How What to Expect chooses the best products for parents 

When you’re expecting, you’ve got a lot on your to-do list, and shopping for your baby is probably near the top. Choosing the right products for your growing family can be overwhelming, so What to Expect is here to make this process easier for you.

What to Expect helps you navigate the shopping process with guides to the best baby products, including big-ticket purchases (like cribs, strollers and car seats) and everyday items (like bottles, burp cloths and baby monitors). Our recommendations include tried-and-true favorites, as well as new and innovative products designed to make life with a baby easier than ever. Guides are written by real parents and members of the What to Expect editorial team, and because the information within may impact your child’s health and safety, the content is approved by a professional fact-checker or member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board prior to publishing.

Several factors influence What to Expect’s product recommendations:

  • Editorial research: The What to Expect editorial team conducts research focusing on popularity, innovation, design, quality, value and ease of use. Additionally, we seek out feedback from pediatricians and other relevant experts.
  • Product testing: What to Expect staff and contributors road-test products at home with our own families. 
  • Community surveys: We ask thousands of real parents in the What to Expect Community to provide insights on the baby products they’ve used and love the most. 

What to Expect’s product guides are checked monthly for product availability and pricing. At the same time, we verify that none of our recommended products have been recalled per the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) website.

You should know that What to Expect may earn commissions from shopping links, which helps support all the work we do. However, this does not impact what products we choose to cover. 

How What to Expect covers sales 

Between day care, diapers, doctor’s visits and and everything in between, starting a family is very expensive. What to Expect aims to ease your financial burden by reporting when trusted retailers are offering discounts on maternity and baby products, as well as other product categories that are relevant to new parents and parents-to-be. We know it’s impossible for busy parents to stay on top of the countless discounts available across the web every day — especially on major shopping holidays like Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday — so our editorial team does that work for you. 

What to Expect does not report on every single sale out there, however. Instead, we focus on truly great discounts — generally, a product has to be offered for the lowest price we’ve seen in the last three months to earn a spotlight on our app and website. 

How to pitch products to What to Expect

The What to Expect editorial team is always on the hunt for the best new products on the market. If you’re a PR rep who has a product that our team should know about, email us at edit@whattoexpect.com.