Evan Porter 
I remember moving when my daughter was about to turn 3 and buying a lot of new stuff for my place.
The question I had to ask, with her at such a crucial age, was should I buy a convertible crib or jump right into letting her use a toddler bed?
Every parent has to face this sooner or later! Whether your kid is starting to climb out of the crib, you need the crib for a new baby, or you just want to give them more room or responsibility.
But what exactly is a toddler bed and how big are they?
Babies, and especially newborns, need a lot of support while they’re sleeping.
Not only that, a firm crib mattress is an absolute must when it comes to safe sleeping and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) prevention.
But many parents, after a few nights, week, or even months at home with baby, start to wonder: Is my baby’s crib mattress too hard or too firm?
There’s a time and a place for waterproof, silicone baby bibs.
But when you really need them, they’re an absolute lifesaver!
Rubber or silicone bibs are really excellent for bottle feeding, messy eaters, babies transitioning to solid food, and young toddlers who like to make a mess.
Getting ready to bring your new baby home?
Congratulations!
Now… where are they going to sleep?
You’ve probably heard that there are some definite advantages to holding off on putting baby to sleep in a full-sized crib.
So how do you choose between pack ‘n plays, cradles, bassinets, and more?
In this article, we’ll talk about the differences and similarities between a bassinet vs a cradle, and if one is safer or better than the other.
Of all the decisions you need to make when you have a new baby, you’d think where they sleep would be an easy one.
But nope.
There’s:
And more to choose from.
Which one is the best, the safest, the most convenient?
In this article, I’m going to break down the main differences between pack ‘n plays vs bassinets.
I love my daughter’s daycare.
I love the teachers, the kids, the other parents. I love how much she learns there.
There’s just one problem.
I can not handle the amount of artwork she brings home.
That picture above? That’s just a small fraction of what we have (that’s not already stored, hung up, or thrown away), and our daughter isn’t even 4-years-old at this writing. She brings home 2-4 new pieces of art every single day.
So what’s the best way to deal with children’s artwork storage? What are some creative ideas that really work?
If you’re anything like me, you really dread taking your kid or toddler to the doctor.
It’s not that you don’t want them to feel better when they’re sick!
It’s just that, when they have run of the mill cold symptoms, coughs, etc., there’s often not much the doctor can do. And you usually have to take a half day off of work, have your child miss school, and more just to hear that they should rest and drink fluids.
So you turn to at-home remedies.
If your child or toddler has a nagging coughing, you might be wondering: Can kids have cough drops?
When daylight savings time hit recently (turning the clock back), we suddenly found ourselves waking up at horrifyingly early hours with our 3-year-old.
She’d start yelling on the baby monitor, or worse, charging down the stairs, between 5 and 6am.
It was still dark out.
Desperate for something that might help us keep our toddler from waking up too early, I started looking into sleep trainers, alarm clocks, and wake-up lights.
I was a little skeptical at first, and I didn’t want to spend $50+ on something I wasn’t sure would work. So I wound up getting the budget-friendly and relatively simple OK to Wake clock from Mirari.
When you’ve got a baby on the way, there are SO many things to buy.
You’ll also need to get a really reliable and safe car seat.
So how much should you set aside in the budget for a car seat? How much does a child car seat cost on average?
There’s no concrete age when kids and toddlers can start showering alone.
But most experts agree that somewhere around 5 or 6-years-old is when they’ll start getting close.
(That’s also about the time they might start wanting more privacy.)
You’ll have to be sure they can handle the responsibility, and really drill them on the safety rules!
But when your child is still a baby or younger toddler, they still need you to wash them. There may be times when you just can’t bathe them in a bathtub for whatever reason, so it makes sense to clean up in the shower.
How do you bathe a toddler or baby in a shower? (Without them screaming the entire time, and actually getting them clean!)