If your baby is still a really new newborn, I hope you’re not having to go out grocery shopping at all!  Hopefully you have family or friends nearby who will take care of that for you.  It not, you might consider ordering your groceries this time so your body has some time to physically recover.  But sooner or later, you’ll find yourself having to go grocery shopping with an infant, and that might be an overwhelming thought.  There are some things you can do to make it easier.

Be Prepared

One of the best things you can do to make grocery shopping go (relatively 😉 ) smoothly with an infant — or children of any age, really — is to plan as much as you can before you get to the store to minimize both the time that you have to spend in the store and the amount of thinking you have to do while you’re there.  Because, let’s face it, you will be distracted, and even simple math might not seem so simple.

So what does that look like?  Well, at a minimum, you want to know exactly what you need to buy.  Have a complete grocery list.  But I would recommend going even further with your grocery planning.

Make your list out aisle-by-aisle, so it’s in order and you can just make one pass through the store rather than finding yourself going back and forth because you missed something.  (All of this is spelled out in more detail in my post about making a master grocery list, so be sure to check that out!)

And if you’re concerned the money might be tight, jot down the anticipated prices (rough estimates are fine) ahead of time and add it up.  That way you won’t find yourself at the store, $15 over the amount you have in your checking account, trying to figure out which things you can do without while your hungry baby screams and you want to just sit in the aisle and cry.  You can make those necessary adjustments before you even leave the house, between feedings and diaper changes.

Use a Sling or Wrap

…or a mei tai or a soft-sided carrier… my point is not to micromanage your choice of carrier; my point is to use some type of carrier of the variety that holds baby close against you.  I’ve discovered a lot of benefits to this over the years.  (My personal favorites are a Boba 4G for easy in and out, and a Maya Wrap for flexibility and ease of nursing.)

First of all, unless you have some specific health conditions that would make this not the case, it’s a lot easier physically.  It might not seem so, but those bulky carseat-style carriers are heavy and awkward and hard on your back.  It’s a lot easier to just carry a baby (especially if he’s still a tiny newborn) snuggled against your chest than lug all that extra bulk around.

It frees up space in your shopping cart.  It’s difficult enough trying to get your grocery shopping done efficiently, without having to try to figure out how to cram everything into the grocery cart around your baby, without anything toppling over onto his head.

It makes it easier to keep him content in the store.  This is not a benefit to be underestimated!  Rather than being on his own in a cart while surrounded by a lot of unfamiliar people, noises, lights, etc., he’s snuggled up close against the familiar smell of Mama (or Daddy, or whomever is doing the grocery shopping).  In most cases, the carrier helps block out some of the worst glare of the light while baby’s tiny and maybe not so social yet.

It keeps people from getting their germy faces and hands all over your newborn and in his face.  

And after a bit of practice, you can even nurse the baby in the sling or carrier, while shopping, and not have to stop and take a chunk out of your shopping time to feed him before resuming.

As baby gets older, I’ve found this to also be a convenient way to avoid worrying about whether my little ones chew on that nasty cart handle.

Apart from some occasional awkwardness when trying to maneuver an exceptionally large item — like a big bag of cat foot — into my cart, I’ve never found wearing the baby in the sling to present any difficulty while shopping.  (And usually there’s someone who’s more than willing to help with that big bag of cat food!)

Park Near the Cart Return

I figured this out while my oldest was a baby, and seventeen years later, I still park as close as I can to the cart return, every time.  It’s helpful when you have a baby, and it continues to be helpful when you have more mobile young ones running around.  If you’re parked right beside the cart return, you don’t have to leave your child(ren) to take your cart back, even if the child(ren) is/are already in the car.

Now, when I’m shopping with a baby, I usually just unload the groceries into the car with the baby still strapped to me, then return the cart, then put the baby back into her carseat.  But with older children, it can be easier to buckle them in, unload the groceries, and return the cart — except no way am I leaving my small children in the car to go take the cart back somewhere I can’t see them (especially during difficult periods where they might not be trustworthy to stay in the car).

Parking right beside the cart return solves that problem, because I don’t have to walk away from them to take the cart back.  A spot right beside the return isn’t always available (although it is more often than not), but I can almost always find a spot that isn’t more than one space removed.