Leane This is the first in my series of toddler essentials – I’ve broken it down into categories so that it’s not one giant long post.
As babies grow into toddlers, they need new things (I know, it’s not rocket science). In this post I’m going to share some of the things that we’ve bought to make toddler life a little bit easier. These are all big buys – either big in size, big in cost, or both.
Pikler Triangle / Tri-climb
My first item is this Pikler triangle / tri-climb. Babybel is a climber; she loves climbing and will climb absolutely anything. This has three sections; the triangle, a climbing board / slide, and an arch. These are suitable from around 10 months and up to around 50kg so it has quite a long lifespan. Check out our YouTube channel to see a full review! YouTube video
Toddler Tower / Kitchen Helper
I’ve listed these in order of purchase, but if I was writing this in order of my favourites, this would be top of the list! If you have a toddler, you’ll know that they want to be involved in, and help with, everything. Trying to cook dinner with an angry toddler hanging off of your leg is obviously not practical or safe and Babybel wants to try to do everything herself. So we decided to get a toddler tower so that she could be up at the same level us as, but also start to learn how to pour stuff, stir ingredients, and chop veg. It also means that she can reach the sink to wash her hands. It’s an absolute game changer – she’ll happily stand in there while we prepare dinner, chopping stuff or just playing with packets of food. The one that we have also changes into a low table for her, which we use for activities, or to eat lunch and snacks. Check out our video for a full review! YouTube video
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6-in-1 Trike
This is Babybel’s favourite way of getting about once she’s had enough of walking (which is after about 20,000 steps!) she absolutely loves it. It starts off in parent facing mode from 10 months, then changes to a full trike through the next 5 modes, up until 36 months. Babybel’s currently on mode 3 as she can’t quite reach the pedals yet.
Floor Bed
If, like us, you have a toddler that’s never taken to a cot, or is ready to move out of their cot, a floor bed might be for you. We’ve safely co-slept for all or part of the night since Babybel was 4 or 5 months old. Once she started being able to crawl, it was no longer safe for her to be in our bed, so we moved to a floor bed, which originally was just a mattress on the floor. We did this to test if a floor bed was the right option for us, as they are not cheap. We quickly came to the conclusion that this was the best way for all of us to maximise our sleep, so we took the plunge and bought one of these.
Car Seat
My last item on this list (but definitely not the least important) is a car seat. Car seat rules in the UK are pretty rubbish, and car seat safety is not talked about enough. Rear facing is 5x safer than forward facing, as toddler’s spinal bones are not fully formed until they are four years old (click here to read more). So it makes sense that a next stage car seat has made it on to my list of toddler big buys. We went for the Axkid Minikind, which we absolutely love. Full review coming soon!
