What do I need for my toddler for the next year?

[Inthesleeplessnightgarden]

With apologies for the double posting. This is in chat as well but can't work out how to remove...
So, have just found out we're moving to Africa for the next three years. Have been advised to take as much as possible with us for DS, who will be 18 months when we go this summer, as v limited access to goods locally. We're transferring from India with a few weeks in the UK in between to see family, sort visas and shop. Company will pay shipping so volume not a problem but what do I need to get for DS's next year at least? Will be living expat style so not thinking of survival kits, more what normal uk toddlers need.
So far thinking lots of clothes, various sizes of shoes and most of Boots including a year's worth of calpol and carvol.
But what toys will he be growing into? What are the next big stages requiring purchases (jots down potty on list), what will I be kicking myself for forgetting without mother care or tesco down the road?
Your help much appreciated!

Shoes is what I would be getting. Timberland sandals are my top shoe. Waterproof and comfy. My dd's wear them all year round so I have got every size and they just go on to the next one.

DVDs, pjs, medicine.

Hi good luck with your move, sounds very daunting to me!
My toddler at that age loved cars and we had a garage which he played with for hours on end.
Would you be able to get shoes in advance? Maybe measure his feet now and get the next few sizes up in the same width.
Bed guard for when he comes out of his cot, booster seat for when out of high chair.

At the moment ds is 2.5 and loves jigsaws especially the ones with chunky wooden pieces.
Toilet seats for when he goes onto the big boy toilet, mine didn't use the potty for more than a few weeks.
Lego goes down well here too especially his Lego farm. Books too.
Some kiddy DVDs too so that you can get on and do bits and pieces.
Hope that helps, bit of a random list as things came into my head!

DS is three. His favourite toy by far at the moment is his wooden train set. he's been into it for a while, and he got more bits for it at Christmas. All the different sets seem to fit together - from some really cheap but great stuff we found in Aldi's to the lovely Melissa & Doug stuff and the expensive Brio. It's a good thing to suggest relatives to get as presents as it's easy to find and they can buy something to suit their budget.

Last year and this he's loved ride-on toys. When DS was younger he loved his trike (like one of these). We had one with a handle, and I found it really useful to got out with, when we were just popping out for a stroll together or to the local shops, and didn't want the faff of the buggy.

Other than that, he's got into jigsaws recently.

Favorites over the last year include Duplo, playdough, painting, his toy garage and cars, balls, my iphone and computer!

And lots of books, of course

HTH

Novelty toothbrushes have helped with the nightmare battle that is toothbrushing! I'd take a stack of children's tooth brushes with pictures on them.

Remember that you are only allowed to buy limited amounts of certain medicines eg calpol, in one go - so it is not as simple as filling a trolley with what you need. I would ask family and friends to start sticking a bottle of calpol/cough mixture or cheapy paracetomol in with their weekly shop, starting now.

Dd is 2.9 and loves cooking pretend food, pouring endless cups of tea, cutting up paper with scissors, sticking things, duplo, books, balance bike, jigsaws, simple board games, singing, listening to nursery rhymes, playing piano/percussion, dolls and teddies, trains, Little People, throwing and catching and kicking balls, etc.

Maybe try to work out categories, eg. arts and crafts, water play, outdoor toys, role-playing, jigsaws and games, music, books and take a box of stuff for each.

Re potty training, make sure you take a lot of underpants as they can get through them incredibly fast. DD has 14 pairs and I was washing them every couple of days for a while. You will also need full-size mattress protectors for whatever size bed your ds will be in.

Open-top beakers/plastic cups, stool to stand on in kitchen, swimming costumes in different sizes, cutters for making gingerbread, etc., magnetic letters...

If you take some A4 printable sticker sheets, you can print your own stickers (assuming you have a printer) from here.

Hope you have an amazing time.

Thank you all for your thoughts, really useful. Will be stocking up on duplo and train set as well as shoes, pants, toothbrushes and a loo seat. What will they think o f me in the shop?! Thank you Portofino for the reminder about paracetamol products, will get my mum to begin hoarding, would hate to miss out because someone thought I was going to overdose on calpol!
Despite having moved 6 times In 4 countries in the last 7 years I an still a rubbish packer so will be following the idea of filling boxes by category. Any more ideas very welcome. I'll miss India where we at least have mother care and m&s for emergencies!

Thermometer(s)

Plastic shoes - crocs were mine of choice - as it will usually be hot and have a rainy season I imagine (depending which part of africa you're going to), so wet as well.

Wellington boots (for flooded driveways in rainy season)

Crocs or similar for yourself!!!

I found it impossible to get decent shoes so crocs for now and maybe next size, (they seem to last ages even as the foot grows).

Will you have a swimming pool? We had one of those sand pit things - they come as a crab or a turtle - with a lid, but we used it as a paddling pool instead, great as you can tip it out and cover it up after, storing all the toys in it.

Mosquito cream and mosquito nets.

Children's toothpaste.

Sun cream

Dvds

And a selection of books and toys for similar aged children for when you get invited to birthday parties.

I hope you enjoy it, we loved living in Africa. Most of all enjoy living away from all the things that here in the UK we think 'essential' and seeing how happy a child can be with so little!

Anyway, depending on where you are going, you will find that you can get most stuff if you are prepared to pay a premium.

This is really useful - we are also moving to Africa for a year in a couple of months time and I have a 22 month old DD. Do you mind me asking which country Inthesleepnessnightgarden?

Hi Dolster, we're heading to Nigeria.... Not at the top of everyone's holiday list but looking forward to it! Where are you off to?

DS is already a croc fan, as good for the Indian climate too so will buy next sizes up. Liking the sandpit idea and will be taking all our mozzie paraphernalia from here too. Will def stock up on birthday presents, that's a great idea! Thanks again to all of you.

Inthesleep we were in Lagos! About 4 years ago.

Justonemorethread. Tell me more, if you wouldn't mind. We're going to Lagos too. Top hints and tips gratefully received!

We're heading to Uganda Inthesleeplessnightgarden... just out of interest, what are you doing for malaria prophlyxsis? Trying to decide between malerone and lariam at the moment...

Hi Inthesleep feel free to pm me any questions you may have.
We left Lagos in 2008 and by all accounts it has changed so much since then I'm not sure if my info would be relevant anymore. Even while we were there places were opening, closing and moving all the time!

We lived on Ikoyi which was an amazing location. It all really depends on your housing situation and job - will you be working too?

I worked while I was there, even though it was DH who was on a posting. That enabled me to enjoy life to the full there.

There are obviously lots of bad things about it, and I'm sure you've heard them all already.

But the great things are the warmth and fun-loving spirit of Nigerians, they are so welcoming and such a pleasure to get to know!

It's an amazing place to be if you can leave behind your stiff upper lip and are able to not take yourself too seriously. That would be my top tip.

It so populated with locals and expats if you let yourself you will still be meeting people and making friends right up to your last week there.

Childcare is very easy to find and of excellent standard.

There are some decent schools, and more since I left probably.

Shopping and food planning at home was the hardest thing for me, finding appetising ingredients for my palate.

Couldn't get self-raising flower or horseradish for love or money at some points. Apart from that you can literally get ANYTHING in Lagos, but you have to be prepared to pay for it.

Have your car organised in case you get stuck in traffic (always go out with water, snack, maybe even portable dvd player!) You never know when you will get stuck in a 3 hour go slow.

Honestly, we had the time of our life there, but for every family like us there was a family that hated it and was counting down the days to the end.

It's a real marmite kind of posting, you either love it or you hate it.

It is a shock to the system, and the smells, cockroaches etc can get to you. You do need to go on regular breaks just to get away from it all.

The fear of malaria was all consuming and I always knew the one thing I would not miss was smearing myself and baby in jungle formula every day (not recommended for infants btw, but better than catching malaria imo)

Anyway, don't want to hyjack this thread, so feel free to ask any questions.

dolster Malarone would be my recommendation. In my experience and a few people i know Lariam has lived up to its reputation for side effects.

But not sure how long you can take malarone for...

I recommend a magnetized doodle pad - they are an endless source of entertainment and learning from 18 months til about 6 or 7 yrs and fairly indestructable, but also light weight / water proof.

play doh
books - they can be read for YEARS and used to learn to read when ready
pens, chalk, crayons, pencils, paper
Lego/ Duplo including characters

Has your child ever been bitten by a mosquito or stung by a bee / wasp? If not, you might want to prepare with treatments in case of an allergic reaction.

Ooh the thread has revived! Justonemore, thanks v much. Still in the process of sorting things but sounds like we're in the same kind of area as you.
Still weighing up malaria tabs. Think am veering towards Larium though as it's safe for long term and I've taken it before and been fine. Also the only thing you can really take if pregnant, and we're contemplating no. 2....

For what it's worth, i've done a tonne of research on malaria prophylaxis for kids, i'm sure you have too... but here's what I found if it helps... I've met with three top tropical medicine consultants and spoken to a British consultant who runs a hospital in Uganda as well as expats etc.. The general consensus seems to be that lariam is really well tolerated in children. None of them could give me any anecdotal evidence about major side effects - the most they had seen was slightly increased hyperactivity and disturbed sleep but even then it was rare. The good thing about lariam, as you know since you've taken it yourself, is that it's just one tablet a week, much easier to administer to a toddler than one tablet a day, which is what malarone requires. We're only going to be away for six months so I'm going to give the malarone a shot with our daughter and see what happens. If it becomes a daily battle then i'll switch to lariam.

Good luck with the daily tablets Dolster, the prospect of trying to get tablets down a toddler nearly put me off the posting! Have been recommended to hide them in spoons of nutella or other similar naughty but nice things. We're going to be away for at least 3 years so lariam seems to be the best option for us so hope it suits and we remember to take it on the right day. Hope you have a great time, do share your experience on here so I can see how you're getting on.
Justonemore thanks for mentioning that child care is good, my priority will be to get a good nanny as both dh and I will be working. Fngers crossed we find someone suitable quickly.

Just wanted to add that I think all the people I knew who had children and were giving anti-malarials were using lariam for their children. But I didn't know any of them that well to find out if they did it for the whole 3 years, just in rainy season or if there were any negative side effects.
Although I'm sure I would have heard of any negative side effects as bad news always travels!

You will have prospective nannies/drivers/cooks queing up at your door from the first week you arrive! As well as other ex-pats leaving desperate to find a job for their 'amazing' nanny. (I too had one so I was one of them!)

I did find that everyone had different ideas of what amazing was, so make sure you have a clear head of what you want and expect... but then you are coming from another posting so probably are a bit more experienced in that than I was to begin with!

Also when I was there there was a really good playgroup going at the British club, 3 mornings a week, but it had a really long waiting list, so worth getting yourself on the waiting list before hand. Even if you are at work your nanny would be able to take him, especially if you're on Ikoyi.

Unless you will be with the bdhc then you can jump quite high up in the queue, I think.

Hi, just saw your thread - we're in Botswana with a 14mo son. He was born here, so we've just kind of muddled along with what we can get here and then whenever family come to visit we do an internet order for them to bring out. We've been here 4 years.

To be honest you can get by with what's available here - obviously people here have babies too! I'm not sure what the places you're going to are like, but they're bound to have the basics. Also there's a really good network of people who lend stuff round - we borrowed a moses basket and loads of baby clothes from one family and got given/bought loads more stuff from families who were leaving. It's just that things here are so expensive, and there's so little choice - 2 designs of pushchair, 2 types of camp cots etc.

Things we get them to bring:
calpol sachets, it's loads easier for travelling than a glass bottle
books - they're so expensive here £8-9 for a £2-3 book
DVDs - just about to order some from amazon
Suncream - you can get roll on childrens suncream (like those deodorants) from superdrug its loads easier to apply to a wriggly toddler than a cream

My mum and MIL go round charity shops for us collecting books and toys and clothes to bring out to us. Clothes here have a tough life as the washing powder is very harsh and they get dried in really bright sunlight all the time. It means they wear out quite quickly.

Not sure if it's still relevant to you, but we bought washable nappies for DS from the UK. Disposable nappies here are really expensive, and the only washables they have are the flat terrys ones with those really scratchy plastic pants. Ours have been great, cos it's so sunny here they dry really quickly, and have saved us a fortune!!

Also think about things like car seats - will they need the next size up while you're away?

Just a quick comment on the Malaria thing - we don't have it here (thankfully!) but we've just been on holiday to Mozambique so we all took Malarone there. I got a pill crusher from the pharmacy and crushed up DS's tablets and mixed them with yogurt or mashed banana every morning. Made sure he ate that first before any other breakfast, so we knew he'd had it all.

I'm sure you've done all the research into Larium, but I can't take it as there's a history of mental illness in my family so can't give it to DS either, just something else to bear in mind.

Hope that helps, let us know how you get on!