How Mark Jaquith Built Have Baby Need Stuff: A WordPress-Powered Solution for New Parents

Introduction

Becoming a parent is thrilling, but it’s also overwhelming. From nursery gear to feeding essentials, the list of “must-have” baby items can feel endless. For new parents, organizing this chaos often means juggling multiple spreadsheets, generic registries, and conflicting advice. Enter Have Baby Need Stuff (HBNS), a platform designed to simplify baby preparation by offering tailored checklists, registries, and item tracking—all built by WordPress luminary Mark Jaquith.

Mark Jaquith isn’t just any developer; he’s a core contributor to WordPress, a former lead developer at Automattic, and the mind behind plugins like WP Security Scan and WordPress SEO (now Yoast SEO). When he and his wife faced the same baby-prep overwhelm, he turned to his expertise: building a solution with WordPress. In this blog, we’ll dive into how Mark conceptualized, developed, and launched HBNS, exploring the technical choices, challenges, and lessons that made it a go-to tool for parents.

Table of Contents

  1. Who is Mark Jaquith?
  2. The Inspiration Behind Have Baby Need Stuff
  3. The Technical Stack: WordPress as the Foundation
  4. Key Features of Have Baby Need Stuff
  5. Development Challenges & Solutions
  6. Lessons Learned: Mark’s Approach to Building HBNS
  7. Conclusion: Why HBNS Matters for Parents & Developers
  8. References

Who is Mark Jaquith?

Before diving into HBNS, it’s critical to understand the developer behind it. Mark Jaquith is a titan in the WordPress community with over 15 years of experience. He’s contributed extensively to WordPress core, including work on user roles, WP-Cron, and security enhancements. As a former lead developer at Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com), he helped scale WordPress to power millions of sites. Mark is also known for creating popular plugins like WP Security Scan (a predecessor to modern security tools) and for co-authoring the book Professional WordPress Development.

What sets Mark apart is his ability to solve real-world problems with WordPress’s flexibility. He’s a proponent of “building for yourself first”—creating tools that address his own needs, then refining them for others. HBNS is a perfect example of this philosophy.

The Inspiration Behind Have Baby Need Stuff

In 2010, Mark and his wife were expecting their first child. Like many new parents, they were inundated with advice about “essential” baby gear. Generic registries (think Amazon or big-box stores) felt impersonal and cluttered, lacking context for why an item was needed or when it would be useful. Spreadsheets were clunky, and checklists online were either too basic or overly complicated.

Mark realized there was a gap: a tool that combined the structure of a checklist, the personalization of a registry, and the organization of a database—all tailored to the unique stages of a baby’s first year. Instead of using off-the-shelf software, he decided to build it himself using WordPress, a platform he knew could handle the complexity while remaining easy to iterate on.

The Technical Stack: WordPress as the Foundation

WordPress is often pigeonholed as a “blogging platform,” but Mark leveraged its full potential as a flexible CMS. Here’s how he built HBNS using WordPress’s core features and custom code:

3.1 Custom Post Types (CPTs) for Baby Items

At the heart of HBNS is the “Baby Item” custom post type (CPT). CPTs allow WordPress to manage content types beyond standard posts and pages, making them ideal for structured data like products, events, or in this case, baby gear.

Mark registered a baby_item CPT with the following attributes:

  • Public: Visible to users (with proper permissions).
  • Supports: Title, editor (for descriptions), thumbnails (for item photos), and custom fields.
  • Rewrite: Custom permalinks (e.g., /items/stroller/).

This CPT became the building block for all items in HBNS, from onesies to car seats.

3.2 Taxonomies for Organization

To help users find and filter items, Mark created custom taxonomies (categories/tags on steroids) for the baby_item CPT:

  • Category: Broad groupings like “Clothing,” “Feeding,” “Sleep,” “Transportation.”
  • Stage: Age-specific categories like “Newborn (0-3 months),” “Infant (3-6 months),” “Toddler (1-2 years).”
  • Essentiality: Whether an item is “Must-Have,” “Nice-to-Have,” or “Optional.”

Taxonomies let users filter checklists by stage (e.g., “What do I need for a newborn?”) or category (e.g., “All feeding items”), making HBNS far more intuitive than generic lists.

3.3 Custom Fields for Item Details

Standard post metadata (title, content) wasn’t enough to describe baby items. Mark added custom fields using WordPress’s add_post_meta() function (avoiding plugins for simplicity and control). Key fields included:

  • Brand/Model: Specific product names (e.g., “UPPAbaby Cruz Stroller”).
  • Price Range: Estimated cost (e.g., $100–$200).
  • Size/Weight: For clothing or gear (e.g., “0-3 months,” “20 lbs max”).
  • Notes: Tips from Mark (e.g., “Avoid overbuying newborn clothes—they grow fast!”).

These fields stored structured data that HBNS’s theme and templates could display dynamically.

3.4 User Authentication & Profiles

HBNS requires users to create accounts to save checklists and registries. Mark used WordPress’s built-in user system (wp_insert_user(), wp_signon()) instead of building custom auth, saving time and ensuring security. He extended user profiles with custom fields to store:

  • Baby’s Due Date/Date of Birth: To auto-generate age-specific checklists.
  • Partner/Co-Parent Email: For shared registry access.
  • Registry Privacy Settings: Public, private, or invite-only.

3.5 Custom Theme Development

Rather than using a pre-built theme, Mark designed a custom theme tailored to HBNS’s UX needs. The theme included:

  • Responsive Design: Mobile-first, since parents often use HBNS on the go.
  • Minimalist UI: Clean layouts with large buttons and clear typography (no clutter for sleep-deprived parents).
  • Template Files: Custom templates for single-baby_item.php (item details), taxonomy-stage.php (stage-specific checklists), and user-registry.php (personal registries).

The theme prioritized readability and speed, with lazy-loaded images and minimal JavaScript.

Key Features of Have Baby Need Stuff

HBNS isn’t just a list of items—it’s a tool that grows with families. Here are its standout features:

4.1 Stage-Based Checklists

New parents don’t need a toddler car seat for a newborn. HBNS generates checklists based on the baby’s age (via the user’s “Due Date” or “Date of Birth” field). For example:

  • Newborn Checklist: Diapers, swaddle blankets, bassinet, breast pump.
  • 6-Month Checklist: High chair, teething toys, convertible car seat.

Checklists are interactive: users can mark items as “Owned,” “Needed,” or “Purchased,” with progress bars showing completion (e.g., “75% of newborn items ready!”).

4.2 Personalized Registries

Unlike generic retail registries, HBNS registries are parent-centric. Users can:

  • Add items from HBNS’s database or manually input custom items (e.g., “Hand-me-down crib from Grandma”).
  • Set quantities (e.g., “2 packs of newborn diapers”).
  • Add notes for gift-givers (e.g., “Size 1 diapers preferred”).

Registries are shareable via unique links, and HBNS sends email notifications when someone marks an item as “Purchased” to avoid duplicates.

4.3 Item Tracking & Categorization

Users can filter items by:

  • Stage: See only what’s needed for the current or upcoming age.
  • Essentiality: Focus on “Must-Have” items first.
  • Ownership Status: Track what’s already bought vs. still needed.

A dashboard view summarizes progress: “You have 12/20 newborn items. Next up: bassinet and swaddle blankets.”

4.4 Sharing & Collaboration

Parenting is a team sport, so HBNS lets users share checklists/registries with partners, family, or friends. Co-parents can edit the same registry in real time, and guests can view (but not edit) public registries.

Development Challenges & Solutions

Building HBNS wasn’t without hurdles. Here’s how Mark overcame key challenges:

5.1 Dynamic Checklist Functionality

Challenge: Generating checklists that auto-update as the baby ages (e.g., switching from “newborn” to “infant” items at 3 months).
Solution: Mark used WordPress’s cron system to run a daily task that checks each user’s baby age and updates their checklist stages automatically. He also added a manual “Refresh Checklist” button for users who prefer control.

5.2 Real-Time Registry Updates

Challenge: Ensuring shared registries reflect changes immediately (e.g., Partner A marks a stroller as “Purchased,” and Partner B sees it instantly).
Solution: Instead of relying on page reloads, Mark added AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript) to update registry statuses in real time. When a user checks an item, JavaScript sends a request to admin-ajax.php, updates the database, and refreshes the UI—no page reload needed.

5.3 Performance Optimization

Challenge: As HBNS’s item database grew, page load times slowed, especially for users with large registries.
Solution: Mark optimized database queries using WP_Query with no_found_rows and update_post_meta_cache to reduce load. He also implemented caching for checklist pages (via transient API) and lazy-loaded images to speed up mobile performance.

5.4 User Privacy & Security

Challenge: Protecting sensitive data (user emails, baby due dates) and ensuring registries are only accessible to authorized users.
Solution: Mark leveraged WordPress’s built-in security features:

  • User passwords are hashed via wp_hash_password().
  • Registry links use cryptographically secure tokens (generated with wp_generate_password()).
  • HTTPS is enforced site-wide (via wp_redirect() and .htaccess rules).

Lessons Learned: Mark’s Approach to Building HBNS

Mark’s development philosophy shines through in HBNS. Here are key takeaways for developers:

  1. Solve a Personal Problem: HBNS began as a tool for Mark and his wife. Building something you need ensures you stay motivated and focused on real user needs.
  2. Leverage WordPress’s Core Strengths: Custom post types, taxonomies, and user auth are built into WordPress—no need to reinvent the wheel. Mark avoided over-reliance on plugins to keep the codebase clean and maintainable.
  3. Prioritize UX Over Features: HBNS launched with core features (checklists, registries) before adding extras. A simple, usable tool beats a feature-packed but confusing one.
  4. Iterate Based on Feedback: Early users requested shared registries and stage-based checklists, which Mark added in subsequent updates.
  5. Optimize for Scale: Even small projects can grow. Mark’s focus on clean code and performance ensured HBNS could handle more users and items without crashing.

Conclusion: Why HBNS Matters for Parents & Developers

Have Baby Need Stuff is more than a “baby registry”—it’s a testament to WordPress’s versatility and Mark Jaquith’s problem-solving mindset. For parents, it reduces the stress of baby prep by turning chaos into a manageable checklist. For developers, it’s a masterclass in using WordPress as a CMS for niche tools: custom post types for structured data, taxonomies for organization, and AJAX for dynamic UX.

Mark’s journey shows that the best projects often start with a simple question: “What tool do I wish existed?” By answering that question with WordPress, he built something that helps thousands of parents—and inspires developers to build similarly impactful solutions.

References

  • Jaquith, M. (2020). Building Have Baby Need Stuff: A Case Study. Mark Jaquith’s Blog.
  • WordPress.org. (n.d.). Custom Post Types. WordPress Codex.
  • WordPress.org. (n.d.). Taxonomies. WordPress Codex.
  • Have Baby Need Stuff. (n.d.). Official Website (if available).
  • Jaquith, M., & Ooms, R. (2011). Professional WordPress Development. Wrox Press.