Love affair with leg warmers

Leg warmers... well what can I say?! Never in a million years would I have thought I'd ever write anything proclaiming the amazingness of leg warmers but here I am...

I first stumbled across baby leg warmers on this site http://www.first-signs.com/order.html when buying my Ergobaby carrier (complete aside but LOVE this carrier - still now at 10kg Doof feels light as a feather and I can carry him comfortably for hours). And to be honest once I'd tried my first pair (on Doof naturally, not on me!) I was in love. And a minor obsession was born :)

So here are some situations in which leg warmers are an awesome solution:

In the baby carrier:

This was where I first used them - and oh they are so perfect for this!! Before we'd get in this awkward situation where it was cold enough that he needed some sort of extra layers covering his legs - but a snowsuit would make his whole body too warm and an extra pair of trousers would be impossible to take off once inside without waking him up if he was sleeping. But... with leg warmers – no such problem! They keep his legs warm but can easily be peeled off without removing him from the carrier. And so much smaller and easier to carry round in your nappy bag than a bulky coat. Problem solved :)

Doof excited as he tried his first pair on, just before getting in his Ergo 

Change of clothes in nappy bag:

You know how it goes... you're out for the day, nappy bag stuffed to the brim and then not even halfway through the day your baby does a humungous leaky poop. Now baby is in their spare set of clothes and you're not going to be home for another 6 hours... Fingers crossed no more 'accidents'! Well the good news is you no longer have to worry - leg warmers are so small that they will fit in any space (no matter how over-stuffed your bag is) so you always have an emergency-emergency outfit to hand :)

Crawling:

Leg warmers are great for crawling babies as they add that little extra bit of protection to otherwise battered knees. 

Easy nappy change:

I remember changing Doof in the family changing rooms in Westfield when he was about 2 months old. As he lay there being very well-behaved and quiet as I changed his nappy, I watched a mother battling with her older baby/toddler on the next-door change mat. “Pah” I thought to myself as the child rolled around squirming and twisting and generally making life difficult for her, “I can’t believe that mum can’t even control a baby to change the nappy without so much fuss”… anyway roll on 10 months and I now *am* that mother. Changing nappies in non-mobile babies is easy. Changing nappies in wriggly mind-of-their-own toddlers is difficult! So the next time you are at home, loose the trousers and just put some leg warmers on their legs to keep them warm – hey presto, easy access when you need to change nappy without having to take trousers on/off/on etc

On top of trousers as extra layer:

I find this especially useful now Doof is older and so is more difficult to wrestle into a snowsuit or all-in-one coat. Now we can have a normal coat plus legwarmers on his legs. Additional benefit is you can then take layers off the top half and/or bottom half depending on ambient temperature – more choice than when in a combined snowsuit :)

Modelling his alphabet legwarmers

UV protection:

We went to Arizona and Nevada when Doof was 5 months old. One of his pairs of leg warmers are UV ones so are very thin and light but offer full protection from the sun. So I knew if I put him in the carrier and made sure his legs were covered by those then there was no risk of him burning. Ditto when we were sitting by the pool – his towel-gown covered his arms/head/body but left his legs exposed – bring out the leg warmers again :)

To complete an outfit:

Imagine the scenario - you buy an awesome tiger outfit from mothercare but it has short legs and it's a chilly day. What to do? The natural reaction might be to wait for a warmer day but the best solution is buy orange and black stripey legwarmers from http://www.nappykindboutique.co.uk/ and complete the outfit!

Before...

After :)

And sometimes just because you can...

For example to look stylish as you celebrate mummy and her 1000th tweet :)

Disclaimer: I like baby leg warmers :) Doof is a very lucky little chap and has a total of 6 pairs to cover all occasions - 1 thick wool, 2 warm, 2 thin and 1 UV.