A guide for parents
What do you actually need for a second baby?
Almost nothing, it turns out. Here's the short list, what to check on what you've already got, and the mattress advice everyone repeats slightly wrong.
What's in here
- The short list
- The mattress question, properly
- Car seats, where the advice differs
- What to check on everything else
- The clothes problem nobody warns you about
Second time round, everyone will still try to sell you a nursery's worth of things. You have most of it already, in a cupboard, from four years ago.
Here's the honest version.
The short list
| Buy | Why |
|---|---|
| Clothes for the right season | The biggest one, and the section below explains why |
| Teats, dummies, anything soft that's perished | Silicone degrades. These are cheap and worth replacing. |
| A second car seat, if the first is still in use | Only if your eldest hasn't outgrown theirs |
| A mattress, if yours came from another home | See below. If it's your own, probably not. |
| A double buggy, if you need one | Secondhand is fine and they hold up well |
That's genuinely it. Everything else you own already, and most of it will be fine.
The mattress question, properly
Everyone says buy a new mattress for every baby. That is roughly what the Lullaby Trust advises, but the detail underneath it matters and almost nobody repeats it.
From another home. That's the bit that gets dropped. The evidence is about a mattress arriving from somewhere else, not about using your own again for your own second baby.
Their guidance for reusing your own is a set of checks rather than a no: make sure it's still firm and flat, with no tears or holes and no sagging, clean the waterproof layer thoroughly, and make sure it's completely dry before you make it up.
Your own mattress
Kept in your house, protected by a waterproof cover, still firm and flat with no tears or sagging.
Check it over, clean it properly, and it's reasonable to reuse.
A mattress from someone else
This is the one the evidence is actually about, and you can't know how it was stored or what happened on it.
Buy new. It's the one item on this page genuinely worth the money.
They're also clear that a new one for each baby is safest where possible, so this is a judgement rather than a green light. But it's a different judgement from the one most people think they're making.
Car seats, where the advice differs
Worth knowing that the two organisations parents trust most don't quite agree here.
NCT says a car seat from your eldest, never used outside your family, is fine to reuse. The risk with secondhand seats is that a crash can leave damage you can't see, and that doesn't apply to one you've owned throughout.
The Lullaby Trust goes further, saying that even where you know the seat's history, wear and tear over time can affect safety, so it's still best to buy new.
Either way, replace it if it's been in any accident, if it's more than about ten years old, if anything is broken or missing, or if it's been stored somewhere damp and has gone mouldy. And check the expiry date, which most people don't know exists.
What to check on everything else
Most of it will be fine. It's worth ten minutes with the box.
| Item | What to look at |
|---|---|
| Anything with elastic | Perishes in storage. Sleeping bags, fitted sheets, waistbands. |
| Cot and crib frames | All the fixings present, nothing wobbly, no recall on the model |
| Prams and carriers | Brakes, clips and straps. Fabric can be washed. |
| Bottles | Fine to reuse. The teats are not. |
| Anything stored in a loft | Damp and mould, which is the real risk with stored things |
Mould is the thing to look for rather than wear. A worn pram is a worn pram; a mouldy one can't be cleaned well enough to be worth keeping.
The clothes problem nobody warns you about
You kept everything. Two big boxes of it. And then the second baby arrives and half of it is no use at all.
It's the seasons. Your first was born in October, so all their 0-3 month clothes are thick and fleecy. Your second is due in April, so they'll be in 0-3 months through May. Everything you carefully stored is the wrong weather.
It catches nearly everyone, and it's why what to store and what to pass on matters more than storing the lot.
And the rest may not have survived. Milk residue and body oils that were invisible when you packed them oxidise into yellow-brown marks over a couple of years in a warm loft. Anything that wasn't washed properly first will have gone.
So the honest advice is to open the boxes now rather than at 38 weeks, and see what you've actually got.
I'd kept absolutely everything and then realised the second was due in a completely different season to the first. Two boxes of winter babygros and a baby arriving in May.
🌱 Which is the one thing a swap sorts out
Clothes are the only thing on this list you genuinely need again, and they're the thing you already have two boxes of. Just in the wrong sizes and the wrong season.
Swapaboo is a clothes swap. You photograph what you've got and won't use, we check and value each piece, and it becomes credits you spend on what you actually need for the season your second baby arrives in.
The clothes cost nothing. You just pay to have them moved.
We're opening a few families at a time and it's invitation only just now.
Common questions
What do you need to buy for a second baby?
Very little. Clothes for the right season, replacement teats and dummies, a second car seat if your eldest still needs theirs, a double buggy if you need one, and a new mattress if the one you have came from another household. Almost everything else can be reused after a check.
Do you need a new mattress for a second baby?
Not necessarily. The Lullaby Trust's evidence concerns bringing in a mattress from another home, which they say might very slightly increase the risk of sudden infant death. For reusing your own, they give checks rather than a prohibition: it should still be firm and flat with no tears, holes or sagging, and the waterproof layer should be cleaned thoroughly and dried. They also state a new mattress for each baby is safest where possible.
Can you reuse a car seat for a second baby?
Guidance differs. NCT says a seat from your own eldest, never used outside the family, is fine to reuse. The Lullaby Trust advises buying new even when the history is known, because wear over time can affect safety. Either way, replace any seat that has been in an accident, is over about ten years old, has missing or broken parts, or has been stored somewhere damp.
What baby items should you replace rather than reuse?
Teats, dummies and soft silicone parts, which degrade over time. Any car seat that has been in an accident or is past its expiry date. Anything with perished elastic. And anything that has gone mouldy in storage, since mould cannot be cleaned out reliably.
Why don't the clothes from my first baby work for my second?
Usually because of the seasons. A baby born in October wears 0-3 months in winter, while one born in April wears the same size in spring, so the stored clothes are the wrong weight. Stored clothes can also yellow over time if any milk or body oil residue was left in the fabric when they were packed away.