Updating your baby registry once your baby starts toddling

The first wobbly steps across the living room are also the day the registry stops making sense. Bottles and newborn nappies are done. What you need now is gear for a child who climbs onto the sofa, reaches the second shelf and finds the one drawer you forgot to check.

Childproofing moves to the top of the list

A walking child reaches things a crawling one could not. Put a stair gate at the top and the bottom of the stairs (BabyDan or Reer; a pressure-mounted one is mid-range in price), and anchor the bookcase and the chest of drawers to the wall. Furniture tipping over is the one item on this list that hurts children badly, and the anchor kit costs next to nothing.

Cabinet locks belong on the cupboard with the cleaning products and the one with the pans. Magnetic locks are worth paying a bit more for than the plastic latches: an adult opens them with a key from outside, and a determined two-year-old cannot. Socket covers are cheap and quick.

Corner guards peel off within a fortnight and toilet locks are more annoying for the adults than for the child. Skip both and close the bathroom door.

Feeding shifts from bottles to real meals

Somewhere between twelve and eighteen months, the bottle disappears and the child wants to eat what you eat, with their own hands. Add a plate with dividers, a cup with two handles and short, chunky cutlery sized for a fist. Silicone bibs with a pocket catch most of what misses the mouth, and they go in the dishwasher.

If you already have a chair that grows with the child, such as the Stokke Tripp Trapp, you need nothing else. If you have a classic high chair with a tray, an inexpensive booster that straps onto a normal dining chair puts the child at the table with the rest of the family, which is where they learn to eat.

A small step stool for the kitchen, so they can watch you cook, gets more use than any snack container.

Toys need to do more than entertain

Toddler toys are for doing things: stacking, sorting, pushing, drawing. Wooden blocks, a shape sorter and a set of Lego Duplo cover most of the first year of walking. A first puzzle with big knobs (Goula or Djeco make good ones) and chunky Crayola crayons with a roll of paper take care of rainy afternoons.

For moving around, a push-along walker or a ride-on like the affordable BIG Bobby Car builds balance. Baby walkers, the ones the child sits in and scoots, are a different thing; most health services advise against them, so leave them off the list. Battery-powered keyboards that play twelve tunes on a loop are a gift to the child and a punishment for the parents.

Sleep setups change once the cot no longer fits

Most children move from a cot to a toddler bed somewhere between eighteen months and three years, usually the week they first climb out. Until then, keep the cot. When the time comes, a low bed with a rail, or a mattress on the floor for the first weeks, is enough. Bedding for the bigger mattress goes on the registry, along with a flat toddler pillow, which most health services say is fine after the first birthday.

A dim night light helps once the imagination arrives and the dark becomes a problem. If your child wakes at five because the sun does, an inexpensive portable blackout blind does more than any sleep routine.

Clothes and other everyday practicalities

Toddler clothes take a beating. Elastic waists, slip-on shoes and jumpers without fiddly buttons mean the child can start dressing themselves, which they will insist on doing at exactly the moment you are late.

Add outdoor gear in the right size. A rain suit with rubber boots (a mid-range suit from Didriksons or Reima) means the playground stays open all year, and a sun hat with a strap survives the summer. For toilet training, a simple, inexpensive potty like the BabyBjörn one does the job. Skip the musical potty.

Go through the list before the next round of birthdays and family visits, so the grandparents buy the stair gate and the Duplo and nothing in size newborn. You can create a baby registry and add the toddler items the same evening.