When I had my children I was given loads of baby blankets and some I bought, they were all, really useful and apart from the cosy toes that I had with the pram I bought, that was the only thing I had to use to keep my babies warm in the pram and car seat. I never really thought of looking for anything else. This was also because I did not have internet and I never went to baby shows so I really had no idea about baby products apart from the ones everyone knew about. It was only when my daughter was a couple of years old I heard about a travel wrap, it really was a god send and made it so much easy to get out of the house without any fuss.

Now I work in the baby industry, I am always looking at trade magazines and on the internet doing research. It’s great to see all the new products as they come on to the market and it is amazing to see how many new products there are and how brilliant some of them are.

I really think that it will not be long before standard baby blankets are a thing of the past. People are always looking for time, hassle and money savers and travel wrap products are definitely that. You can get them to fit in car seats, buggies, shopping trolley seats and bouncy chairs. Once people have had one they love them and say they are the best thing they ever bought, they then tell all their friends.

The sad thing about all of this is that it kind of makes the grannies and aunts redundant from making baby blankets, they probably will still do it but they won’t necessarily get the use that they used too. I guess it won’t be too long before you can buy fabric, knitting or crochet patterns to make travel wraps of your own.

If you are expecting a baby and you have access to the internet, it is worth having a look around at what you can get because there are some great alternatives to baby blankets, that can save a lot of time and hassle because you do not need to try and get tiny arms and legs into coats and snowsuits and that also means you do not have to get them out again if the baby gets too warm. That can be particularly beneficial if your baby is asleep and you do not want to disturb them.

It’s sad to leave the baby blanket behind, but it is the same with all progress in technology and people forward because they believe that it will make their lives better in the future. I will always have fond memories of my blankets, but if I could do it again and I had known about travel wraps, I definitely would have swapped them.