When you become a parent, you’re flung into a new universe of feeding schedules, lack of sleep, and a sudden need to find the best baby gear for a tiny person you haven’t met yet. If you’re feeling overwhelmed about all the accessories and must-haves there are as a parent, this guide is here to help.
Here at WIRED Reviews we test everything from speakers and fitness trackers to digital notebooks to vacuums and so much more, and many of our writers are parents who have tried all kinds of baby gear and parenting accessories to find the best of the best. From high-tech baby monitors to smart bassinets, this is everything our parent testers have loved.
Looking for more parenting gear? Check out our guides to the Best Bottle Washers, Best Strollers, Best Breast Pumps, and Best Baby Monitors. We’ve also got guides to the best gifts for new parents and the best gifts for babies and toddlers.
Table of ContentsLargeChevron
- Our Favorite Baby Monitors
- Our Favorite Sound Machines
- Our Favorite Smart Bassinets
- Our Favorite Strollers
- Our Favorite Car Seats
- Our Favorite Wearable Breast Pumps
- Our Favorite Baby Bottle Washers
- Our Favorite Crib Mattresses, Toddler Mattresses, and Pillows
- Our Favorite Other Accessories
Our Favorite Baby Monitors
One of the major gadgets that nearly every parent will use at some point is a baby monitor. Baby monitors will keep an eye on Baby for you, and more advanced ones can send alerts or even track vitals for you all night long. We test all of our baby monitors for several weeks at home with our own children to see how well they work, from quality of the video stream and audio to how well the alerts and Wi-Fi connectivity hold up after setup. These are the ones we recommend the most.
Our Favorite Sound Machines
Sound machines (also called white noise machines) are great for babies and little ones to replicate the noisy womb they recently left, and to keep outside noise from jarring them awake. Sleep is precious for parents and children alike, especially in the early baby days. We’ve tested these sound machines with our kiddos to make sure they really do soothe our children all night long.
Our Favorite Smart Bassinets
Bassinets, especially smart ones, can feel like a big splurge, but they can be an incredible improvement for some babies to sleep better. A good bassinet is also handy if you want Baby in your room but don’t have space for a full-on crib, and as someone who skipped the bassinet for her first kid, I regretted it; it’s much easier to reach into a low bassinet for your baby than a crib big enough for a toddler. Bassinets might only last you a couple months based on how big a baby gets, but it can really make those early months a breeze.
★ On our testing list: The Elvie Rise ($800) promises to be both a smart bouncer and bassinet, letting you bounce baby to sleep and then seamlessly transition them to flat bassinet mode.
Our Favorite Strollers
I started with a crappy stroller—don’t make the same mistake. Get yourself a good-quality stroller, because you’ll be using it constantly. My kid is 3½, and our favorite stroller still goes everywhere that involves more than a few blocks of walking, because you never know when your kid will want to call it quits (and you can use it for all their snacks and backup outfits). From strollers that can handle multiple kids to my favorite travel stroller and wagon, these are the best strollers our team has ever tried. We’ve tested these strollers for at least a week with our children, if not several months, and used them on a variety of terrain.
Our Favorite Car Seats
If you only buy one thing for your baby, it needs to be a car seat. You’ll need one to get yourself and your little one home from the hospital. (You’ll also need a safe, flat place for Baby to sleep, so you really need to buy two things for your baby if nothing else, but the car seat you’ll need ahead of time!) Here are the car seats I’ve loved most in my 3½ years of wrestling my child into infant and convertible car seats.
Our Favorite Wearable Breast Pumps
If you or your partner is breastfeeding, you likely want a breast pump. I used the classic Spectra for a while, but switching to a wearable breast pump was a game-changer when it came to comfort while pumping. After trying multiple models, these four are my favorites from my breastfeeding days.
Our Favorite Baby Bottle Washers
Whether your baby is drinking breast milk or formula, you’re going to be dealing with bottles. The worst part of this is how often each one has to be cleaned, since you don’t want your little one to get sick from expired residual milk. There are a lot of nooks and crannies involved in cleaning these, and a bottle washer speeds up the process immensely and promises a true sanitization, something I could never really guarantee when sleepily hand-washing. We’ve tested a few of these devices (there aren’t a ton yet, as it’s a newer category) for at least a month to see how well they really clean, and these are our favorites.
Our Favorite Crib Mattresses, Toddler Mattresses, and Pillows
As I mentioned above, if you only buy two things for your kid, make it a car seat and a safe place to sleep. Namely, a great mattress, likely along with a great crib. Here are the mattresses my kid has loved most for his early years of life, all slept on for anywhere between a week to a few months.
Our Favorite Other Accessories
Here are a few other gadgets our parents have loved using for the early days of parenthood.
Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.
The post Best Baby Gear (2026): Baby Monitors, Strollers, Crib Mattresses appeared first on Wired.
