On Saturday I attended the Baby Show in Birmingham. Now that Lydia is 2, I think this is probably going to be my last Baby Show – although I suppose I may change my mind next year! I always enjoy attending the show and discovering new brands and products that I’ve not seen before, and after a few years in this blogging community, it’s also great to be able to say hi to all the familiar faces on the stands.
My favourite products from this years Baby Show are…
Ewan the Dream Sheep – my no.1 must have baby product that I bully encourage everyone into buying for their newborn – now has a grey version! Sweet Dreamers are releasing both the full size Ewan and the snuggly comforter version in a new soft grey colour which is super cute. It is a good move for the company as it gives parents an alternative colour choice if they’re not keen on purple.
These breastfeeding support pillows from Bennu Babies are an ingenious idea. It is a brand new product and still under development, but I would have loved to have one of these a few years ago for supporting the breast when breastfeeding in some of the more challenging positions. They use cot safe foam and the covers are washable. I hope that they do well with their idea!
These papercut designs by The Crafty Calf are just beautiful and something a little bit different for a gift idea. They aren’t the cheapest thing in the world but as they are often personalised designs and partially hand cut, you can see why they have the price tag they do! I really love their Unicorn paper cut,the family trees, and the cuts that combine family photos or baby scans into their design.
The BBC Children in Need were at the show with a Pudsey wandering around, and a stand full of lovely merchandise. I picked up some beautiful birthday cards and some wristbands for the kids to take home, although I could have happily spent a small fortune on their stand, they have a lovely range of children and baby products with everything from lunch boxes to t-shirts, sleepsuits and toddler dinner sets.
Campbell Books were at the show with a huge selection of books from both their imprint, and Macmillan Children’s Books, andwith lots and lots of Julia Donaldson books. Now, I’m pretty sure Julia has some sort of magic touch when it comes to children’s books, as the Gruffalo is a huge sensation, and we have never read a JD book that we have not loved. The girls adore her books, and even my Dad is a huge fan, of Stick Man in particular. I was very restrained and didn’t pick anything up as I was laden down with books… although I did then cave on Sunday when I saw the Snail & the Whale sticker activity book in Sainsburys, so that has ended up coming home with us anyway.
I spent a bit of time chatting to the lovely folk on the Aldi stand, who were there with their Mamia baby range. I had no idea that their nappy range, which we are big fans of, extended all the way to include both pull up “Easy Pants” and swim nappies. Lydia is just starting to potty train, so they gave me a couple of the easy pants to try out with her and she was delighted with them – she actually insisted on putting one on the first time she needed a change, after I got back home.
We use a mix of both Aldi and Tesco nappies for Lydia, and find both brands to be far better than Pampers which give Lydia nappy rash. Lydia actually prefers Aldi to Tesco due to the design – she gets really excited when we have “animal change!” nappies in the house… she was very pleased with the “elephant pants!” as she called the easy pants.
Last, but not least, we visited the Arla Big Milk stand to try out their new vitamin enhanced milk. We’ve brought a bottle home, and have vouchers for a few more, so I will definitely be thinking up some fun ways to get the girls some of this goodness into them. This milk is perfect for that 12 month to 2 years stage where your child is moving on from breastmilk or formula milk onto whole milk, but you want to make sure they get all the nutrition they need. In my eyes it is WAY better than follow on milk. The milk is also filtered, so it tastes great too.
Well there you go – a very long post with all my favourite finds from this year’s Baby Show. I had a great day and the show seemed much better than it was last year. There were dozens more things I saw and really liked, it was definitely a show packed with loads of great brands and innovative products. I came away with a few things to test and review so will be sharing our opinions on those over the coming weeks, as well as a Tommee Tippee competition.
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