Top Gift Ideas for a 1 Year Old

Hi guys!
I wanted to write this post as something to look back on myself when I need to think of gift ideas for friends when they have babies, so I hope this helps you out if you are looking for that perfect gift for a little one.
As my boys turned one in December they had a lot of presents, because Christmas was 20 days after their birthday I can include the gifts from then too as they were still 1, so I should have a lot of ideas for you all. 

Here is my run down of the best gifts to buy a 1 year old from the cheapest to the most expensive!

So the cheapest items I want to mention first are the smaller hand held toys. At this age toddlers love toys in all shapes and sizes, however the ones that they can easily hold they love to carry around with them when they're exploring.

1. If you are on a low budget I would suggest buying some bath toys, as they can be fairly cheap and at this age toddlers absolutely love bath time, my little ones practically leap into the bath because they are so excited! My first suggestion would be to get something small and hand held such as this little glow up jellyfish bath toy or a little duck! They don't always use these in the bath they just enjoy carrying them around with them wherever they go and they are a good size for them to keep in their cot too! This jellyfish bath toy was only £2.99 from Sainsbury's so a very affordable price:

[jellyfish toy image coming soon]

You can buy a little duck family set for £4.99 at Kiddicare, you can always put your soap on the mummy ducks back too while it floats in the bath!

I'd be surprised if your one year old doesn't already have a set of stacking cups, but if not these are another perfect gift! They can be used in the bath as each cup has holes in the bottom that let the water sift through, which toddlers love! You can also double it up as a cup to use to wash their hair, and not only that they can be played with out of the bath and little ones will love watching you stack them up so they can knock them down!
Stacking cups range from about £3-5. Kiddicare sell some for £3.99:

My final bath toy suggestion would be to buy any little toy that squirts water back out! Toddlers love water, and they love the noise these toys make when they suck in water and squirt it back out. They're also another perfect hand held toy that toddlers can play with both in and out of the bath (just make sure the water is squeezed out of them first!) You can pick these up for under £10, there are some Sea Squirts Bath Toys at Kiddicare for £5.99

2. Books and DVD's are something that toddlers are starting to love. When it comes to books, anything that is touch and feel is great for little hands! This book is £5.59 from Amazon:

Also as toddlers are learning to start saying words, any books that involve learning about colours, words, numbers, animals etc. will have your toddlers attention quickly! This Peppa Pig Words book which I bought off Ebay for 99p recently!

Another book to keep little ones attention is a puppet book called Calm Down Boris, and is currently £6.99 on Amazon (usually £8.99)

I think buying DVD's for a toddler will depend on whether the parents allow their toddler to watch TV. As much as I'd love to say my boys only watch TV very occasionally, they do end up watching it each day for a short while in order to keep them occupied whilst I get their food ready or have a sit down. Their favourite programmes in order are Peppa Pig, In The Night Garden, Waybuloo, Curious George and Something Special/Mr Tumble! So if you have no idea what DVD to buy a 1 year old, I'm pretty sure any of these will do just fine, plus they are all pretty cheap. As my boys were watching the same Peppa Pig DVD quite often, I ended up buying them a Peppa Pig DVD box set for £19, however the prices do fluctuate and on Amazon it is currently a whopping £30, however separately the Peppa Pig DVD's are usually just £2.00-£3.00!

3. Now this is another item that is under £10 and this had to be my boys FAVOURITE gift we got them (which was nice and also made us question why we spent any more money!) I would definitely recommend this product to anyone and almost 3 months since receiving this gift it's still a firm favourite. The Grow & Play Mr Bongo from Sainsbury's is only £6.66 and lights up as your toddler taps the top. It also has two buttons on the side that make different noises. The only issue with this toy is that it's noisy, and even though it has a volume adjustment, the noise level is still very loud- but toddlers love it!

3. One year olds may have already learnt or are learning how to feed themselves, so a dinner set may be the next gift idea you could consider. These vary in price, but as we are moving onto the next price bracket I wanted to show you some of the nicer sets I've seen at John Lewis.

Firstly the cheapest is the Sophie La Girafe Melamine Set, which if you've read my previous review on Sophie La Girafe the toy, you will know I'm not a huge fan of her appearance, and therefore am not sold on this set myself, however as Sophie can be quite popular with little ones, maybe they would like this! It costs £17.99 from John Lewis, and I would say this set is suited more towards girls, although it does seem to be a neutral product.

For another fond character, this lovely Peter Rabbit set is the perfect gift. The cup has two handles for little hands to get around and has beautiful artwork. The Peter Rabbit Dinner Set is £25.00 from John Lewis.

Sets do go further up in price, and you can also buy some gorgeous porcelain sets, however I would be wary of buying this if you are wanting immediate use as toddlers of this age enjoying throwing everything on the floor including porcelain bowls! I would stick to melamine or choose a nice porcelain set that can be kept for use later.

4. Jumping in price a bit, this is not something I have personally bought myself, however I know a lot of friends with one year olds who say this is amazing. It's the DUKTIG Mini Kitchen from IKEA, and currently costs £45 (but can be up to £60 with extra bits!) 

I think personally for me this is not the best option as we don't have the space for something like this at the moment. This would be perfect for advanced toddlers who are already walking or nearly walking, but personally for me I may consider purchasing this once my boys are 2, but at the moment I think they would be more likely to trap their fingers in it than play with it properly.

5. This next item is another firm favourite with mothers I know, and is the Vtech Zebra Scooter, priced at Kiddicare for £44.99. The scooter plays music, is easy to set up and is perfect for toddlers who can't quite walk yet as it is robust enough that they can pull themselves up onto it without it toppling over (something that baby walkers do not do - read my post on baby toys to avoid!) 

6. Finally if you have a bigger budget, trikes are the best thing out there for toddlers! I think every parent of a one year old I knew bought their little one a trike for their first birthday! Whilst our boys are at the age where they can't walk yet but constantly want to be on the move, a trike is the perfect gift to entertain little ones while out at the park!

Trikes vary in price, but the Smart Trike in Carnival Red is £89.99 at John Lewis and is actually suitable from 10 months up until 36 months! 

We actually have the more expensive version which is the Smart Trike Frog Trike priced at £149.99. This trike is amazing and seems a little more secure than the other trikes, as it also has a clip in seat. 

I think trikes are the perfect gift as they last a long time, they are perfect for taking little ones out in without them running off/falling over etc. Plus it also makes it even more exciting taking them to places like the park. If you have the budget to buy a trike I'm certain your little one will love it!

I hope these gift ideas have helped you out, if you have any suggestions please feel free to leave them in the comments section below, I'd love to hear what you've found as successful gifts!

Lots of love,
Samantha Dawn
xoxo

How to Remove Cradle Cap - Dentinox Cradle Cap Shampoo Review

Hey guys,

Now I know this isn't a glamorous post for all of you to read, but sadly motherhood isn't always glamorous. This post is about how to remove cradle cap from your newborn baby, I will also be reviewing the Dentinox Cradle Cap Shampoo if any other parents are wondering about buying this to treat their babies.

One of my sons got cradle cap when he was 6 months old, (I'm not going to show any pictures of what cradle cap looks like as it's not the nicest thing, but feel free to Google it). He didn't suffer too badly with it, which I was grateful for, but I still wanted to treat it as soon as possible before it got worse.

What you need to know about cradle cap is, it's a yellowy scaly skin on top of a babies head (although it can be in other places too), it's not dangerous and it doesn't harm your baby in any way. The only problem with cradle cap is it's rather unsightly. It's still not really known what causes cradle cap but there are some easy and cheap ways to cure it. Also, cradle cap is not contagious, only one of my twin boys has ever had it. It usually disappears after a few weeks or months, so if you really struggle to get rid of it just know it will go eventually!

So firstly there is a home remedy you can try; if you go to your own cupboards and get out some olive oil, almond oil or even baby oil and apply that to your babies head. Leave the oil on your babies head for a while so it soaks in and then, usually at bath time, you brush through your babies hair with a fine tooth comb, which should start to loosen the scales, then wash through your babies hair to remove the shampoo and any scales. However, I didn't enjoy using oil as I found it to be a greasy, sticky way to treat my sons head.

What I used instead was Dentinox's Cradle Cap Treatment Shampoo, which retails at around £2 and is available at most supermarkets or at Boots for £2.09. Not only is this a shampoo for cradle cap, but it can be used after that has been treated as a general baby shampoo and keeps your babies head clean. I've used it on both my boys even though one of them has never suffered with this problem. It's also suitable from birth, so if your newborn is suffering with cradle cap you can treat it straight away.

All I can say about this product is that for the money it's definitely worth it, it costs the same as a bottle of olive oil and in my opinion it did the job better. With one application to my sons head half of his cradle cap had gone, then all I did was shampoo his head the following day to remove the rest of it and that has been it! I was quite apprehensive about using a product from Dentinox again as I had tried their colic drops which didn't work for my babies when they had colic (nothing did!), but this product was really amazing. The fact that I can also use it as a shampoo now is a bonus as it means the rest of the bottle doesn't get wasted. Plus it's a good way to keep any build up of skin or potential cradle cap re-occuring.

To smell it's almost odourless with a hint of soap, which to me is a lot nicer than smelling of olive oil! I know I've read some reviews where mothers say it took them longer to get results with this shampoo, but I wanted to tell you how fantastic this product was for me. Of course every baby is different and reacts differently to things, but I hope this works well for you too. My babies both now have scale-free hair again, even they're happy about that:

When using this shampoo or any other shampoo suitable for cradle cap, make sure you don't get it in your babies eyes. This shampoo is stronger than a usual baby shampoo, so getting it in your babies eyes will give them some discomfort. 

For more information on cradle cap and treatments, please check out the NHS website.

I hope this helped you out, if you didn't like this product, let me know what worked best for you.

Lots of love,
Samantha Dawn
xoxo

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Congratulations Kate Middleton Gives Birth To Baby Boy

Just a post to celebrate the birth of a royal baby boy! So exciting. Congratulations Kate and William on your gorgeous baby boy!

DermaH20 Water Wipes Review

If you're a mum-to-be or a new parent you've probably heard of WaterWipes. WaterWipes are made with 99.9% water and 0.1% fruit extract, and are suitable from birth. They are free from chemical preservatives, allergy friendly and help avoid nappy rash. The company who produce them, Derma H20, emphasise the fact that WaterWipes are all natural wipes, and don't contain any harmful chemicals found in other baby wipes. These chemicals can be found even in those produced by leading brands such as Pampers, Huggies etc. I'll be the first one to admit that, prior to hearing of WaterWipes I was quite happily going to use standard wet wipes without any question as to the chemical ingredients. Surely we can trust baby brands not to add ingredients that are harmful to babies skin? Maybe not.

Prior to buying my first pack of WaterWipes, I did question whether it was worth spending money on something that is essentially just water; however the guilt of being a new parent and potentially harming my baby with 'chemical wipes' took over me and I gave in. I did hesitate before placing my order online, at Amazon you can buy 12 packs for £25, which again seems a lot for a water based product you use once and throw away. I placed four orders of £25 whilst my babies were newborns, looking back that was £100 on some baby wipes that are just made of water!!!
Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that they contain no chemicals, and my twins didn't get any nappy rash whilst using the products, (although we no longer use WaterWipes and they still don't have nappy rash so that could have just been coincidence). 

In hindsight, what was wrong with a bit of cotton wool and some water? It would have saved me a lot of money in the long run. 

I'm not saying don't buy WaterWipes. They are a lazy alternative to cotton wool and water, and in the newborn months you certainly need to have some quick easy alternatives. It is a lot easier to open a packet of wipes and clean your babies tushy rather than go and get some water, get the cotton wool out and clean them up. Having said that, I think DermaH20 have certainly played on the dangers of other baby wipes, focusing on them being harmful which obviously makes new parents stop using anything but, yes you guessed it, WaterWipes. Well I can't knock them for that as it certainly worked with me and other mums I know.

Will I continue to use WaterWipes now my babies are 7 months old? No. I switched to ordinary fragrance free baby wipes to use when I'm out and about (for ease) and cotton wool and water when I'm at home. I stopped buying them when my babies were around 4 months old as I think they are a good buy for newborn babies, but now my babies are getting a little bigger and I've had a little more sleep, I think I can manage to clean them the old fashioned way, with water from my tap. 

WaterWipes retail at just over £2 a pack, which is higher than your standard pack of baby wipes. I have to say the price itself is a little baffling, I mean they can't cost that much to make, can they?!

I suppose you're wondering would I recommend these for your little one? Well, I do for those early newborn months, if only to save you the trouble of using cotton wool and water. Other than that, there are cheaper alternatives that do the job just as well, if not better, so I'd save your money.

Have you used WaterWipes? What did you think of them? I'd love to hear about your experience and if you like them or not.

Don't forget to follow me for more baby related product reviews and general mummy chat.

Lots of love,

Samantha Dawn

xoxo

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