Today, we went to SM Department Store in Megamall and finished most of our shopping for baby. The lay-out of SM's baby section isn't very good. Most of the items are sold on concession basis, so the goods are arranged according to brand rather than category. This makes comparison shopping quite time-consuming, because you need to walk through several shelves to compare prices of similar items.

Nonetheless, SM Department Store is a good place to buy textile things: baby clothes, baby blankets, baby towels, lampin are all pretty cheap. Of course, you could probably find many of those items at much lower prices in Divisoria, but braving Divisoria crowds when I'm 7 months pregnant isn't something I want to do, so we were happy to shop at SM. Just so you have an idea of what the prices are like at SM (so you can plan your shopping accordingly):

• side-tie shirts for newborns with sleeves: around P70


• side-tie shirts for newborns, sleeveless: around P120 for a packet of 3 (or about P40 each)


• prefolded cloth diapers: around P120 for a packet of 3 (or about P40 each)


• gauze lampins: about P200 for a half-dozen (or approximately P30 each)


• receiving blanket: P150


• small waterproof mat for putting between the sheet and mattress: P40


• nasal aspirator with silicone tip: P50


• washable nursing breast pads: P200 for 3 pairs (or around P65 per pair)


• baby washcloths: P35 for 2 (or around P17 each)


• terry bibs: P35 for 2 (or around P17 each)

There are, of course, more expensive imported, branded versions of all of the above, but for most baby textile things there really is no reason to buy the more expensive brands. (As I've said, a newborn can't tell the difference between a P50 cotton shirt and a P500 cotton shirt. He's going to spit up on it anyway.) The one exception we made was with diaper covers. Only So-en and Enfant carried diaper covers, and the Enfant ones (P450 each) were much prettier than the rather ugly So-en ones (P60). So we bought some Enfant diaper covers for going out and a few So-en ones for using around the house.

I would imagine that prices in other department stores are around the same range as in SM, but SM was sufficient for our needs. (Update: See my my post about prices at Metro Gaisano, Market Market.) A number of friends have also suggested the export overrun storage room in Bel-Air [Zodiac Street] as another place to buy cheap baby clothes and cloth accessories: export quality items at department store prices. I haven't been, because baby doesn't really need many clothes yet, much less anything branded, but maybe as baby grows and needs more clothes I'll drop by to see what they have there.

Finally: most of the things I bought, I bought in plain white. Since baby clothes are so tiny, it takes a lot to build up a load for the washing machine ... moreso if you need to separate whites from colored items! I figured if almost everything is in white, they'll be much easier to wash. Better for giving hand-me-downs later on too, since white isn't gender-specific!

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Bottle sterilizers have a wide range of prices.

• Stove-top sterilizer (a giant aluminum pot with a plastic rack for the bottles): P800 (including the plastic rack)


• Farlin electric sterilizer for 8-12 bottles: P1700


• Chicco electric sterilizer for 8 bottles: P2000


• Pigeon universal steam sterilizer: P3400

We ended up buying the Chicco one because at only P300 more than the one from Farlin, it has a 2-year warranty in contrast to Farlin's 1-year warranty. Plus it has the Chicco name.

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Another big-ticket item we had to buy was a 28" x 52" mattress for our crib. There were three kinds available:

• "ordinary" foam: P800


• Uratex foam (with 5-year warranty): P1500


• Uratex Puriform antibacterial breathable foam (also with 5-year warranty): P3000

We decided to go with the Uratex foam because the mattress was the firmest of the three. We also didn't want to settle for ordinary foam, because our crib will be converted into a toddler bed later on, so it needs a mattress that will last at least three years.

Finally. When it comes to baby bottles and other nursing accessories, there is a serious reason to consider buying branded ones, and that's the BPA scare. I'll say more about this in my next post.