What To Buy Your Friend For Her Baby Shower (And What To Avoid)

Baby shower gifts can be a little tricky. Do you ask the mum what she needs? Do you get something practical? Do you get something cute that will make the circle of women watching the present opening process go “Awwwwww!”?

If you’ve ever had to go to a friend’s baby shower the chances are that you went into the kids section of a High Street store you frequent (H&M and Zara I’m looking at you) and bought a really cute outfit in size “Newborn” and called it a day. I mean that’s the easy option isn’t it. But ask any mum her favourite baby shower gifts and the cute newborn outfit will not be a winner. I mean it’s a crowd-pleaser for sure, but thinking of me and my mum friends, I know our favourite gifts were the ones we found really useful or maybe didn’t even know we needed at the time.

So being the resident expert on all things mum life, I thought I’d put together a list of the very best gifts you can buy your pal for her baby shower. Hope she likes them.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means you don’t pay any extra but I may earn a small commission from any purchases. Don’t worry, I only recommend products I love, I wouldn’t play you like that.

The Best Baby Shower Gifts

Ask what she needs and get a joint gift

Ok let’s start with the most practical thing. Babies are hella expensive (check out this post of allllllll the baby stuff you need), so the new mama might prefer if she got things she actually really needs. This might be cheaper items that you could get on your own (at my shower I asked one friend to buy us the baby bath) or it could be something bigger that you could team up with a few friends and buy together. Y’know something really useful like a Sleepyhead or a fancy playmat.

A gift basket of baby toiletries

This is what I did for one of my besties who was expecting her first baby. I made her a gift basket of baby toiletries she didn’t know she needed. I’m not talking about bath toiletries, because actually newborns don’t really need any. It was more the kind of product you end up buying because a friend of a friend said it would help. Y’know like nasal drops and vapour oil for the newborn sniffles they all get.

In the gift basket you could also include calpol sachets (they’re amazing for chucking in the change bag), bepanthen or sudocrem (nappy rash cream), teething gel, infacol (colic relief drops), dummies, dummy lanyards (to clip them onto them), muslins (you can never have enough as a new mum) and maybe a room thermometer.

Baby clothes in bigger sizes

Ok, ok, you wanna buy something cute, I get it. Baby clothes shopping is very fun. But I would say just make sure you’re buying clothes in bigger sizes. Babies grow out of “Newborn” size oh-so quickly, and most of us end up not even using all of the clothes we’ve bought for them. I think this is quite well known so most people go for “0-3 months” size, but I would go even bigger like “3-6 months” or “6-9 months”. When you have a baby you end up with a surplus of clothes in the small sizes and none 6 months down the line. Which at that point can get quite pricey when you’re on maternity pay.

Nappies in bigger sizes

Another classic baby shower gift is nappies and wipes, which are of course appreciated (you go through a lot of them). But again, rather than going for the newborn size, go for sizes 2 or 3. It’s always good to have the next size up of nappies ready in the house. Don’t worry about brands, every mum needs to try a few out first before they decide which ones they like anyway.

Pram accessories

Normally by the time the baby shower rolls around, the mum-to-be has either bought her pram or knows exactly which one she’s getting. It’s one of the big purchases you make when you’re pregnant after all. But the thing you never think about at the time is all the accessories that go with the pram. Of course it depends on the pram, but a few accessories that I loved (that went with my Bugaboo Bee) were the coffee cup holder, the rain cover, the summer parasol, and winter foot muff. Of course that’s what I used for my particular brand of buggy, so make sure you check compatibility.

Oh and also, one of my friends bought me the Wallaboo blanket/liner for the bassinet and it was so amazing for having a winter baby. Definitely recommend.

Teething Toys

No-one really thinks about teething when expecting a baby. But the truth is once they’re 2 months old you already start buying a million different teething toys to help the little pickles feel better. So I think a great shout for a baby shower would be a couple of teething toys. The classics are Sophie the giraffe (called Colin in my house), the matchstick monkey and icy keys (you put them in the freezer so they’re extra cold).

Gifts for the mum!

The point of a baby shower is to give gifts for the baby, for sure. But sometimes I think it’s quite nice to get something for the mum. Pregnancy is hard enough. A little something like some Lush bath bombs or a face mask or the Self-Care For New Mums book goes a long way.

Baby Shower Gifts To Avoid…

Baby clothes in newborn size

I’ve already touched on this, so you get what I’m saying. To put it in perspective, I had 10 outfits for my daughter in newborn size, which at the time I didn’t think was much. Mostly sleepsuits and a couple of little separates bought for me as gifts. She lasted 14 days in newborn size which meant she wore most of those items ONCE. It’s crazy. So I reiterate, buy bigger sizes!

Anything to do with feeding

I’ve given breastfeeding paraphernalia as baby shower gifts before, only because I knew they wanted to breastfeed. Items like breastfeeding covers and those heat packs you can get for BF mums. But the thing is, you don’t know if breastfeeding is going to work for you until you try it. (You can read about my feeding journey over here by the way.) By all means if your pal asks for it, get it, but I wouldn’t pre-empt it, it’s a tricky topic for lots of expecting/new mums.

Baby shoes

So cute. So impractical. The baby shoe industry must be getting by on baby shower gifts alone. Because no-one is putting shoes on their newborn baby. For starters they only wear sleepsuits for the first couple months which come with feet on them. And y’know, they’re obviously not walking, so have very little need for shoes. Plus, if you try to put them on them for a lovely little milestone photo, they will 100% kick them off by the time you’ve grabbed your camera…

That’s my list folks. Let me know what you think – are there any other baby shower gifts you recommend? Anything that was bought for you that was totally impractical?

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Total Blogger Transparancy: This post contains affiliate links which means you don’t pay any extra but I may earn a small commission from any purchases. I only recommend products I love, I wouldn’t play you like that.