The layette

Your baby will grow so fast that many of the things you get for him now will be too small after a few weeks. Buy as little as you can at first. The stores will be open after he is born! Following is a minimum list of the clothing he will need for about the first six months:

Diapers——4-6 doz.

Shirts (long sleeves, short sleeves or no sleeves, according to the climate)——4

Nightgowns——4

Short kimonos——3

Sweaters——2

Waterproof pants——2

Receiving blankets or pieces of flannel about a yard square——4

Bunting or coat and cap——1

All of these things can be bought or made quite inexpensively. You will begin your collection, of course, by taking into consideration the climate where you live and the time of year your baby will be born.

Diapers should be soft, absorbent, light in weight and not bulky. Be sure to find out whether there is a commercial diaper service available to you that is within your means. It is a great relief to be able to send diapers out for laundering, especially if you do not happen to have a washing machine. You will not have to buy so many diapers if you use a service but even then it is important to have some of your own on hand. Disposable diapers are improving in quality everyday but are not recommended for constant use. They are not as formfitting as cloth ones and do not always hold the pins as well. For traveling, they are in many ways ideal.

Expectant mothers are usually advised to get infant sizes 1 and 2 for all of the first garments. A very small baby may be comfortable in a 6-months' size for several weeks. When you compare these sizes, you usually find that the only difference between them is the length.

Nightgowns should be long enough to cover the baby's feet. Some mothers like drawstrings around the bottom of the nighties but these are not essential. Never use them around the neck of any of the baby's garments; they might choke him. Nighties usually open down the back; kimonos and sweaters, down the front. All of these should have wide enough lapovers to make a good closing. Some mothers think that shirts with fold-over shoulders are more convenient. They go easily over a baby's head and do away with the bother of fastenings.

You can use a flannel square or a blanket to wrap your baby in when you take him outdoors but in cold weather many mothers prefer a bunting because of the hood.

Furniture

It is sometimes a problem for new families or rapidly growing families to decide where the baby should sleep. He will need a quiet place to himself, preferably in a room where he will not be disturbed by household traffic. If he is to sleep in your bedroom, perhaps you can arrange the furniture to give him a corner of his own. A wardrobe or bureau can sometimes be moved out to make a partition. Some parents use a sturdy, folding screen. Within a few weeks, you will want to have him sleep somewhere else so that all three of you may have more privacy.

Furniture for babies can be very simple. You and your husband can make most of it, if you are handy with tools and have the time. The first bed may be a strong basket or box, softly lined, or a bassinet. A basket with handles is convenient because you can pick it up and take the baby almost anywhere in it. A bassinet on wheels can save you many steps as you move it from place to place in the house but be careful of collapsible legs. Always be sure that a basket or box is sitting squarely on something strong and steady.

A word should be said here about the paint to be used on toys, baby furniture, and the walls and woodwork of the baby's room. Paints with more than 1 percent of lead in them are unsafe for children. Those intended for indoor use contain less than 1 percent of lead. Look closely at the label on every can of paint you buy. If it says "Manufactured for indoor use," or "Conforms to American Standard Z66.1—1955 for use on surfaces which might be chewed," you are all right. Most furniture and toys that have their original coatings are safe in this respect because manufactures are usually careful about the paints they use on anything intended for children.

After the first two or three months, your baby will need a crib, so you may prefer to have him sleep in one from the beginning. Choose one with bars close together so that he cannot get his head caught between them. It is not safe to take the baby into your own bed for sleeping.

A table for bathing, changing or dressing is almost indispensable. If your space is limited, you can put up a broad shelf that can be dropped against the wall when not in use. Whether you use a table or a shelf, the working surface should be at a height you can reach conveniently, without stretching or stooping.

You will need a chest or separate drawers for the baby's clothing and supplies. You will also need a rust-proof pail with a cover for holding diapers. Diaper services supply their own. You and the baby will both be more comfortable if you sit on a low chair with a footstool when you feed him.

Bedding

For the mattress in a bassinet or basket bed, use only a smooth, flat pad. This can be made at home out of a folded cotton blanket or quilted mattress protector. The baby will not need a pillow and is better without one.

A crib must have a firm mattress and a spring that does not sag. These must both fit snugly, so that a squirming infant will not be able to catch a hand or a foot between the mattress and the sides of the crib.

Here is a list of bedding you will need. You can make most of it, if you wish, by cutting up partly used household sheets and blankets.

Rubber or heavy-gauge plastic sheets big enough to tuck under on both sides of the crib mattress, if this is not plasticized——2

Pads about 18 inches square to put under the baby. These may be quilted cotton or a synthetic material——5 or 6

Crib-size sheets. The fitted knit ones are very convenient. A pillowcase makes a good sheet for a bassinet——4 to 6

Thin, crib-size blankets of wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber, depending on where you live and the time of year. Some mothers especially like the baby sleeping bags now on the market——2 or 3

Never use lightweight transparent plastic bags anywhere near the baby's bed. If this thin plastic gets over the baby's face, it can stop his breathing.

Bath supplies

To be able to bathe the baby conveniently, you will need the following supplies:

A plastic, or rubber bathtub, unless you intend to use the bowl in the bathroom or the kitchen sink.

Soft towels——2 to 4

Soft washcloths——3

Bath towels big enough to cover the bath table——2

Absorbent cotton, or cotton balls in a covered jar or can.

Rustproof safety pins.

Baby lotion or plain mineral oil; a small, flat dish to hold a day's supply of the latter.

Soap and a soap dish. (Any mild unmedicated soap will do.)

Fitted trays for bath supplies are nice but can be very expensive. Baby supplies usually come in bottles or jars, so you may not need to provide your own containers for such items as soap, cotton balls, oil, safety pins, etc. If for some reason you would rather set up a tray, this is easy to do. A flat enamel baking pan or oven tray with low sides will do to hold things. You probably have, in your own kitchen, screw-top jars of different sizes. These should be washed and boiled before you put anything for the baby in them, and frequently after that.

Feeding equipment

Until you know whether or not you are going to nurse your baby, do not lay in a large supply of bottles and nipples. Even if you breast feed him, however, you will need two or three nursing bottles with extra nipples for giving him his fruit juice and boiled water. You will probably need:

1. A sterilizer. If it works, properly, a secondhand one will do just as well as a new one.

If you want to improvise a sterilizer, you can use a covered kettle or deep saucepan large enough to hold a rack with 6 or 8 bottles in it. Nowadays most mothers make up the formula, pour it into the bottles and boil these for 25 minutes in the sterilizer or covered kettle. This is called "terminal sterilization." There are other methods but this is probably the most common.

2. Long handled forceps or tongs for lifting the bottles and nipples out of the sterilizer.

3. A covered jar for extra sterilized nipples.

4. A bottle warmer. You will keep the bottles of formula in the refrigerator, so you will need some way of warming each feeding as you use it.

Some mothers simply heat the bottle in a pan of water. Most drugstores have electric bottle warmers for sale, and some are quite inexpensive.

5. Equipment for fixing fruit juice. A measuring cup, a funnel, a spoon, and a shaker for the concentrated varieties.

Everything you use for the juice should be made of materials that can be sterilized.

Many doctors now prescribe ascorbic acid tablets for babies instead of orange juice. When orange juice is given, it is usually frozen or canned.

If you want fresh orange juice, you will need, in addition, a squeezer and a strainer.

Many young couples enjoy getting these things together. Nothing that you buy needs to be elaborate or expensive.

Marcus Siegel

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