Dr. Whitney: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Modern Mommy Doc Podcast. I am Dr. Whitney, your host, and today I'm here with Karen Reardenz, Director of Editorial and Brand for Baby List. Karen, welcome to the show.

Karen: Thank you. It's so nice to be here.

Dr. Whitney: So we are going to talk today about all things baby gear and find out what the must-haves really are that people need when they have young babies and children. But we're also gonna talk about supporting moms and dads and caregivers on their journey when they have little ones. And I know that Baby List is all about that, in addition to providing suggestions for things that people can buy or asked to be gifted or put on baby registries. So Karen, as we start out, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us about who you are, your journey toward being in this position, and what you do at Baby List.

Karen: So I come from a career of journalism. I worked at the San Francisco Chronicle in San Francisco for many years on the digital side. I learned a lot and have a deep love of providing people with service content. So I worked in the lifestyle departments, but still it was focused on things like, how do you spend your time? How do you spend your money? How do you really help people? And I loved it. And then I got kind of burnt out on the 24 hour news cycle. It's really exhausting. You're working really long hours. The media business is a tough business to be in from a financial standpoint. We had lots of layoffs. And at the same time, I'm also a mom. I think my daughter was about six when I moved positions.

I was commuting into the city and it was just a lot. So I started asking myself, where else can I go? What can I do? Because I'd been doing it for a long time. I started bouncing around to a few different marketing roles that were more general marketing roles and just wasn't quite the thing for me. And I really missed that sort of service aspect of really helping people with content. And I found Baby List and it was a really perfect spot to sort of reset. It's a brand, but it's a brand that really has a deep respect for content, for service journalism, and for really helping people. And so it was really exciting. It was a very, very small team at Baby List at the time, but an even smaller content team.

And we were really able to sort of build what that looked like and the brand voice and our mission. And that's really to create content to help people. Obviously it has business objectives. But at the end of the day, it's really helping serve this audience of new and expecting parents who really need guidance. And there's a lot of content out there. Some of it is noisy and just trying to get you to buy things. Some of it is a very strong point of view that might be trying to make you feel bad about yourself or your decisions. And so we really wanted to put forward medically accurate, medical-based content product guidance that is really about you and your decisions and arming you with the facts and things that you need to know. And then you can make the decision that's right for your family. Whether it's a decision on to how to feed your baby or whether it's what stroller to buy.

Dr. Whitney: I can totally appreciate what you're talking about in terms of career shifts or changes for myself. That's how I feel about my job as a physician. There's just this rigmarole of procedures over and over and over again. Of course, illnesses never stop. People never stop growing up and needing care. And so you just feel things repeating over and over and over. And when I found Modern Mommy Doc, I was so excited because I'm getting to actually dive a little deeper and feel like I do deep work every single day. That really matters. So I still love seeing patients, but this part of my life just feeds me so much. So I can appreciate as you moved over to Baby List, wanting to be in that space where you can say, hold on, let's just pause for a second and think about what would be really useful to people--as opposed to what do they need to know right now?

Karen: Or chasing page views or writing about a Kardashian, which, love them, but it's a lot.

Dr. Whitney: Yes, absolutely. The other piece that I'm so interested in knowing about is you talked about making Baby List recommendations, making sure that they're medically accurate, making sure that they're actually gonna be helpful for people, so people don't end up spending their money or getting gifts that actually are gonna be harmful to a baby or that won't actually work. What's the process you all go through to make sure that happens? Is there a research process? Because there's lots of stuff on the internet. People could find a list of things to buy anywhere and everywhere.

Karen: Yes, totally. So from a gear and product perspective, we have a team of editors. Our gear editor is amazing. She's a mom of two. She always says," My husband's getting a little upset because the garage is filled with strollers and car seats." So she's constantly getting new products to test, really testing them out, giving them to friends, different lifestyles, and different kinds of families. And then does a lot of research and does user reviews. We also do user surveys of our own audience annually to get their feedback on what their favorite products are and why. So we're taking in all of this different data. Then we have data of what people are registering for, what people are buying, what is on registries. And so we kind of take all of that and then make our product recommendations.

Something like car seats, strollers, baby monitors, carriers, these heavier decision items, we do a lot more research on. Baby clothes are maybe a lower lift because, sure, we want cute stuff and as long as they're safe, that's all that matters and they're regulated. So, that's kind of our process for gear guides and product guides. 

And then from more of our health and wellness content, we talk to doctors, we talk to experts and we include that in there. We cite medical research within the articles so we can try to give a balanced point of view. We're not saying if you do X, you're a terrible parent, but here are the pros and cons of these different things. And now you're armed with the information to either go talk to your doctor or your healthcare provider or to make the decision yourself.

Dr. Whitney: That really matters, because I'm always torn. I love that we are living in a world where everybody gets to have an opinion, where people can be self-advocates, and that people can make choices. I hate the idea of paternalistic medicine. I think we did a lot of harm to people with that. And at the same time, I think sometimes what gets lost when it's a free for all on the internet is that there's no standard by which to judge a product, to judge gear, to judge something medically. So I love the idea of you all putting out content that says there might be some cons you need to consider. Or here are the pros you can consider. And then yes, please, please, please come talk with us at your doctor's office, at the pediatrician's office. The American Academy of Pediatrics puts out a lot of information about recalls to us, so we hear about that first. We also hear about when they say policy changes, where they don't want people using certain types of gear. The Rock-and-Play was a good example of that. For a while everybody was using Rock-and-Play. I used Rock-and-Play with my kids. And then we had to tell everybody really quickly, do not do that, because at this point, The American Academy has said, please don't.

Karen: I think the sleep space is really so confusing for parents because it's such a visceral time. You have this new baby, no one's sleeping, no one understands one another. You're like, I have this baby, I don't know what to do. If you gave birth, you just went through this very large life change and physical experience. You're exhausted, you're hormonal, and you're really desperate. You just want your baby to sleep. There are all these products on the market like the Rock-and-Play that people think are going to be the magic bullet. But then there are these safety issues. And I think we see that a lot with some of the recalls or the safety guidance coming out now that makes it very confusing for parents.

Is it okay for my baby to sleep in the car seat? What if they fall asleep? All of these things I think are very confusing to a new parent. And then they're thinking, how do I weigh that I really need to get some sleep versus the baby's safety. And we take that seriously, so we have safe sleep guidelines within our own organization, but at the same time, we know the baby's gonna fall asleep on you or the baby's gonna fall asleep in the car seat. We wanna be able to present that information to people where we can say, here are the guidelines if this happens. Wake up, move them to the bassinet or the crib. You don't wanna make people feel judged or guilty for things that they do, but you really wanna arm them with the decision making and feel empowered to make the decisions for themselves.

Dr. Whitney: Yeah, for sure. You know, one thing that I always remind parents is it was not evolutionarily the way that it is now, thousands and thousands of years ago, right? Even hundreds of years ago, we all slept with our babies. We slept in like a hut in one room together and there were children that died in that situation. So we don't recommend that, but everybody slept a lot better. And we didn't have the same decisions that we have to make now, back then when everyone was sleeping in that really cozy way. So it makes sense that sleep is difficult as our bodies are evolutionarily wired to be connected to our babies 24/7, basically in that fourth trimester after they're born. So that makes sense. The other thing I tell people is separating out your sleep needs from your baby's sleep needs is one of the most important things you can do. The old adage was sleep when your baby sleeps. And that works for some people, but for a lot of people it makes more sense to find someone else to take care of your baby when they're awake, when you need to sleep. So that way, you get the rest you need and you don't have this expectation on your infant who is not developmentally ready to actually sleep for the extended periods of time that you hope and wish and pray and see in social media. Because a lot of that's just not real. They're unicorn babies.

Karen: I'm a hundred percent in line with what you're saying, particularly around prioritizing yourself in that time. I think in general with motherhood and parenthood, you have to make sure that you are still a person and you're still your own person. You change so much during parenthood, in many different ways. But at the end of the day, you're still your own person and you still have your own interests and you still have your own needs and priorities. If you are not taking care of you and not just your sleep, but you as a whole person, you're not giving your best. You're not taking care of your baby. You really have to prioritize yourself in certain ways and it feels selfish. It feels like you're just supposed to be here to care for this new human. That's true, but you need to care for yourself too or ask for help or find people who will also help care for you too.

Dr. Whitney: You have a lot of content about that on Baby List as well, right? I mean you have content that's about the gear itself, the products themselves, but then also on supporting parents and giving information about what's normal and what's not for babies as well.

Karen: Yes, definitely. Obviously the product guides are sort of our bread and butter as a registry company. But we definitely have a lot of content to help support people if they're pregnant in their pregnancy journey or the fourth trimester. We're building out a ton of content around that. And then we're expanding into parenting content. So for at least through two years,we really want to help support both the parent in that journey, but also understanding what's happening with your baby, what questions to ask, and then what to look for both from product guidance as well as from a mental health perspective too.

Dr. Whitney: I love that. And of course you guys can head to ModernMommyDoc.com for more of that from us too, for all of the self-care info from babyhood and beyond. So I wanna hear from you, because you've been doing this for a while and you're the expert at it. Are there certain products that you all see parents gravitating toward that you see as such a huge waste of money? Either a category or things that you find that people really wanna spend money on, but it doesn't matter. And then vice versa. What are the things that you find that are so helpful to parents that again and again and again, you're including on your list?

Karen: We talk about this a lot, particularly around what is a waste of money. And it's so funny because one person's trash is something that another person could never live without. Like baby warmers. This is a super unpopular opinion amongst the Baby List crowd, but I could never get the hang of a breastfeeding pillow. I just could not understand how to make it work. Everyone else on the Baby List staff, it's among their top five and tell everyone you need one for all these different areas of your house. And so it just really goes to show how individual those things are. In the early stages, I think swaddles are amazing. There are many different kinds out there. I, as a parent, could never really get the hang of the muslin swaddles. I couldn't figure out how to wrap them myself.

But that are others that are the two-in-ones that are great! You just make them so cozy and then you get the amazing post-swaddle baby stretch, which is just the cutest thing in the world. I think that those are amazing. I think that there are a lot of really tried and true brands out there. I think particularly in the car seat space, you can get a ton of really good, affordable, safe car seats. Carter's clothing is amazing. It's affordable, it's cute. They have body suits with two-way zippers, which make things so much easier for diaper changing. They're soft. You can wash them a ton.

Dr. Whitney: The other big thing I would tell people is when you're going out with your baby, less is sometimes more. I remember the first time we went out to lunch after my baby's checkup at the office when she was a week old. We went out to lunch and I had a travel breastfeeding pillow, a full diaper bag, and a little mini hand pump. I mean I had so many things from the car into the restaurant and I just made it actually even more difficult to be there. It was so uncomfortable and difficult and I couldn't find my things. And so I've learned, over time, to minimize as much as possible. Store that stuff at your house, for sure. But just be selective about what you're bringing out with you, because the more you're carting around, the more difficult that it can be.

Karen: And it also makes it stressful for you too, having all of those things. Are you going to pump at lunch? Do you need three different blankets? Babies come with a lot of stuff, but it makes it harder when you've got it all out with you.

Dr. Whitney: Now I saw you live in Alameda, California. I'm from the Bay Area, as well, and I have always lived on the west coast or east coast. I went to medical school on the east coast. And so I wonder also, do you all see differences in terms of what people are into when they're bicoastal or when they're in central? Urban settings versus less urban settings? What's been the difference there?

Karen: We see some brand differentiation on the east coast versus west coast. We started as a west coast based Oakland, Bay area company. So from a west coast perspective, we're always like, oh, I never see that brand. And then we'd go to New York and you just see them everywhere. So definitely a brand differentiation. And we definitely see differences in urban versus less urban. 

We see lightweight strollers, baby carriers, things like that in urban settings where you are almost using your stroller as a car in certain ways. You need a good basket, so you can go to the local store and fill up on groceries. You also wanna lightweight stroller if you're in a walkup apartment. Storage is definitely something important in cities because of smaller spaces, so people are looking for high chairs that fold really easily or strollers that fold really easily that you can store places or self self-standing fold. 

And then from a more suburban area, you see things where people are using jogging strollers and bigger strollers because they can put it in the garage or they just store it in the back of the car. And then terrain too. People are using them in different settings. And then obviously weather affects choices in clothes, stroller accessories, your winter muffs, things like that that.

Dr. Whitney: Awesome. Well Karen, I think this has been amazing. I think a lot of people, actually myself included really, probably didn't know how vast a resource or how broad a resource Baby List was and how you all are providing more support. But then also I love how intense you are about trying to make sure that the content is actually really helpful and that it's well researched, so that it's safe for parents. Because, like I said, there's so many sites out there, so we wanna make sure that people are going to sites that are actually gonna be reputable and provide them with helpful recommendations versus just ways to squander money. So thank you for being here. How can people find more about Baby List? How can they get on their registries? How does it work in terms of them accessing all the information that you have?

Karen: So anyone can access the content information. You don't have to have a baby registry. You can Google "best car seats" and we come up. If you wanna create a Baby List registry, you can go to babylist.com and sign up there and create your registry. We have amazing emails that are both for the expecting parent and the new parent audiences, full of lots of great information that really helps meet them at the stage that they're in. You can follow us on social. We have an amazing TikTok with tons of really fun, entertaining product information. Also emotional content that makes you laugh, makes you cry. We also have the Baby List app, which if you have a registry, you can do a lot of research and add things through that.

Dr. Whitney: All right, thank you so much for being here. And you guys head on over to babylist.com or check them out on social. Until next time.