What to get for older sibling from new baby

[sarge89]

Hi all

My 3 year-old DS is due to get a baby brother in august! We have got a present from him for the baby lined up already and will take him to choose it and buy it soon.

However we want the baby to buy DS something too and this is where we're stuck! We want it to be something special not just "another toy".

Also pretty tight for money at the moment (isn't everyone?!) so somewhere around the £30 mark is probably about right.

Please throw some ideas our way! TIA 🙂

We've always just got them the toy we know they want . That has always kept them happy rather than something sentimental that will probably get shoved in the back of a wardrobe. For ages my daughter actually thought that her Ariel doll was actually taken out of my belly along with the baby during my c section 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Forget sentiment, get them something that will occupy them and make them oblivious to the fact you're splitting your attention. Blocks, Duplo, sticker books, play do, kinetic sand. Something they can get stuck into for 30 mins at a time and leave them to it. Farm animals.

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A baby doll and pram would be nice.

For a present from the baby to do its job it needs to be something they really really want, not a keepsake.

We decided not to do a “from the baby” present. It sounds ridiculous but I knew my dd would know it wasn’t FROM him and would be suspicious of why we were making out like a tiny newborn baby was in the shops picking presents 😂 not trying to rain on the baby present parade , I totally get why people do it but anyway we did a slightly difffenet thing, a present from us to say congratulations on becoming a big sister. we got her a special teddy which she still loves now!

I agree get him something you know he'll love.

Same. We got DD a Sylvanians set she’d been eyeing, said it was from us for becoming a big sister and she played with it for ages so mission accomplished.

Get him a toy he will love, three year olds don't tend to appreciate sentimental special gifts in my experience.

We got our eldest a longed for toy when the littlest one was born and while he loved the toy, he did say don't be so silly mummy I don't think the baby bought it because babies don't have any money 🤣

DS accidentally broke his favourite digger a few weeks before DS2 arrived. We got him a new one and said it was from the baby. It was only small but he was so excited and still remembers that it was a gift from him and talks about it. We also took him shopping to chose a special toy from him for the new baby, which he loved doing.

I don't get the ' from the baby' present but a toy he really wants and some new items of clothing went down well with dd2 as everyone who came to see baby brought clothes so she was very pleased that my parents brought some new dresses for her as well.
Most of my family did similar so my parents got her some cotton summer wear, my sister's a set of hairbands, my brother some hair clips.
It's not something I'd given much thought to but worked out really well

Oh and our special gift from eldest DS to the baby was a special teddy that he promptly nicked and hasn't given back in 4 years 🥴

I didn’t do a present from the baby but I did give my DS his first garage and six wooden cars. The cars only came out when I was feeding the baby, it was such a success, we all enjoyed feed times.

My sister bought DS a kidizoom camera and it was a great idea, he loved taking pictures of the baby.

We didn't do a baby present but a big sibling gift. We got an AquaPlay canal set (baby was born in the summer), so 'safe' water play in the garden that didn't matter too much if I was distracted momentarily with the baby (unlike being asked millions of times to get the paddling pool out!!!).

Get something you think they'll really love playing with, ideally independently. Little kids don't really get sentimental gifts.

Thank you everyone 🙂 We'll have a look this weekend. Totally understand that something current will be better for him than something sentimental, hadn't really thought about this from a 3YO's perspective! Thank you.