Essentials for My 6 Month Old Baby
Now that our third child is getting older I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out what a 6 month old needs! There are so many baby items on the market, sometimes it’s overwhelming trying to figure out what you really need. With three kids in our house, I’m on a mission to declutter and only buy the essentials. So in this post I’m sharing my favorite essential items for a 6 month old baby.
To make it easier I’ve broken this down into categories: eat, sleep, play.
This post contains affiliate links.
EAT!
Around 6 months old, babies start to eat solid food in addition to breastmilk or formula. We’ve always used a mix of homemade and store bought baby food. When life is crazy, it’s nice to have something easy on hand. Though I like to make baby food for our kids, I don’t want to spend hours doing so.
WHAT TO BUY: The Baby Food Feeder and the Mash & Serve Bowl are the two essentials for eating. If I’m cutting strawberries up for our older kids, I take a few and mash them up with this tool. A perfect baby lunch! Use the Mash & Serve Bowl to mash up any soft food like banana, avocado, baked sweet potato, etc.
To store leftover food, we used glass storage containers or these silicone food trays.
With the food feeder you can add frozen or fresh avocado, banana, sweet potato, etc. I froze breastmilk with the other foods and placed it in the feeder. All our kids held it themselves and chomped on it for at least 20 minutes. Perfect at dinner time or for a teething baby.
Other essentials for eating include: a highchair, baby spoons, bibs (we love these!),
PLAY!
Babies learn how to sit up and engage in “play” around this age. Six months is the perfect time to introduce stimulating toys.
For whatever reason, all of our kids LOVED the crinkle sound. They also liked to bite rings or rattles and explore sound. So here are a few ideas for play at 6 months old:
#1 Sense: Our youngest loved this unicorn toy. It has areas she can chew, crinkle, rattle, etc. All of our kids also enjoyed these crinkle blocks. We’ve also used this sensory cube with all three kids. Stacking rings are another great toy to introduce, but your baby might not get the hang of it for a few months.
#2 Music: One of my favorite baby toys that grows with your child is the Hape Pound and Tap Bench. The Little Tikes Piano is another classic.
#3 Chew: Chew toys were essential for my son at this age. All our kids enjoyed wooden chew toys and these teething rings.
Finally, our kids always seemed to like household items better than toys! My daughter loved playing with a mixing bowl, bamboo spatula and whisk.
You may also want to consider baby gates or a baby play area. Our two older kids love to play with little LEGO sets, but with a baby rolling around the playroom it made me nervous. So we plan to use a baby play area so our youngest won’t get in too much trouble.
Sleep!
Sleep is so important for baby and parents. Here are our sleep essentials for 6 months old.
Sleepsacks: We dressed our babies in pajamas and then placed them in a sleep sack for bed. Here is a warmer sleepsack we used for winter (but technically you can use it year round). We use the HALO SleepSack for the summer because it is a lighter fabric.
Mesh Crib Liner: We used the breathable baby bumper when our daughter started to roll around in her crib. I didn’t want her to get her arms and legs caught between the slats. I think the media made me paranoid of regular bumpers so a mesh crib liner was the perfect solution!
Noise Maker or Fan: Sleep is essential in our house and with two kids we knew we needed some kind of white noise to help them during naps and nighttime. All of us have these amazing noise makers in our rooms. It’s a natural soothing sound. For our last baby we got the Hatch Sound Machine With Time to Rise. So far we really like that we can adjust the volume on the sound machine from our phones.
Video Monitor: When we first registered for our baby shower, I thought I don’t need a video monitor, that’s just a waste of money. Boy was I wrong! Our video monitor has been such a blessing to us and something I would definitely recommend to every parent. We still use it with our 4 year old.
Other:
If I had to pick one essential item for a new mom I would say a good baby carrier (we’ve used the Ergo baby carrier with all our kids). Especially with two older kids, I use this thing all the time so I have free hands. If the baby is fussy and I need to make dinner, I pop her in here. It’s a game changer.
You may already have these essentials, but things to consider for the future are a good sippy cup, a stroller, items for a sick baby (see a complete list here), a potty chair, portable high chair and shopping cart cover.
BONUS: Book Resources For Your 6 Month Old Baby
My doctor recommended reading as the #1 thing to do with our baby! Start as early as newborn.
Check out our most popular reading lists: 10 Interactive Children’s Books and Animal Sound Books
I love hearing from readers in our comments. Please feel free to share your favorite tips and advice!
Lastly, it’s important to remember that every child is different and what works for one child may not work for the other. I’m slowly learning to become more flexible, take bits of wisdom when I can, and trust my mommy instincts. I hope you find some of these posts on Heart of Deborah helpful.
What are your favorite 6 month old baby essentials?
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I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27
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Cute post! My little guy just turned 6 months! I have been meaning to get one of the Ikea toys. I have had my eye on it for the last few months. This may just motivate me to get over there 🙂 Come visit sometime I write about my little guy too ! http://www.pinkoatmeal.com
Thanks for stopping by. I will definitely check out your blog. Blessings!
Great ideas! Thank you 🙂 I will have to try some out with my 9 month old 🙂 Visiting for the first time from Wholehearted Wednesday!
http://www.kaylagarcia.blogspot.com
How cute is your little one? She’s beautiful! I miss my baby days (although it is nice to have children who can feed and clean up after themselves!) There are definitely more wonderful gadgets around now than 10 years ago. Thanks for sharing at Fridays Unfolded!
Alison
Nancherrow
She is adorable!! I love these ideas!!
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Love it! We ended up not using the mesh feeder, but could not (still can’t) live without the noise machine.
Love how you say your baby’s favorite toys are household items! So true! Right now, we are in the pulling out everything in drawers phase!
We LOVED those mesh food feeders when my little one was around that age!
I haven’t tried those food items yet, but they look great! We love the Tommy Tippee sippee cups for around 6 months old to start transitioning from a bottle.
I may have to try those! I nursed my son until 12 months and now he takes a bottle of whole milk. He is very resistant from drinking from any sipped cup or straw cup (if it contains milk). Thanks!
My daughter loved chew toys! She is one and still loves them. Great list!
Yes! Every baby is different. My daughter didn’t really use them, but my son puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.