Beach Baby Essentials

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Once summer hit when my daughter was about 6 months old, we were excited to get to the beach with her. After a summer of frequent beach trips, we’ve figured out how to effectively spend a day at the beach with exactly what we need, as we are usually walking from our house and don’t want to lug too much stuff. We did also spend time on the beach on Cape Cod, Nantucket and in New Hampshire so I’m throwing in a couple bonus items if you’re driving and/or have a few extra hands for carrying.

If we’re walking to the beach, we use our everyday stroller that has a big storage basket underneath to wheel most of our beach baby essentials. That fits our beach bag, Yeti cooler, and a few miscellaneous items like Yeti water bottles perfectly. Then we each carry a backpack beach chair filled with our towels and anything else that didn’t fit and one of us will push the stroller while the other carries the tent bag. I have also found it convenient to carry the baby in either our LilleBaby or Ergobaby Embrace (baby in front, beach chair backpack on back).

Within the first year of our kids’ lives, they didn’t need much at the beach. For context, both were within the 5-9 months during the summer months. We found we only needed a few small toys – and if this is the stage you’re in, you should embrace this because in the summers to come you’ll be lugging more! The list of beach baby essentials below is long, but a lot of it is small/compact and/or is part of our everyday gear that we already owned and used regularly.

And with that, here are our beach baby essentials:

Shop the Post:
Bright Starts Pop ‘n Jump / LilleBaby Carrier / ThinkBaby Sunscreen
Cold Teether Tower / RuffleButts Hat & Bathing Suit
Infantino Spoons / Sun Tent / Lands End Beach Bag
First Years Stacking Cups / Wet Bags / Beach Wagon

Baby Gear for the Beach

Sun Protecting Tents: We have two tent options that we use and love. They each come in a bag that’s easy and not bulky – ideal for carrying.

• California Beach Co.’s Pop N’ Go Playpen is our favorite for the first year. We were constantly stopped on the beach by other parents/grandparents asking about it when they saw our daughter snoozing or independently playing in it. It’s more of a playpen style with a door you can zip shut and a sun protectant hood that goes over the top. I love that it’s all mesh on the sides so it lets air flow through. And the canopy is removable so you can take it off and just use it as a way to contain your child once they are on the move. I have a friend who uses hers inside when it’s not beach weather. You can buy their mattress for it or lay an oversized towel inside (mattress/sheet combo is much better if you have a crawler!). Similar styles are available from Summer and Baby Delight.

• L.L. Bean’s sun tent is a more traditional tent style but it’s easy to put together/take apart, has lots of room inside and is suitable for any stage of life so it will get plenty of use. I like the way the front is open, as it creates a good amount of shade even outside the tent itself, but isn’t fully enclosed. We also got a little mallet to hammer in the pegs. For a similar, less expensive option, this one on Amazon had been on my radar for a while and came highly recommended. We’ll use this style tent for years.

Stroller: As I mentioned above, we just use our everyday stroller when we’re walking from our house (once we get to the beach we carry it to our spot). One good thing about this stroller is that the bassinet attachment pops right out, so we’d put that right in the tent during the infant days. If we are traveling, we oftentimes rent a Bob Stroller from companies like BabyQuip, as they are great in the sand and have a decent storage basket. We were lucky with our daughter in that she loved a beach walk nap on wet sand… our son not so much!

Wagon: If we weren’t able to carry what we needed via a stroller or park close with a car, we’d use this collapsible wagon, which is pretty no frills, under $100 and folds up nicely for storing. For a wagon/stroller combo, my sister-in-law splurged on the Veer wagon when my nephew turned 18 months and had great things to say, especially when she had her second and they’d use it all over town in addition to the beach. We don’t have space to store one of these, but would love to try one out someday!

Baby Carrier: We used the Lille Baby All Seasons Carrier with our first and primarily the Ergobaby Embrace the second time around. When it comes to the beach, either work! It’s nice to be hands free while carrying the baby, and a carrier doesn’t take up much space in a beach bag or stroller. I know several friends who use a carrier to get their babies to nap on the beach too. Note, not all carriers are suitable for infants without an insert, but these ones are.

Activity Center for Baby: The Bright Starts Pop ‘n Jump activity center is perfect for entertaining the baby at the beach and it’s easy to store and carry the way it folds up and goes in a bag. We like that it has a shade attachment too. If our daughter had been born closer to summer, I had my eye on this Fisher-Price Baby Dome. With our second, we also used a bouncer right under a tent – worth it in those early months if you’re driving.

Bags, Toys, Sunscreen, and More

Beach Bags: I’m a big fan of Lands’ End beach bags as I find you can get a good sale and they have so many different styles you can personalize with names, colors, etc. They are less rigid than L.L.Bean’s canvas bag, so they fold flat and are easier to store. Large is great for a big beach bag and we like the medium for everyday use. The XL has also become our go-to for overnight trips (tip: use packing cubes within it, especially with two kids).

Diaper Bag Basics: I try to only bring what we really need. A wet pouch with diapers and wipes (and another empty wet bag for bathing suit, etc.), burp cloths (an extra goes in the cooler to wipe the baby down if it’s hot) and a bunch of toys that are easy to wash the sand off of like these stacking cups or this rattle. One of our tricks is to put a few of her cold teething toys in a ziplock and then in the cooler so they stay nice and chilled. Now that she’s eating solids and sitting up, I also throw in a pouch and this screw-on spoon that makes feeding on-the-go easy. And then we’ll either bring a bottle in the cooler or I’ll pack my favorite nursing cover (love how loose it is so it’s not too hot and claustrophobic). 

Sunscreen: We’ve tried so many clean, sensitive skin friendly sunscreens over the past 5+ years and have consistently been buying a few over the past year. I love Pipette mineral lotion for the body and this Babo Botanicals clear mineral stick for the face. With our babies, I typically applied a layer before heading out and then either kept in the shade or with a good hat on, reapplying as necessary.

Bathing Suits and Hats

Sun Protection Hats: We struck out on a few of the sun hats at first because for some reason the ones with velcro straps weren’t big enough. Sun hats from Ruffle Butts and Sunday Afternoon have ties or bungees and some also have added neck protection. Bitty Brah makes the best water-resistant baseball hats with drawstrings that come in infant, toddler and adult sizes – both of my kids kept them on from 6 months and up! While we still swear by them, they have gone up in price, so you can try a more affordable option here.

Bathing Suits: My big must-have for baby girl bathing suits is either two pieces or snaps for the diaper. And while that’s meant missing out on some very cute options, I’ll gladly skip the taking off a wet bathing suit on a squirmy baby every diaper change. My favorite places to buy from are babyGap, Ruffle Butts, Tea Collection and Hanna Andersson. For baby boys, I love RuggedButts swim shorties (size up) or chubbies because they are a bit shorter than most brands.

Other Beach Baby Essentials

Cooler & Drinks: We either squeeze our Yeti cooler into the stroller basket or have it in the car. We always bring our Yeti water bottles, usually Yeti tumblers, and whatever water bottle the baby (and big girl) uses at home.

Clip-On Umbrella: This umbrella is great if you have an infant who isn’t mobile yet. You can clip it onto anything – in this case a beach chair or the handle of whatever baby contraption you’re using – to create instant shade.