When Kurt Bjorkman, a pediatric cardiologist in Grand Rapids, Michigan, sat down with his wife, Sarah, an OB/GYN, to make their first baby registry, they had the same overwhelming feeling that parents without years of medical training and a deep understanding of children’s health typically face. “It was so easy to have decision fatigue and anxiety about if we were going to get all the right things,” Kurt recalls. But today he is a dad of three (ages newborn to 4), and between discussions with his patients and his own hands-on time at home, he has mastered the registry process. The small cadre of baby products he has both meet his and his wife’s exacting medical standards and suit their children’s various proclivities.
While speaking to him, I wished I’d had his input when I was building my own baby registry. I spent a lot of time picking out kitschy stuff (the “Grandpa Says I’m a Yankees Fan” onesie was a must) and stylish nursery furniture (I love Nurture&’s The Glider), but selected many of the more boring baby things (like pacifiers, bottles, and diaper cream) somewhat haphazardly and omitted other essentials entirely.
Over the past few weeks, I called many more pediatrician parents and quickly discovered an untapped resource for registry wisdom. Each advised approaching your baby registry with an overarching philosophy — one suggested thinking of the registry in the same categories that doctors focus on during well visits (nutrition, elimination, sleep, safety, and the social structure of the family), and another said to keep one question top of mind: What will make life easier for you?
