Review: Tiddler Toddler Tracker

One of the best pieces of advice I (stupidly) ignored as a new mum was to keep track of your little one's sleeping and feeding times, to help you establish a routine that didn't result in them becoming overtired/hungry at night. I did it a bit, to begin with when Daph was tiny and seemingly drinking eighteen bottles of milk a day, but then as she got older I didn't keep up with it. I had an app, which I never really got the hang of using (the breastfeeding ones in particular, with their built in timers, were just way too much faff for me!), and a paper chart the midwife gave me, but that soon got covered in milk/vomit.

So when I heard about the Tiddler Tracker (I saw a post about it from someone I follow on Facebook) I was pretty impressed, and really wished I'd had one in those early days, as it would have been much easier to keep on top of everything with a proper physical book. The Tiddler Tracker is a Moleskine-esq book filled with useful charts and pages for you to fill in, to track all aspects of your baby's day. And it's not just for babies, as there's also the Tiddler Toddler Tracker for older kids, such as Daph, designed to be more relevant for them.

As a stationery fan, I just loved the idea straight away. I was also amazed that no one had thought of it before. I pinged off a tweet about them, and the company kindly got in touch and offered me a Toddler Tracker for review. Its arrival was very timely as we have recently been trying to keep a log of Daphne's nap times to get on top of this early waking issue - it's been SO helpful as we've realised that she actually needs to go to bed earlier than we thought if we want her to sleep in a bit later. It's all to do with how long she's awake for between waking up from her nap and going to bed for the night - any more than six hours, and she's overtired and will wake in the night (and then, inevitably, wake for the day super early and grumpy).

There are several designs available to choose from, so you can find one that works for you, and the books are handily sized, so they're not so small you're squinting to read the pages, but they'd fit in your changing bag easily so you can take them out and about with you. Best of all the folk behind the company are parents and have really thought about the product, designing it based on personal experience of what works and what you need to keep a record of (they had a son with reflux, so understood the importance of tracking things carefully).

We've been using the Toddler Tracker for a week now, and we love it. Daphne's also keen and enjoys watching us write things down in 'her book'. I actually think the Tiddler Tracker would be a perfect present for new parents - something most people might not think of, but that would undoubtedly become an essential bit of kit for anyone coping with those crazy first months.