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How to Choose the Best Baby Bibs

Bibs are one of the most essential baby items. It serves many important purposes like cleaning the drool from the early baby days and protecting the infant’s outfit from the unavoidable mess of trying its first foods. Any parent would certainly need a number of bibs to make the early months of the baby easy and convenient.

While selecting the right bibs for your baby, it is important to consider factors like the age of the child, the primary purpose of the bib, ease of cleaning and portability. For most parents, a collection of different types of bibs works right for various situations and the increasing age of the baby.

This article reviews some of the best baby bibs made for various uses to create a nice starting point for your collection of bibs.

The Different Types of Baby Bibs

There are three major types of baby bibs available in the market to choose from and each of them comes with variations depending on individual requirements:

Drool Bibs

Designed to be put on during maximum time of the day, Drool Bibs protect the baby’s clothes from getting wet out of drooling. These bibs are good for teething children and even suitable for catching spit-ups and milk dribbles of newborns.

This type of bibs is comparatively smaller in size than other types of bibs and is constructed using soft material. Small size means the baby can easily move around or crawl without the fear of the bib hindering its movement or catching anything.

Feeding Bibs

This type of bibs is designed for feeding and is larger in size than drool bibs as they need to protect the clothes to the maximum. Feeding Bibs are made using plastic or fabric, optionally with a waterproof backing. You can also find feeding bibs with pocket to catch food pieces. These bibs are suitable for meal times.

Cotton Bibs

The most classic version of bibs is the Cotton Bibs, best to be used from the time of birth to up to four or five months of age. Cotton Bibs are quite smaller in size, delicate and soft and made to cater the limited requirements of tiny infants.

Cotton Bibs come in a wide variety of colors. Select from pink or blue or from a huge selection of attractive colors to match your baby’s outfits.

A popular type of cotton bib, specifically suitable for newborns and toddlers, is the ‘Bandana’. This bib substitutes the classic bib version. Such bibs are designed to look stylish and add a cute touch to the babies’ look.

Talking about the cotton bibs, though the choice of colors is quite impressive, we suggest using white bibs for infants and switching to colored ones only after the first few months of age. It is easy to wash white bibs at high temperature. While choosing colored bibs, don’t forget to check that they use non-toxic pigments and are child-safe.

Silicone Bibs

Once the baby starts eating by itself, generally around nine months of age, it is the right time to get a waterproof bib to keep the baby’s clothes protected from stains. Though these bibs are probably the latest invention, they have won the hearts of a large number of babies and moms.

Silicone Bibs are greatly beautiful, practical and colorful. This type of bibs also comes in a creased design to be able to catch food. All the models of silicone bibs are quite easy to clean.

Silicone Bibs come with a huge number of other benefits as well. Some of the really impressive advantages include the durability and ease of cleaning. Most of these bibs are dishwasher safe and it is possible to use them for the next meal just by wiping them with a damp cloth.

Silicone Bibs have some disadvantages too. The first problem is that it can be difficult at times to fit this type of bibs into an already-filled diaper bag. The other thing is that they can be used only after a specific age as the semi-rigid construction does not suit a little one.

What to look for when comparing baby bibs

Ease of cleaning

One of the most neglected features of baby bibs is the ease of cleaning. Bibs are made to catch whatever the baby can throw. Without any buts or ifs, it is a fact that the bib would get dirty and require cleaning.

Comfort

Baby bibs which are not so comfortable can convert feeding times into a hassle for the baby and the parent. Hence, it is really important to consider the comfort of a bib when choosing one.

Baby bibs made out of soft material should be used for newborn infants. Once the baby grows up to begin weaning, it is suitable to switch to a silicone or plastic bib. However, you should ensure that the bib is not very tight and that it does not rub against the baby’s skin.

Portability

Those who intend or require carrying the bib to different places should consider selecting one which is easy to roll or fold and that fits conveniently into a diaper bag.

When To Stop Using Baby Bibs?

An obvious question of every mom is when to stop the use of baby bibs. Considering the healthy development of baby, there is no harm in using the bibs even at the age of three years. However, educational and social requirements suggest that it is good to stop using the bibs once the child starts going to kindergarten.

When the baby reaches this age, it should have already achieved a nice precision of movements and a good co-ordination capability and should have learnt using cutlery without spoiling the clothes.

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