Infant wearing a onesie

Basic layette items include:

• a going-home-from-the-hospital or birth center outfit
• legless sleepwear (sleeping gowns / kimonos / sleeping bags / newborn sacques / blanket sleepers) or footed sleepers
• onesies (short-sleeved, legless bodysuits) / all-in-ones / rompers / coveralls
• undershirts / T-shirts
  • receiving blankets
  • swaddling blankets
  • hooded towels
  • baby washcloths
  • cloth diapers for diapering
  • socks / booties
  • hats / beanies / sweaters / bunting (depending on the climate)
  • burp cloths (cloth diapers are often recommended)
  • Scratch mits
  • Vests

• Further reading

  • Baby care for health and comfort (c1944). Bureau of Educational Services, Byron G. Moon Company. Poster 65 x 51 cm. National Library of Medicine accession number: 04-08.

  Baby layette shop

• An infant or baby is the very young offspring of humans. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate (from Latin, neonatus, newborn) refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth.^[The term "newborn" includes premature infants, postmature infants and full term newborns. The term infant is derived from the Latin word infans, meaning "unable to speak" or "speechless." It is typically applied to children between the ages of 1 month and 12 months; however, definitions vary between birth and 3 years of age. "Infant" is also a legal term referring to any child under the age of legal adulthood.^[2]

•  

   

  

  

  An infant sleeping.

   

     

  A newborn's shoulders and hips are narrow, the abdomen protrudes slightly, and the arms and legs are relatively short. In the developed world, the average birth weight of a full-term newborn is approximately 7 ½ lbs.(3.2 kg), and is typically in the range of 5.5–10 pounds (2.7–4.6 kg). The average total body length is 14–20 inches (35.6–50.8 cm), although premature newborns may be much smaller. The Apgar score is a measure of a newborn's transition from the uterus during the first minutes after birth.

   

  A newborn's head is very large in proportion to the rest of the body, and the cranium is enormous relative to his or her face. While the adult human skull is about 1/8 of the total body length, the newborn's is about 1/4. At birth, many regions of the newborn's skull have not yet been converted to bone, leaving "soft spots" known as fontanels. The two largest are the diamond-shaped anterior fontanel, located at the top front portion of the head, and the smaller triangular-shaped posterior fontanel, which lies at the back of the head. Later in the child's life, these bones will fuse together in a natural process. A protein called noggin is responsible for the delay in an infant's skull fusion.^[3]