When you first bring home your baby, items like comforters, quilts and pillows aren’t necessary.

These sets often come with a bumper too and you might have heard or read conflicting information on them. In the end it comes down to the choice that you make.

If you do decide that a bumper will protect your child, go with a thinner design. Thick, fluffy bumpers are much more of a suffocation hazard than these thinner ones.

The essential items for the first year of your baby’s life are sheets, a mattress, and maybe a crib skirt for a better look. You want to avoid fluffy or heavy items in the crib that could suffocate your baby.

If you want to make sure your baby is comfortably warm, consider getting an organic blanket for swaddling or an organic cotton sleep sac that also wraps up snugly around your baby and doesn’t present a suffocation hazard.

What will you do with that comforter or quilt that came with the bedding set? As many parents have found, they make a wonderful decorative piece in your nursery.

You can hang the quilt over a rack designed for it, or simply mount it on the wall.

It’s also a good idea to purchase a complete baby bedding set, if you are planning on using it throughout your child’s toddler years as well. It would be difficult finding the matching pieces at a later time.

On the other hand, if you want to keep it simple in the beginning and buy only the necessary bedding items, you can later freshen up the nursery design with a toddler bedding set.

Tags: Pregnancy and Child Birth