Hot gossip in pre-schools and mums groups all over Britain is ‘who has THE best birthday cake?’ Which cake has the most icing, the brightest colours and the most complicated design… which cake is the biggest and most spectacular?

It’s all part of growing up… and then when you become an adult you realise that you didn’t grow up after all. You still want your child’s cake to be THE biggest and THE best.

But… imagine that allergies prevented your little lovely from partaking in sweet birthday awesomeness. Other than being the hot gossip of the town, a birthday cake is also for the enjoyment of the birthday boy and girl – yes, really.

Tim Slatter, inspired by his then 13-month-old daughter’s Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis, has decided that his family business The Brilliant Bakers will have gluten free birthday cakes on their entire range of exciting new party cakes.

This is huge news for children (and parents of children) who are on a ‘wheat/gluten free’ diet!

Tim talks about how on Daisy’s second birthday she was the first Slatter child in generations to be denied a spectacular birthday cake for fear her blood sugar levels would rage out of control.

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Road trips are awesome unless you have kids. The whining, moaning and complaining of bored children is enough to put a dampener on any spirited excursion.

So, how to keep children entertained in the car?

According to a new survey from car hire price comparison site carhiremarket.com (http://www.carhiremarket.com/), traditional car games like I-Spy are alive and well.

While 51% of Brits with children favour using electronic gadgets to keep the kids amused on car journeys, either in the UK or abroad, perhaps surprisingly almost as many (47%) rely on old-time favourite car games, 46% on music or audio books and 36% with classic sing-alongs.

The most popular classic car games to keep kids entertained while driving at home or in a hire car abroad are I-Spy, the Number Plate Game and Spot the Landmark.

Parents in the West Midlands and Scotland (51%) seem to be most smitten with classic, time-honoured car game, compared to 37% of Londoners, who rely on music to keep car journeys grumble-free (45%).

However, it seems some parents may be hoping to boost their children’s creativity in entertaining themselves, with 13% saying they don’t do anything to keep their children amused while on long car journeys. Parents from Yorkshire are perhaps the most adamant that through boredom is born creativity, with 23% saying they don’t entertain their kids in the car here or abroad.

When I was a child, in an age before technological advancement, no matter how many songs or story books, or I-spy games, were thrust my way, world war three was inevitable.

My two brothers and I would ultimately resort to beating one another for entertainment purposes… and I would always have to sit in the middle (the worst seat in the car) to separate my two younger brothers. Being the oldest (and the only girl) sucked.

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Many parents find that one of the best ways to settle their babies, newborns especially, is to swaddle them. The centuries-old technique of wrapping a baby tightly often seems to quieten cries and help babies sleep for longer.

Swaddling worked on my baby girl… for about two weeks. I learned very quickly that my sweet one was not so sweet when wrapped tightly, particularly when she had no room to move her arms.

To this day (two years on), no matter how freezing cold it is, she will always sleep with her arms outside her blanket, and she hates being confined in layers, gloves, socks, hats even shoes. I often think that she should have been born on a tropical island in the 60s – totally her temperament.

As mums and dads, we use our instincts to work out what is best for our babies, and they are also very good at telling us. If swaddling is what your baby responds to best, you should definitely think about investing in a swaddle sock for babies. Instead of the traditional cloth swaddle, you can buy ready-made swaddles that look like big stretchy socks.

Designer brand Tiny Turnip sells a patent design swaddle sock for babies, the  Swaddle Sock and Root Warmer set, which is possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. You just to put your baby in it!  Simply slide it on and keep baby swaddled and comfy! The socks are %100 cotton and come in so many colours that you won’t know what to choose.

A swaddle sock for babies that has been around for a bit longer is the Cozy Cocoon, which is a one-piece baby body sock for swaddling newborns, made of stretchy organic cotton.

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Whose turn is it? To… change the baby, feed the baby, get up when the baby cries, tidy the baby’s toys, wipe the baby’s nose – you get my drift.

On weekends, my hubby and I take it in turns to change our daughter’s nappy and we NEVER forget whose turn it is. If it is a poo nappy and not my turn, boy do I gloat, especially if it’s the mushy kind – it’s all part of the fun.

If you’ve ever found yourself arguing over ‘whose turn’ it is, I have the solution: The Wheel of Responsibility. Here’s how to share tasks. Just spin the wheel and let Fate decide whether you or your man is the lucky, or perhaps unlucky, one.

And why stop at baby related tasks? What about washing the dishes, taking out the rubbish, cooking, shopping, cleaning….

The Wheel of Responsibility can be purchased from Gettingpersonal.co.uk or Mygiftworld.co.uk but, even better, it’s also an App – meaning that it can be used whenever, wherever.

A simple flick of the finger brings you an unbiased,  totally binding decision while a Stat page tracks your spins and shows you exactly who Fate is (or isn’t)  favouring.

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Bubbles; bath books; plastic fish, a shark, kitty, hippopotamus and a chicken; dozens of sticky alphabet letters; sponges and shampoo bottles… what’s not to love about bath time?

My 2-year-old daughter loves to bath, so much so that getting her used to the idea that bath time is over takes some cajoling – also because brushing teeth time comes after bath time and that is nowhere near as fun.

To help persuade water babies to get out of the tub, the clever people at Cuddledry (the makers of the hugely popular Cuddle Dry towel) have invented a solution, a new range of  kids bathroom mats – the Cuddle Mat. It’s a supersoft, stylish bathmat that changes colour with body heat.

Available in deep lilac or aqua, pink or yellow footprints appear like magic when hot little feet, fresh from the bath, land on one of these kids bathroom mats.

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