6 New Baby Products I'm Super-Excited About as a New Mom

This gorgeous foldable new bassinet from Maxi-Cosi almost made me wish my 6-month-old were 2 months old again (not that I long for his nightly witching hour). It has a ash wood base into which is fitted a rounded bassinet, and a removable unit has a nightlight and plays lullabies. 

Why it’s so cool: The bassinet has Maxi-Cosi’s new AI technology, Cry Assist, which according to Maxi-Cosi “translates” a baby’s cries and informs parents why their baby is crying. The Sibia gently vibrates to soothe baby and comes with an audio monitor. It comes with a six-month subscription to CryAssist.

The Maxi-Cosi Sibia is part of the Kindred Collection, which includes the swiveling Tana 360 stroller (I’m obsessed), the See Pro Baby monitor (more on this below), the Kiskadee high chair (it rotates and reclines), the Peri 180 rotating car seat, and the more advanced Starling bassinet. 

The Sibia bassinet will be available in late summer.

On paper, the Evenflo Shyft Dual Ride car seat stroller doesn’t sound like much. Infant travel system, comparable with the Doona, yadda yadda. But in action it’s quite impressive. 

Why it’s cool: Lift the car seat out of the base and, with a click of a button, stroller wheels pop out and into position, quickly transforming an infant car seat into a fully functional infant stroller. Just as quickly, the wheels fold in and the car seat fits back into the base; the car seat can also be taken out of the base easily without the wheels. I let out an audible “wow” when this was demonstrated to me, and though my son is now getting too big for me to invest in another infant seat, I would have considered this one if I’d seen that display before I took him home from the hospital. 

Possible downside: At 28 pounds, the Shyft Dual Ride is pretty heavy. And the wheels need to be attached to the base if you want to carry just the infant carrier.

This $549 car seat is approved for babies from 3 pounds to 35 pounds, and it’s available now. We tested it recently, and it’s CR Recommended; you can check out our test results for its performance both as a car seat and a stroller. 

Stroller wagons are the future of double strollers—as one representative at the Expo told me, they’re much more fun for kids to ride in, especially those who think they’re too big and grown-up for a stroller. But for those of us who live in small houses, a gigantic stroller wagon is a tougher sell. Enter the all-terrain Evenflo Pivot Xplore Dreamz, which is an updated version of the brand’s compact Pivot Xplore wagon.

Why it’s so cool: As evident by the name, the Dreamz converts into a bassinet, allowing older babies and toddlers to get some shut-eye while parents are at the beach, the farmer’s market, or the tailgater. Two kids up to 55 pounds each fit into the wagon, while the bassinet insert has a 33-pound limit, which would allow the typical 3-year-old to snuggle comfortably while away from home.

A minor drawback: Though the wagon allows for a car seat, you’ll have to purchase an adapter separately, and your options are limited to the Evenflo LiteMax, SafeMax, or Gold SecureMax infant car seats. 

This stroller wagon is $399 and is available now.

Bottle refusal was a beast for my family—it made sending my baby to daycare even more stressful than it would have been otherwise, which was stressful enough—and I wonder, though I can’t say for sure, whether having a bottle nipple that resembled my nipple may have eased the transition. 

Why it’s so cool: The Emulait bottle has five premade nipple shapes to approximate the form of the mother’s nipple; if you want to get more precise, the Emulait app will scan your breast and match a bottle nipple to one that most closely looks like yours. 

It doesn’t just look like the real thing, though—it actually feels like it, too. Fibers add texture that feels like milk ducts, and while most bottle nipples stay firmly the same shape while the baby feeds, Emulait nipples stretch while the baby eats.

The downside here is price. At $30 a pop, these bottles aren’t accessible to everyone. 

The Emulait bottles are available now. 

Like the Maxi-Cosi bassinets, the See Pro Baby Monitor uses artificial intelligence to decipher your baby’s crying and help you understand what they need. (Are they gassy? Hungry? Tired?) In the early days of my son’s life, I struggled to understand the difference between his wails; if I’d had the assistance of an AI, perhaps I would have been able to respond more quickly and save myself a bit of grief and time. 

Why it’s so cool: We haven’t tried this AI here at Consumer Reports, so we can’t say how accurate or actually useful it is. But it’s an intriguing idea, and when you’re tired, it’s 3 a.m., and you’ve been trying for an hour to soothe your sobbing baby, any little bit of help counts. Even better: Unlike many popular baby monitors, which rely exclusively on video transmitted to a smartphone, the See Pro has its own external screen, so you can watch your baby on one screen while scrolling Reddit with the other (just me?). It also plays lullabies and comes with a temperature and humidity sensor, so you can tell whether your baby’s room is getting stuffy. 

Downside: If you want the Cry Assist technology, you’ll have to pay for a subscription (though six months are included when you purchase the monitor). You can, however, use other features without Cry Assist. 

The See Pro Baby Monitor is $250 and available now.

Romer is a new baby gear brand that caught my eye very quickly when I entered the Expo, despite its slightly tucked-away location on the expo floor. The stroller seat is ultra-plush looking, and much of it, as I learned, is made from what the brand calls “Seawool”—oyster shells that have been recycled and spun into a merino wool-like fabric. It’s also machine-washable and free of flame retardants.

Why it’s cool: The appeal of this stroller is, I admit, mostly aesthetic, or at least, it doesn’t have a ton of super-flashy features other than being particularly lovely to look at. And that’s fine—provided it’s sturdy and functional, there’s nothing wrong with a beautiful stroller, especially because you have to use it, and look at it, every day for years to come. But this nice-looking stroller does appear to be solidly functional, too, with big, all-terrain tires (necessary in my neck of the urban woods, where sidewalks make every foray outside feel like off-roading), a sizable canopy with a magnetic closure, and a 20-pound basket weight limit. It’s compatible with several infant car seats, including the new Romer Juni, the Nuna Pipa, and the Britax Willow.

The Romer Tura stroller will cost $750 and will be available in early summer, along with infant and convertible car seats and a bassinet stroller attachment. 

Corrections: This article, originally published May 21, 2024, was updated on May 22, 2024, to add that the Romer Tura stroller is compatible with other infant car seats besides the Juni, including models from Britax, Cybex, and Nuna.

It was updated again on May 23, 2024, to correct the weight of EvenFlo Shyft DualRide, which weighs 28 pounds, not 35 pounds.