, literally.

a plastic wheeled pizza cutter

My personal pick: Dexas one-handed

When engaged in Baby Led Weaning, or any weaning of any type really, food needs to be cut into the appropriate shape and size. When out and about, especially at a pizza place – can we all just take a minute and admit that pizza is the hardest food to make baby/kid appropriately sized – all that are available are the place’s knives which are woefully inadequate for the task.

A pizza cutter is not woefully inadequate to the task. And having a plastic wheeled one means that there are no sharp edges to slice open the fingers of any inquisitive children who might with to rummage through the diaper bag. Yet, somehow, this plastic wheel is perfectly capable of slicing even the most dense of pizza crusts; I think the trick is in the fact that you can simply push down with all your body weight from the top.

The recommended pizza cutter comes with an easy to remove wheel for very easy cleaning when away from home. Simply tug the wheel away from the handle – it will take a small bit of force because it is secure when assembled – and the entire wheel will pop out for an easy soaping and rinse in the restaurant’s bathroom, or easy wiping with a babywipe. If you don’t get my recommendation, make sure you get one with similar easy cleaning abilities.

analgesic safe for baby

My personal pick: Baby Tylenol

To grow is to be in pain. First there’s the pain of stomach acid traveling back up through the esophagus because the lower esophageal sphincter isn’t able to close all the way at birth, then there is the pain of constipation and trapped gas because the rectal sphincter has to be taught to respond to pressure, and then there’s the pain of teething. And that’s just for a normally developing child. Add oral ties – either remediated or not, and friction diaper rash, and there is even more pain.

Pain is instructive in that it tells us to pay attention to something. But once we’ve paid attention and know why the ouch, pain is not virtuous to keep around. We live in the future, we can give children a life filled with less suffering than we, ourselves, had to endure. We can give them an analgesic (aka painkiller).

My recommendation for Tylenol stems from the fact that it is able to be given to children from birth. The next closest option is Motrin/Ibuprofen which must be served only to a child 6 months or older. That’s six months of pain with Motrin, which doesn’t have to be with Tylenol. It is as simple as making the compassionate choice.

if a teething baby: a fruitmasher teether

My personal pick: Dr. Brown’s

Aside from giving your baby something fruit flavored to masticate to smithereens, this device makes an excellent cold delivery teether. I made a whole video about it! You can use water ice, or frozen breastmilk/formula cubes. If using frozen breastmilk or formula, make sure that you don’t count that as a required feeding; it is purely extra calories if they manage to swallow any of it.

If you only want the teething-cold and not the fruit mashing, and happen to have spare pacifiers, you can attempt to use this hack . When attempting this myself, I have been unable to get the pacifiers to stick into the cubes; they separate too quickly. Perhaps you’ll drop a comment and tell me what I am doing wrong.

a smart speaker or otherwise voice controlled, internet connected, music and podcast playing device

My personal pick: Amazon’s Echo Dot

Babies need watching, which means that casting eyes onto a television screen, eReader, or paper book is taking eyes off baby. Instead, podcasts and audiobooks provide the same intake of information while leaving eyes free to view baby and thumbs free to interact with baby.

The reason I suggested the Echo Dot is because its trigger phrase shouldn’t set off anything except the Echo Dot. Nest/formerly Google Home will activate any Android phones in hearing range. Apple Homepod (use code ZFPVAN for $5 off) will activate any iPhones within hearing range (maybe iPads as well?). But Amazon won’t because there are no phones that share its trigger phrase.

And in case you are wanting to mount your smart speaker to the wall, high up out of child reach – which I recommend, by the way – here are two options, one using command hooks and the other using a dollar tree tool hanger (spray paint it to match your decor). These wall mounts work for all the hockey-puck shaped iterations of the aforementioned three types of smart speaker.

a large floor mat that isn’t a puzzle mat

My personal pick: this foldable floor mat

Floor mats are great. They offer a bit of extra cushion for little ones on a hard floor, they contain spit-up on carpet in a way that cloth never could, and they provide clear boundaries for all children. You can take them to the park or playground and they provide a cushy seat for the adult while the children are playing — though I should note that they pack far larger than a Monkey Mat, making them a less ideal choice for park-time. They are a splat mat, drop cloth, crash pad, picnic blanket, thermal insulation, and personal space designator all in one.

Some people reach for puzzle mats, and I have to congratulate the marketers and producers of puzzle mats for giving parents the impression that they are a good option. The problem with puzzle mats is that they have seams through which spit-up and other effluvia can seep, failing to protect the floors beneath. My recommendation has no seams so does not have this flaw.

a bottle of good, old fashioned chlorine bleach produced within the past six months  and an empty spray bottle

Good, old fashioned bleach, in its correct dilutions, can be safe around children and are good for a variety of things.

Stained clothes (even colored ones)? Bleach will handle that. I feel compelled to add the second children’s stained clothes stain fighter I always keep on hand, though it certainly isn’t a must nor is it essential, but if you have a few extra shekels I encourage you to throw them this way: Ms. Mouth’s Messy Eater Stain Treater. Accept no substitutes/dupes; this stuff will remove practically any stain, even set in old ones, that bleach misses. And then the third stain fighter to keep on hand: good old fashioned bar soap (dampen soap and dampen garment, rub soap on garment; stain is now pretreated).

To remove laundry stains, even in colored children’s fabrics, dilute 1/2 cup of my recommended bleach to 1 cup of water and put into the machine’s bleach dispenser. Run as normal with an enzyme-containing detergent. If the stains aren’t removed, pretreat with bar soap or do a bleach soak. For a bleach soak, mix 1 part bleach to 2 parts water and immerse garment for exactly and precisely 5 minutes. Rinse, and then wash. And yes, I’ve done all of these methods and except for solids-poop stains in one particular cotton prefold diaper that one time, these methods have handled every single other stain.

Sanitizing the playroom or eating areas? Bleach can do that, too! Mix 1 TBSP of my recommended bleach with 1 cup of water and put it in that quality empty spray bottle. Make sure to label it! Spray surfaces liberally so that they are wet and leave it to sit for 6 minutes before wiping up. The sitting time is important for the disinfection to work correctly. I recommend making this solution by the 1 cup quantity because light degrades bleach’s properties so you want to keep as much bleach in the solid bottle as possible and as little in a spray bottle spraying about. Make fresh solution for each disinfecting run.

Sanitizing/sterilizing pump parts, baby bottles, pacifiers? Once again, bleach! In this case mix 1/4 tsp of my recommended bleach into 4 cups of water and immerse the items all the way and fully in need of sanitation. Let the items remain covered by the bleach water for 2 minutes, then remove and allow to air dry. DO NOT RINSE!

And if you don’t want to keep liquid bleach around the house, there are such things as bleach tablets with a longer expiration of efficacy. For the tablets I linked, each tablet is worth 1/2 cup of the liquid bleach of my choice.