Bandana Bib, Cloth Bib or Silicone Bib? When to Use Each One
Three kinds of bib, three different jobs, and most families buy roughly twice as many as they use. I'll do the jobs first and then the number.
When should you use a bandana bib?
For drool, which means from around three or four months until teething finishes, and it's the only one of the three that's worn all day.
Its job is to soak up a steady trickle of drool before it runs down her neck into the folds, which in this climate is where redness starts. It's shaped like a scarf so it looks like clothing, which matters when she wears it twelve hours a day.
What to look for: an absorbent layer against the skin and a backing that resists soaking through to the clothes, and poppers with two positions so it grows. Change it the moment it's damp. A wet bib against a neck all afternoon is worse than no bib.
When is a cloth bib the right choice?
For milk feeds and for the early weeks of solids, where the problem is liquid.
Cloth absorbs, which is what you want when the mess is milk, spit-up or a thin purée. A silicone bib will let all of that run straight off and into a lap. This is the one that goes over the shoulder as often as it goes round the neck.
Look for cotton or bamboo terry, washable at sixty degrees, and buy enough that you never reuse a damp one. With cloth bibs, how many you have matters more than how good they are.
| Bib | Stage | What it does best |
|---|---|---|
| Bandana | 0-6 months | Drool and dribble rash; looks like clothing |
| Cloth | 0-9 months | Milk feeds, posseting, burping: absorbs |
| Silicone | 6 months + | Solids. Catches, wipes clean, never launders |
| All three | 6-12 months | Most households run all three at once |
When a silicone bib takes over
Once she's feeding herself, at around eight or nine months, and it stays the main bib right through the toddler years because of the catch pocket. When she feeds herself, most of what leaves the spoon misses her mouth, and a pocket that catches it means wiping a chest instead of changing a top. Cloth can't do this, because the pocket has to hold its shape against a chest that never stops moving. It also wipes clean under a tap in ten seconds and never goes in the wash, which at three meals a day saves more work than it sounds. Check that it's one piece, that the pocket stands away from the body and doesn't fold flat, that it's stated as food-grade to a named standard (LFGB or FDA), and that the soft, adjustable neck fastening releases under pressure.
On the milk-feed end of this
So which bibs do you need
Fewer than the sets suggest. Here's what I'd buy, in the order you'll need them.
- Six cloth bibs from birth, for milk feeds and spit-up. These get used most in the first six months and then hardly at all.
- Six to eight bandana bibs from around three months, if she drools. Some babies barely do and some soak four a day, and you won't know which you have until it starts, so buy a few and add more if needed.
- Two silicone bibs from around eight months. Two, not six. You wipe one while the other dries, and that's all you need.
- A couple of muslins throughout, which can stand in for any of these and do plenty of other jobs too.
Mentioned above
Mentioned above
What I'd skip: full-sleeved coverall bibs, which are hot here and get worn twice, disposable bibs, which are an expensive answer to a problem a wipe solves, and anything with an appliqué or a decorative edge that won't survive a wash cycle. If the budget is tight, a muslin tucked into the neckline does the cloth-bib job perfectly well for the first months.
Common questions
What's a bandana bib for?
Catching drool. The triangle shape is close to the chin, keeps damp fabric off baby's chest and helps prevent drool rash, especially from teething onwards.
When should baby start wearing a silicone bib?
From around six months, when solids begin. The catch pocket and wipe-clean surface are made for purees and self-feeding mess.
How many bibs do I need?
Roughly two to three cloth bibs, two to three bandana bibs and one to two silicone bibs covers milk feeds, drool and weaning without drowning in laundry.
Can baby sleep in a bib?
No. Remove any bib before naps and bedtime. Nothing should be worn around the neck or left loose in the cot.
How do you clean a silicone bib?
Rinse under the tap with a drop of washing-up liquid, or put it in the dishwasher. It dries almost instantly and never keeps smells.
Sources
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.