About The Turning Tot
About The Turning Tot: A Letter to Exhausted Parents
Dear fellow warriors of the nappy change,
Magical, isn't it? The moment your little one learns something new. Their first light-up-the-room smile. Their first delighted giggle. Watching them sit up for the first time and see the world from a different angle.
And learning to roll over… oh, do I have some tales for you about a very determined rolling wriggler.
My son Taz* learnt to roll over at five months, and it quickly became his absolute favourite party trick. We praised him at first, but we didn’t know what was to come. Soon, nappy changes became what I can only describe as Olympic wrestling matches with one small, extremely cute opponent. It was a constant battle with his rolling and turning, exhausting and emotional for everyone involved. The nappy change war stories I could tell you would fill a book. The book title would be: 'Horror Stories From Public Baby Changing Facilities! (Yes, even the nice John Lewis ones)’.
I didn't know how I could continue like this. Nappy changes were simply unbearable. It sounds dramatic, but either your little one is a perfect angel – lying still or being a tiny bit fidgety – or they’re a devil child, rolling and squirming and making the process utterly hellish. So, you’ll either get it, or you won't. It became impossible for me to go anywhere on my own with this tiny but oh-so-strong baby spinning and flipping like he was auditioning for the circus. And so, I just stopped going out – unless I could be certain I’d have help from friends and family.
One shopping trip resulted in me tussling in a café toilet (cramped, hot and sweaty) with my Tasmanian Devil for over an hour. On a family holiday, it took four fully-grown adults – yes, four– just to hold him still long enough for me to change him safely.
Even at home, there have been times when I’ve struggled with the baby, ending up covered in poo – and then someone knocks on the front door...! I’m talking about a baby here, not a particularly large and strong-willed octopus, but frankly you'd never know the difference.
Sound familiar? I thought it might.
One particularly bad outing when Taz was eight months old stands out in my mind. I was left feeling like an incapable mum, embarrassed by strangers' rude comments and on the brink of total exhaustion. ‘There’s got to be something out there that can help,’ I thought. ‘There must be.’ So my mum and I searched all the baby websites, read all the online reviews, asked for solutions in baby forums and even went as far as contacting changing mat manufacturers for help, advice, ideas – anything. But to no avail. There was no anti-rolling travel changing mat out there that could help secure a wriggling baby safely and securely. It simply didn't exist.
It was when I was pregnant with my second child Bingo**, I decided I had to solve the problem myself. There was no way I could experience this lonely, stressful, exhausting time again – so, in 2020, one determined little wriggler + one utterly exhausted Mum = the idea behind The Turning Tot.
My mum and I sat down and listed all the important functionalities The Turning Tot would need. A changing mat with soft, secure straps that actually work. Not the medieval torture device kind of straps, but genuinely comfortable ones, alongside our secret weapon (or maybe not so secret now we’ve written this) the bamboo insert that keeps your little Houdini safely in place whilst you tackle the business end of things.
A baby mat has to be wipe-clean and washable (because let's face it, everything needs to be wipe-clean and washable when you've got little ones), completely portable, and – this is the clever bit – it actually makes nappy changes manageable again. You can change your baby on your own.
You can roll it up or fold it up. It fits into your changing bag and it has a loop handle that goes over your wrist or hooks somewhere convenient. It unfolds to give you a proper clean surface anywhere, and those magical straps render your child still – they cannot roll over, they cannot get up, and they cannot endanger themselves nor do their best impression of a breakdancing salmon.
The best bit? You get your freedom back. No more avoiding trips out. No more panicking when you realise you need to change them and there's no one to help. No more standing defeated in a grotty public loo wondering how something so small can ruin your day.
From our family to yours…
The Turning Tot has been honoured with some wonderful awards (which we’re over the moon about), featured in glowing reviews from top parenting magazines (cue our happy dance), and most importantly, has helped hundreds of parents reclaim a little freedom.
So, to mums, dads, grandparents, foster, adoptive, step-parents, guardians – anyone who’s ever wrestled with a wriggly baby:
The Turning Tot is here to make a real difference. It helps turn those overwhelming, extremely tough times into just another part of the day, freeing you up to enjoy the fun and joyful sides of raising a child. Because that’s what this journey should feel like: an adventure.
I know how impossible it feels when you’re standing there, defeated in a public baby change, with a clean-up mission that would challenge a hazmat team, in desperate need of an extra pair of hands.
Having lived it, I truly understand it. And if you are here, reading this now – don't worry, we’ve got you.
And you've got this.
(Even when it doesn't feel like it at 2am when they've somehow managed to get poo up their back, down their legs, and on the ceiling. How do they even do that?)
Love and solidarity from the trenches of parenthood,
Clemmie
With Pene (my amazing mum), Taz, and Bingo too
P.S. Taz is now a perfectly civilised child whose ‘crocodile-death-roll’ days are long behind him. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Promise.
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*Taz is the pseudonym for my first-born son, inspired by his cartoon spirit animal, the Tasmanian Devil
**Bingo is the pseudonym for my daughter, inspired by Bingo Heeler from Bluey