One of my very favorite things about getting ready for Darah’s arrival was picking out her baby bedding. You guys, I spent HOURS…really probably dozens of hours combing through all the beautiful bedding options, searching in vain for coupons to make the sets I loved more affordable, and then finally biting the bullet and getting the very first set I fell in love with when I started my search. It was a splurge, but it was something special for my little girl. I just HAD to have it.

And then I learned that most of that beautiful bedding was dangerous for a baby. The bumpers were a suffocation risk, and the beautiful quilt was a huge no-no to put in the crib, as it, too, posed a suffocation risk. Sigh…

One thing her set didn’t even include due to its risk factor was a pillow (Why not? They threw in everything else that was dangerous!). Pillows are unsafe for the same reason that stuffed animals are unsafe; anything that can get in between a baby’s mouth and the air it needs to breathe is especially dangerous until the baby is able to easily roll itself in different directions. For Darah, that wasn’t until about 5 months, but even then, I didn’t let a pillow or stuffed animals in the crib.

She did start to doze off with a little lovey in hand around 8 months of age, and then she met her beloved bunny, who she started to snuggle with at nap time. But she still didn’t have a pillow.

In fact, she didn’t have a pillow until after she turned 2 years old, at which point I finally wondered if she might be more comfortable with something under her head! I was noticing that her bunny was starting to serve as a make-shift pillow, so maybe that meant she was ready for the real deal.

I turned to my dear friend Google to find out when most people start allowing their children to sleep with pillows. Wow, the answers varied quite widely! One piece of advice was to give your child a pillow whenever they make the transition to a bigger bed. Other people said to do it as soon as they started to become wiggle worms at night time, moving around to many different positions to try to get more comfortable. There were parents who gave a pillow to a child just after turning 1, and there were others who didn’t offer a pillow until much later, perhaps closer to 3. So as with many things related to parenting, the question of when to give your child a pillow is one with many different answers, and it is best to use your own best judgment based on the needs of your child.

After determining that Darah was ready, it was then time to figure out what type of pillow to get her. Does she really need a standard size pillow like what we have on our bed? That seemed ridiculous to me. One person online suggested getting an airline pillow. I liked the idea of a pillow that size, but where do you get an airline pillow? Those things are hard to find even on airplanes these days!

So, I began my search for a toddler pillow online, expecting to be overwhelmed with options. Not so! There aren’t nearly as many places as you might assume that have pillows especially designed for toddlers. But that’s no problem since there’s at least one place that offers an excellent product at an excellent price. Let me introduce you to BobbleRoos. This is a wonderful company that offers a whole host of practical gifts for babies and toddlers, but I want you to pay very close attention to their toddler pillows. They are the PERFECT size and shape (not too fluffy, not too flat). And they can be customized with many different soft and sweet fabrics. What I REALLY like is the fact that you can get your child’s name embroidered on the pillowcase, which makes it even more special. It also makes for a practical tough if your little one is going to preschool or kindergarten and needs to take his or her own pillow with him. There will be no mistaking which one belongs to your child!

When I first showed Darah her pillow, she knew it had her name on it, which she loved. She looked up at me and said, “This is Darah’s pillow!” And she sleeps with it every night in her crib. I know that it isn’t too fluffy to cause any worry, so I feel totally happy with the pillow I chose. I also know that even though this pillow is small, it can easily grow with Darah. It really is a great size travel pillow for car trips or plane rides.

So after all that research, I have concluded that there isn’t a standard answer for when to give your child a pillow (although absolutely nobody recommends one before the age of 1), nor is there a standard type suggested. But there is one place that offers a toddler pillowyou can buy with confidence, and that place is BobbleRoos! Pillows start at $16.50, and can be embroidered for an additional $6.95!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win your very own Toddler Pillow from Bobbleroos including personalization!
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