How to Keep Your Toddler Busy While Caring for a Newborn

Learn how we kept our oldest Irish Twin occupied with nursing baskets when the baby needed attention. A super easy but effective solution that will totally save your sanity!

Nursing Basket

As I've mentioned a few times before, we have almost Irish Twins in our family. Our oldest two were born 12 months and 16 days apart, missing the cutoff by just 17 days (Baby Boy did not want to come out!) I've discussed how we handle life with Irish Twins and also some things that you'll probably need double of if you have Irish Twins. Today I want to share another sanity saver if you have Irish Twins or if you're preparing for them.

You may have noticed that you're oldest is getting more mobile and is ever curious, and if your kids are anything like mine that means that they're getting into everything! With a new baby, you'll often find yourself being stuck in a chair, trying to nurse or feed the baby or rock an upset or tired baby. But even with you stuck in the chair and down for the count, your almost-toddler will continue his mission to explore everything in the house, which can be frustrating at best and dangerous at worst.

Thankfully, we came up with a solution to this issue before my second son was even born. We created Nursing Baskets for our oldest to keep him occupied if I needed to tend to the (smaller) baby.

So we bought The Boss a special Elmo Chair and had about 5 nursing baskets that we would rotate to keep him out of trouble.

The nursing baskets were filled with special toys, books, or movies that he could only play with or watch if I was nursing. This also alleviated some sibling rivalry issues because even though Mommy was giving special attention to baby brother, big brother got a special basket that was all his.

The concept is really simple and really effective, all you need to do is fill those baskets!

Here are some ideas to fill your own Nursing Basket:

Books are an easy and practical idea, but make sure that you purchase books that your child can "read" independently, or you'll end up nursing and trying to read a story. Try some Seek-and-Find books or some Easy Picture Word Books.

Movies and DVDs are another great idea. I tried to make them educational so I felt slightly less guilty. Sesame Street or Elmo, LeapFrog, and sing-along videos were my top choices.

Click Here to see Top Family Educational Videos

Small (but not too small!) toy sets. My son loved playing with animal or dinosaur sets. But you can also consider a tool set or music set (unless you need it quiet!).

Click Here to see Top Toy Sets for Toddlers

And then of course, we had his Elmo Chair that was placed next to our rocker. He was required to stay sitting in his chair in order to play with his nursing basket.

How did you keep your oldest occupied when you needed to focus on your little one?

Did you like this idea? Find more on my Parenting and Kids Crafts & Activities boards on Pinterest!

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