One of the few times a parent is truly spoilt for choice is when your child is at the toddler stage and you walk into a toy store. Big box toy stores have aisles and aisles of toys for this stage. Developmentally, your baby has moved on from simply lying around to sitting up, smiling, laughing, gurgling and even clapping hands. Toy manufacturers try and capitalise on everything from mirrors so baby can see herself smile to walkers, push toys, pull along toys and even stuffed toys that encourage baby to clap and sing along!
But forget all that (no, actually don’t) and hear us out for one second. As a mom I am about to drop some serious experience-based advice on you that will change the way you look at this seemingly useless toy.
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The chain links sold by multiple manufacturers is the unassuming toy you must pick up. When my baby was a toddler a friend gifted this to me and told me to think about it as more than a toy. And I did. They are small, unassuming and you can stuff so many of them into a small place! Amazingly mobile, they don’t break and they have multiple uses. Here is everything I used these chain links for:
1. Attach toys to a high chair at a restaurant: I’m sure you are the familiar with the phase when your child will insist on throwing toys down from the high chair and laugh as you pick them up — again and again and again. Use chain links to fasten the toys to the high chair so they never touch the grim floor again!
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2. Attach pacifier or baby blanket to car seat: Easy way to ensure that baby’s security blanket is always close by and never falls down when you are driving and can’t help pick it up.
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3. Group small toys (like puppets) together: A set of small toys has the tendency to quickly fall apart. Group them and keep them together with these chain links!
4. Use them as teethers: Freeze them and give them to baby to use as teethers!
5. Increase the length of toys on baby mobile: Want to keep your baby busy in his bed while you take a bathroom break? use these links to clip a mirror or bring down the mobile toys so baby can touch and feel them while you take a quick break!
6. Attach small toys and use them to keep baby busy during a diaper change! : This has to be the best use of them all! Struggling to change a diaper in a plane bathroom? Use this trick to keep baby from squirming!
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Mansi Zaveri
Tanya Lemos
KSP Team
Parul Gupta
Janani S Koushik
