I really like winter, especially the build up to Christmas but I always worry about the cold and my children not being wrapped up enough. I can’t stand it when you see a child being pushed in a buggy done up to the nines with a coat, hat and gloves but then their legs are left uncovered! I always think they must be chilly so I like to make sure my little ones have lots of layers which can be added to or removed as and when necessary. It’s quite difficult to get the right balance when babies are too tiny to tell you how they’re feeling so I generally go by the advice to feel the back of the neck to determine how warm they are. I had Florence on New Year’s Eve and it was bitterly cold that year. It snowed all over January and even in February too so I had her in snow suits, blankets and inside the buggy footmuff. I was pleased not to have had Jimmy in the depths of winter so that I wasn’t again with a newborn in the snow but he’s still tiny and still very definitely needs to keep warm! The thing is, he, like his sister doesn’t like having blankets over him and kicks them off? What to do then when you just want that extra bit of warmth a blanket provides but you know there’s no point in taking one because it’ll be kicked to the bottom of the footmuff in no time? Well, I think I might just have found the answer!

Tippitoes sell a brilliant blanket called the Star Wrap and it’s pretty genius if you ask me! Calling it a blanket is selling it quite short really but it’s not really a footmuff, snow suit or coat either. In fact it kind of incorporates elements of each of those winter warmers and is quite a unique product on it’s own! This is how it works!

As you can see, the wrap is shaped like a star with the bottom two ‘points’ having a layer making a pocket over the top. Babies legs go in here like a loose pair of trousers and then the two ‘points’ at each side wrap over their body. The Star Wrap doesn’t have a hood to prevent over heating but it is soft for their heads to recline on. The cotton material on the inside also helps them keep cool enough while the outside fleece ensures their warmth.

Jimmy wrapped in the fleece has full movement for his arms and legs but is nice and snuggly. Like the picture shows, the Star Wrap is big enough to accommodate Jimmy for quite some time yet and he is 6 months old so it’s definitely not a one month wonder just when the baby is born!

I generally use this when out and about inside the foot muff with the buggy and I love the fact that no matter how much he flails about the blanket won’t come away from him because he is, in actual fact, wearing it. But aside from the buggy it has many uses: snuggled up on the sofa of an evening (especially when we’ve been out and forgotten to turn the heating on to warm up the house – I’d quite like one myself!), in the car it’s very good because the five point harness can go between his legs and the straps still go over his shoulders and then it also works in the sling which I think is a brilliant idea!

It’s great for using in the buggy and straps, just like for the car seat, go around the Star Wrap!

My favourite use has got to be for the cot though! As I said, my children just do not like covers on them and kick them off which means they wake up because they’re chilly! Something like this means Jimmy can’t kick it off but I also think it feels different to him than a blanket as he seems to thrash about less anyway! It’s perfect for all sorts of weathers really as can be used as a light blanket without being swaddled around or indeed in winter, as we are using it now, on its own or with other items like coats and footmuffs to keep toastie! I love it, it’s so much better than a blanket and even better is that the material, which has a cute elephant embroidered on to it, dries super quickly! It comes in different colours but we like it in cream best!

In the cot and it does the job of a blanket but in a much more efficient way meaning Jimmy can’t kick it off! And we love the cute embroidered elephant!

We think the Star Wrap is excellent value for money (at £14.99 it’s superb) and a fab product! Find out more at www.tippitoes.com.

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