// WIRED US/UK — MOBILE & WEB
Best Gifts for Parents (and Their Babies): Bottle Washers, Prepared Meals, and More
%20092026%20top%20art%20SOURCE.jpg)
Parenting is exhausting. If there's a new parent in your life, whether it's your friend who is the new parent of the group or a family member who just had a baby, there are a lot of ways to show some love. Showing up, checking in on how they're surviving, and bringing something that can improve their life are all great ways to support the new parents in your circle.
There's a lot of parenting and baby gear out there, and not all of it is created equal. Not all of it will suit what the parents in your life might need, either. This guide is organized into a handful of different categories of parenting gadgets, smart home gear, little luxuries, and even food deliveries you can send to their door. All of these are tried and tested by WIRED's reviewers (many of whom are parents) and can confirm the difference it's made in their lives.
Looking for more baby gear or gift ideas? Don't miss our gifts for moms and dads, or our guide to all the best baby gear.
It's easy to remember to register for things like the car seat and baby clothes. But there are a lot of small gadgets that make parenting a little easier, things that new parents don't realize they might love using. Here's some of our favorites from the parents here at WIRED.
Baby nails are sharp, but it's also easy to clip their tiny nails too far. The solution? An electric nail trimmer. No more scratches on mom and dad or baby's new, beautiful face. Plus it can be less scary for parents than wielding traditional nail clippers near baby's tiny fingers.
This was a gift from a friend that wasn't actually on my registry, but I used it more than so many things I did register for. Pacifiers fall all the time, and get grimy instantly. I kept this portable UV sterilizer hooked to my diaper bag, and loved popping a pacifier in after drops (after wiping it down with a wet wipe first).
The Hatch is my most-used item in the last four years. It was easy to set up on the fly when I came home from the hospital, and I love that I can set up a few scenes in the app to flip through depending on whether I was nursing at three a.m. or putting my son to sleep. The Hatch Baby is now in his room and keeps him asleep each night with its music, while I have the Hatch Restore for myself.
Everyone on TikTok might talk about the MomCozy washer, but the best baby bottle washer WIRED reviewer Nicole Kinning found actually comes from Grownsy. It's quiet, has a deep interior cavity to hold tons of bottle and pump parts, and has multiple modes and combinations you can customize for the perfect cleaning session. It circulates HEPA-filtered air to keep bottles sterile after washing.
Early parenting is survival, and bandwidth to go to the grocery store or cook becomes a hard zero. There's a reason friends and family often run food trains for new parents. The following food gifts would be a great option to contribute to a food train, and being shippable packages means you can send it to a friend or family member you may live too far from to visit often.
WIRED reviewer Matthew Korfhage has tried all kinds of prepared meals, and he says the best one is CookUnity. It's a ready-to-eat meal delivery service that calls itself a “chef collective”, with regional menus led by regional chiefs. Put together a week of meals to send them, or snag them a gift card so they can choose their own.