The newborn days can be tough, especially for first-time mothers.
Luckily, these days we have some apps to help guide us through. Some can act as mentors, telling us what we can expect and how we can best take care of our babies. Others are like matchmakers and help us meet lifelong mom friends.
In this post, we’re sharing 13 best newborn apps to make parent life better.
What Newborn Baby Apps are Best?
The best newborn app for you depends on what you need it to provide. For example, some are strictly for meeting mom friends while others only contain information.
Consider the different types/purposes of apps for newborns:
- Meet friends— Having friends who are also parents can help you along your journey. Just as there’s apps for dating, there’s apps for mom friend-making.
- Track— There’s plenty of tracking apps on the market to record health, feeding or medical information. You can choose to download one for each specific purpose, or there’s a few all-encompassing apps.
- Information— Although books are helpful, it can be useful to have information right at your fingertips. Most newborn baby apps are also searchable, allowing you to find what you need quickly. They also allow you to input your baby’s birthday to show you personalized development information for each day or week.
- Entertainment— Other newborn apps are less serious, but still help us enjoy our time with our baby. For example, there’s photo editing apps specific to babies. Or, you can try out some lullaby apps to sing along to.
13 Best Newborn Apps
We’ve compiled a list of the best apps for newborns, ranging from guidance to friend-meeting abilities. Try out a few and see which are most helpful to you.
#1 Nuryl
Price: $9.99/month
Purpose: Play music for your baby
Nuryl plays “high information” music to stimulate your baby’s brain, supposedly boosting cognition. The tracks have complex harmonies and tones that they claim enhances learning. You can use it from 5 months to 2 years since that’s the critical time for brain development. You can also use it during pregnancy by placing headphones on your stomach. Although there’s no clinical evidence to support the app, it could be fun to try to see how your baby reacts, as some reviews report.
#2 Peanut
Price: Free
Purpose: Meet mom friends
Peanut is an ideal app to have if you don’t have any friends that are also parents and you’re feeling lonely. It can be a helpful one to have when you feel like you have no one to talk to who gets what you’re going through. After answering questions, the app will connect you with moms who meet your interests. You can also get matched with moms tinder-style, chat and, if you like each other, eventually meet up for playdates.
#3 Cloud Baby Monitor
Price: $3.99-$4.99
Purpose: Turns device into a streamable baby monitor
You probably have a baby monitor you use at home, but you may not take it on overnight trips; when your baby naps outside the home; or if your baby stays with someone else. The Cloud Baby Monitor app gives you a live stream so you can keep an eye on her when a monitor isn’t handy. You can simply use an old phone or iPad while you watch on your phone.
#4 BabySparks
Price: Free to download but subscription required to unlock all activities
Purpose: Track and teach baby development skills
BabySparks is the ultimate tracker for baby development milestones and activities, featuring over 1,300 of them. Track when your baby stands, crawls, etc. There’s also information, such as articles and videos, on techniques to safely teach these milestones. The teachings are also available in Spanish.
#5 What To Expect
Price: Free
Purpose: Provides information on pregnancy and toddler years
When preparing for the baby, you probably read or heard about the What To Expect book. This app is essentially the book turned digital. It provides over 15,000 articles and relevant news about pregnancy and toddler years. You can customize your updates by entering your baby’s due date.
#6 Glow
Price: Free (in-app purchases)
Purpose: Allows you to track baby development and patterns
The first year of a child’s life is critical for development and it can be stressful if you’re an anxious person who always worries whether the baby is on track. Glow gives you a space to log sleep schedules, medications, growth charts and feeding times. This information can be especially useful to have during pediatrician appointments when the doctor asks about the baby’s habits. The app also comes with over 10 pediatrician-approved pattern charts to help guide you on a healthy journey. If you’d like, you can participate in their community as well.
#7 Sittercity
Price: Free (but in-app fees for sitter services)
Purpose: Find a trusted baby sitter
If you don’t have anyone who can look after the baby on date nights, this app can help you find someone. Since you want to be able to trust and vet the person looking after your bundle of joy, it’s best to start early. By the time you’re ready for your first after-baby date night, you’ll already have met and built a relationship with the sitter. Sittercity also does background checks on the candidates and allows other parents to review providers of their profiles.
#8 MyMedela
Price: Free
Purpose: Lactation consultation and tracking
MyMedela is an app by the pump manufacturer of the same name. It personalizes content to your breastfeeding needs, giving you guidance, tips and checklists. You can also use it to track your feeding times, how much you fed, diapers, measurements and sleep patterns. Although there’s many tracker apps, this is a good one to have if you’re experiencing problems or frustration with breastfeeding.
#9 Sprout Baby
Available on iOS
Price: Free 2-week trial, Paid subscription after
Purpose: Tracker app
Sprout is one of the most popular tracking apps and has been featured in many publications, including TIME magazine. It claims to be the only baby app you’ll ever need. You can track everything from feeding and habit information to temperature, growth milestones and more. It also gives you space to input doctor’s notes or questions and other summaries.
#10 The Wonder Weeks
Price: $3.99
Purpose: Baby mental development updates
The Wonder Weeks gives you detailed updates on how your baby is developing that week. It can help explain some sudden changes in your baby’s habits and give you a heads-up on what to look out for. Unlike other apps that give you information about physical development, this one strictly focuses on your baby’s brain and what you can do to help your baby during different stages.
#11 Spotify
Price: Free (paid version available)
Purpose: Find baby music
Many people already have Spotify, but if not, now is a good time to get it. Rather than downloading another baby lullaby app, you can simply learn how to use Spotify for that purpose. It also has a lot more selection. You can search nature noises (ex. rainfall) or you can try out “womb noises,” “nursery rhymes” or “lullabies.” Another way to use Spotify during the newborn weeks is while you’re pumping or nursing. Playing a podcast can help entertain and relax you, making expressing easier.
#12 Baby Pics
Price: Free, in-app purchases
Purpose: Baby photo editor
Baby Pics is a cute app you can use to edit and put together your baby photos before posting on social media. Although some apps have built-in editors, this one has newborn-related stickers and layouts. You can use them to celebrate milestones, such as the first haircut, and to visually document baby’s first days or weeks. It can also be used to document your bump during pregnancy.
#13 The Sensory Baby Toddler Learning
Price: Free, in-app purchases
Purpose: Learning games
The Sensory Baby Toddler Learning app is meant to entertain newborns, infants and children with amusing and visually stimulating games. The ideas is that with each experience, they educate themselves on the cause and effect of the techniques in the games. As a newborn, your baby won’t be able to play yet, but the app suggests parents show them the game. Then, as they grow, they learn to control more aspects of the app. It can be fun to see how they progress with the game every week and month.
Summary of Best Newborn Apps
There’s several types of apps you can use to make life easier after having a baby. Whether you want to meet friends, track milestones or record information, there’s plenty to choose from. Download a few and see which are useful for you.
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