BABIES

+ When you’re pregnant with your first baby, it is hard to know which baby products are the best value for money. Try contacting companies and asking for samples. Most companies will send them out and then you can decide which products you prefer before your baby is born.

+ When bathing your very young baby, wear a cotton glove on the hand you are using to support them. This helps you keep a firm hold when they are slippery with soap and water.

+ When your baby outgrows the baby bath but is nervous of the big bath, pop the baby into a plastic clothes basket placed in the big bath. Your baby will feel secure, the toys won’t float away and, in no time, baby will be used to being in the big bath. Remember to never leave a baby alone in a bath.

+ Cutting baby’s fingernails can be nerve-wracking at first, because it can be easy to nick their skin. Put a little talcum powder in the palm of your hand and gently rub baby’s fingers through it. The tips of their nails will fill with powder, letting you easily see how far to cut.

+ An easy way to put drops in a baby’s eye is to lie them down and shine a torch on the ceiling (for a small child, they can hold and direct the torch themselves). The light spot absorbs their attention and, as their eyes follow the beam, the drops will circulate well.

+ To help babies sleep comfortably when they have a cold, place cotton wool soaked in eucalyptus oil near, but out of reach of, the cot.

+ To keep a baby’s bottle warm in winter, place it in a stubby holder. It insulates very well. (Stubby holders are beaut in summer, too, for keeping an older baby’s bottle cool!)

+ Freeze boiled water in sterilised ice-cube trays – one block is usually 10ml. Then, if you are filling a baby’s bottle and have made it too hot, just drop in a couple of blocks. This cools the liquid quickly for that impatient hungry baby.

+ In very hot weather, fill a hot-water bottle with iced water and place it in baby’s cot or bassinette to cool the bedclothes before putting baby to sleep.

+ Help your baby to sit securely by putting a blow-up swim ring around their waist, instead of propping them up with pillows. It will save a lot of toppling over and bruising!

+ Keep your baby amused by hanging an assortment of toys, teaspoons, paper butterflies etc on a clothes horse. Now you have a good-value portable amusement centre you can move around the house with you. Take care the baby can’t reach anything and topple the clothes horse over.

+ A plastic bucket is an excellent way to carry baby and toddler toys. You can take the bucket of toys with you when you visit friends or when you move from room to room in the house. It’s about the right size, brightly coloured and inexpensive, with a perfect handle.

+ Cut a few simple shapes, such as stars, fish or animals, from old thin kitchen sponges, and push them into a clean, empty soft drink bottle, then three-quarters fill the bottle with water and replace the lid tightly. Place the bottle on the floor and your baby will have hours of fun rolling it from side to side and watching the shapes swimming.

+ Mix 1 teaspoon full-fat cream cheese with any bottled or canned food your baby doesn’t take to. They will often then happily try the food they initially rejected.

+ Commercial baby food can be expensive for those on a limited budget. As well as blending your own steamed vegetables, why not buy large cans of unsweetened fruit and blend them? You will generally get 8 to 10 serves for the same price as 3 cans of baby food.

+ Getting a toddler to eat can sometimes be tricky; try putting a glove puppet on your hand and let the puppet feed your child.

+ When shopping with your baby in a pram, you can carry bags by looping Velcro strips around the pram handle and through the bag. Make sure your bag is never heavy enough to overbalance the pram!

+ Attach a cup hook to a baby’s high chair to hold bibs.

+ Instead of buying costly highchair spill mats, use a flannel-backed tablecloth: it’s both cheap and easy to clean.

+ A square of plastic under the highchair will catch food, spoons or toys that inevitably drop.

+ A professional’s hint: when taking a photograph of a baby or toddler, you will capture great expressions by blowing bubbles over their head.

+ Cut away the feet from old socks and use the sleeves as knee protectors when a baby is learning to crawl.

+ An empty ice-cream container, attached to the central arm rest of the car by two loops of wide elastic threaded through holes in the base, make an ideal box for a child’s small toys on long car journeys.

+ Fill an empty perfume bottle with disinfectant and pop it into your baby bag. It’s very useful for spraying over public change tables. Better mark the bottle clearly, though – otherwise a careless squirt on your clothes could have you smelling like a changing mat.

+ When you no longer need your child’s cot, remove the drop side, cover the mattress with a bright fabric and add some cushions to make a useful seat in your child’s room.

TODDLERS AND YOUNG CHILDREN

+ For toilet-training little boys, put a ping pong ball in the toilet bowl as a target to aim at. It will reappear, of course, after flushing. This focuses his aim and keeps the drips off the floor.

+ When you’re moving house, pack the children’s rooms into the truck last and reconstruct them first when you arrive at your new home. Having their room organised and familiar will make it easier for them to adjust to a new home.

+ Place an extra handle on a screen door at your child’s level so they can let themself in and out, saving you from having to open the door every 5 minutes, or leave it open, letting in flies and insects. Of course, this is for a back door only, into a fenced garden, without access to roads or pools.

+ Crush medicine tablets for children in 1 teaspoon icing sugar.

+ To avoid pain when a child has a splinter, apply a dab of teething gel to the spot before using the needle and tweezers. It completely numbs the area.

+ Small children often find it difficult to learn left and right. Help them recognise the capital L plainly made by the thumb and forefinger of the Left hand.

+ For children who are afraid of the dark, stick luminous stickers around the light switch. This also helps parents find the light switch in the middle of the night.

+ A lovely way to keep your child’s special paintings is to add the name and date, then laminate both sides and use them as placemats.

+ To avoid squabbles in the bathroom, supply each child with matching coloured face cloth and toothbrush. That colour then becomes the child’s own, so they can identify and use their own things. As they get older you can do the same with swimming towels, bath towels and so on (making it easy to spot the person who isn’t hanging up their wet towels!).

+ When siblings are inclined to compete over food and are reluctant to share, allow one to cut the food and the other to choose the portion. They will quickly get very good at cutting the portions evenly!

+ Children playing in the back seat of a car can cause a driver to lose concentration. Use elastic bands to fix a long, narrow mirror to the back of the sun visor, so that you can keep an eye on them easily. They can make eye contact with you, too, and will behave better.

+ To remove chewing gum from a child’s hair, try applying cold cream or eucalyptus oil to the area. Leave for a minute, then pull a dry towel firmly down the hair strand. The gum should slide away.

+ Personalise hand-me-down clothes from friends or siblings by adding new buttons or appliqués. It’s even better if the child selects the new trimmings themself.

+ Encourage young children to eat their lunch sandwiches by using a teddy bear or gingerbread man biscuit cutter to cut them into shapes. Add currants or sultanas for eyes.

+ To hide children’s ballpoint scribbles on wallpaper, use correction fluid. Lightly tint with a colour from a child’s paint set that matches the wallpaper. This should disguise the marks very successfully.

+ Children who kick off their bedclothes and get cold during the night can be kept warm and cosy by loosely tucking a double blanket around them. This allows them freedom of movement without them ever becoming completely uncovered and losing body heat – the same concept as the expensive children’s ‘sleeping bags’ you can buy for babies and toddlers. To go one better, make up a child’s bed with a full-size blanket. The blanket tucks further under the mattress and can be used later when the child grows and graduates to a larger bed.

+ A small bell sewn to toddlers’ slippers will let you know where they are, when you are busy cooking or doing things around the house and can’t have your eye on them all the time.

+ Collect all your cardboard off-cuts, cardboard tubes, bottle tops and milk cartons and drop them into your local preschool. The children can use them for arts and crafts while you’re recycling.

+ If your child constantly gets out of bed at night with the excuse that they want a drink of water or a cuddle or whatever, try making them a small decorated card and call it a Bed Pass. This entitles the child to get out of bed once for any reason. Maybe, if the child saves up the passes, they can be redeemed for a special reward at the end of the week.

+ Shoe laces won’t come out if a knot is tied on each side, after the lace has been threaded through the two last holes.

+ If a child is learning to knit, use two different coloured needles: one for the plain row and the other for the purl row.

+ Whenever you are sitting on a crowded beach, tie a colourful balloon to your beach bag, deckchair or beach umbrella, so that the children (both big and small) can easily find you. Buy the new compostable brands now available.

+ To help prevent children getting lost on crowded caravan and camping sites, tie a balloon with a long string to the top of your van or tent. They’ll be able to find their way home easily. Buy the new compostable brands now available.

+ If you have guests for dinner and you don’t have enough room at your table, use your ironing board as a temporary table. Put the board up halfway and children can use it while sitting on the couch.

+ Tuck in the corners of tablecloths when small children are about; it could save an accident.

+ For young children, write phone numbers on the backs of photos of family and friends and fit them into albums to make an illustrated phone book for an emergency. Keep this by your home phone.

+ If your home phone stores numbers, put coloured stickers on the numbers of close friends and relatives. This way, in an emergency, a child can get help. Be sure to explain the stickers and have a test run.

Don’t lose it!

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For permanent labels on school clothes, write the name on strips of iron-on interfacing; once ironed onto the garments they’ll never come off. Or label school clothes and bags with fabric paints. The paint is permanent after drying for 24 hours, doesn’t fade and won’t come off. Don’t forget to label shoes, which seem to be easily lost and are often very expensive to replace. Write your child’s name and phone number inside with permanent marker.

PLAY TIME

+ If a teddy bear has suffered too much love and is starting to come apart at the seams, use dental floss instead of cotton to sew it up. Floss is stronger and more pliable than cotton and can handle the toughest love.

+ If you own a number of jigsaw puzzles, the pieces can often get mixed up, which can be exasperating and hard to spot. So the first time you complete a new puzzle, turn it over and colour the back of the pieces with coloured felt pen. Then mark the box with the same colour.

+ Save the screw caps from toothpaste tubes to use as counters in children’s board games. Little fingers can manage them more easily than the usual small, flat counters that come with the games. You can watch out for coloured ones, or colour them yourself with pen.

+ Coat new boards for games with clear self-adhesive book covering. They will last longer and can be wiped clean after playing. The instruction books can be covered as well, for a longer life.

+ Cut the legs off a pair of laddered tights and use them to store children’s wooden jigsaw puzzles, assembled. The stocking hugs the puzzle and keeps it intact, and you can easily see which puzzle is which.

+ If your children love books, why not make some. Glue different pictures (cut from old magazines) into a scrapbook and give each page a different heading, such as: Colours, Animals, Shapes, TV Characters and Alphabet. Not only is it educational, but you can get your children involved by asking them to sort pictures and suggest their own themes.

+ Cut the numbers from old calendars and store them in a small cardboard box. Small children can make a game of matching numbers, while older children can learn their times tables by racing to group numbers.

+ A good idea for keeping young children amused on a rainy day is to make a photo album especially for them. Use duplicates of your favourite shots of family, pets, outings and so on. The children will get hours of fun from it.

+ To entertain children indoors, put a tennis ball inside an old stocking or tights leg, hang it from a hook in the ceiling and give them room to hit the ball with tennis racquets. It will keep them amused for hours.

+ A game of Snakes & Ladders played with young children can be a long drawn-out affair that loses its appeal. Use two dice instead of one. It moves the game along and teaches them to add up.

+ If your small child loves undressing their dolls but sometimes can’t get the tight-fitting clothes back on, sprinkle some talcum powder over the doll’s upper legs and you will find that the difficult clothes slip on easily.

+ Make a toddler’s disposable painting apron from a plastic grocery bag. Cut across the sealed bottom, then split up the back. Put the child’s arms through the handles and tie at the back. Make children’s cooking aprons by cutting head and armholes into old pillowcases.

+ An oven mitt makes an excellent blackboard duster. Children love using it, it can be hung from a small cup hook on the blackboard and it can easily go in the washing machine.

+ Preschoolers love painting when the paint is put into cleaned, refillable, roll-on deodorant containers. Mums love the lack of mess!

+ Add a few drops of glycerine to soapy water when children are blowing bubbles. The bubbles will be larger, stronger and more brightly coloured.

+ A good sandpit for children is a large truck tyre filled with sand. Cover the tyre with a weighted board at night.

+ Plastic trellis makes an effective cover for a child’s sandpit. It discourages cats and other inquisitive animals, yet is light enough for children to remove by themselves.

+ When children are still playing at the end of the day, set a timer bell to give them a 10-minute warning that teatime or bedtime is near. When the bell rings, they need to wind down their activity and pack up. A 15-minute buzzer might better suit older children.

+ Balloons make great, cheap bathtime toys for playing with your toddlers. Buy the new compostable brands now available. Fill a balloon with water until it fits in the palm of your hand, tie a knot in it and you have a semi-floating toy that toddlers love. You can also fill a balloon with air – it makes a great sound when slapped on the water and will burst to the surface when released from below. They last for weeks without going mouldy.

PARTY TIME

+ When making jellies for children, use only half the hot water required, then finish diluting with fizzy lemonade. It gives a good tingly taste that children love.

+ Instead of buying expensive commercial party bags, buy inexpensive cake boxes and fill them with a picnic tea. Then hand out crayons, paints and stickers and other decorations, to make a picture that the guests can take home in their box with cake, sweets and crayons.

+ Make place cards using different-coloured balloons (buy the compostable brand) with guest names written on. They’re much more effective that ordinary cards and the children can take them home at the end of the party. Push a wrapped lolly into the neck of each balloon before blowing it up – then there are no tears if the balloon bursts.

+ As a cheaper alternative to helium balloons, use double-sided sticky tape to stick groups of balloons to walls and ceilings.

+ If you want a birthday cake but your child doesn’t like cake, make a simple ice-cream cake. Buy a tub of ice cream, make sure it’s well frozen, then remove from the freezer and leave in a bowl of hot water for a couple of minutes, so that you can turn it out onto a plate. Decorate it as you would a party cake, adding a paper frill around the side and sticking sparklers on top. An instant hit!

+ If your small children usually only eat the decorations from their birthday cake, make a whole large cake from chocolate crackle mixture. Draw a shape (teddy bear, or number) on greaseproof paper placed on a tray. Spoon the mixture onto the shape and decorate with coconut for a fuzzy teddy bear, or pipe with icing for other features.

+ Try a little homemade magic at your next party. Put drops of various food colourings in the bottom of clear tumblers, carry them into the party empty and on a dark tray to hide the drops. Pour in clear lemonade and different coloured drinks will magically appear.

+ Use sheets of butcher’s paper for the party tablecloth and have several boxes of crayons handy. This will keep the children happily entertained between eating. (This is also fun at adults’ drinks too!)

+ If you are worried about the expense and work needed for a children’s birthday party, hold a birthday sleepover instead. Your child can invite four friends over to watch movies, eat party food and play party games – ask them all to bring a pillow and sleeping bag. They could sleep on the floor of the lounge room or, when old enough, they love to sleep in a tent in the yard. The cost and organisation are minimal, but best of all the children love it and will probably ask for the same on their next birthday.