Parents to two littles, this one is for you! Several of us here at Eat Play Say have been in the 2-under-2 or 2-under-3 boat and it can be hard to handle your toddler and your newborn at the same time. So, we put together all of our favorite activities for that our toddlers did while we fed/changed/soothed baby. Keep this list handy and we hope these are as helpful for you as they were for us!

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Activities You Can Do Next to Each Other:

The Book Basket. Find the most interactive books you have (think flaps, touch-and-feel, sound, pop up) and have them available for your little one. When it’s time to feed baby, bring your toddler and the book basket with you and you can participate in book reading while you feed your baby. If you keep a special basket of books that you rotate out, this will keep the novelty going, since your toddler will only see these particular books during feeding times. Here are our favorite interactive books for toddlers!
Magnetic Boards (Or anything fun with magnets). Keeping those hands busy for a good 10-20 minutes is key and these will do the trick! You can make your own scene with one like this or just use the stick to move the pieces all around the board. We love this one for parking cars- it’s so cool! Lots of the toys on our Travel Guide make excellent toys for keeping those hands busy, and can double dip as travel toys and feeding entertainment for your toddler!
Sock Sorting. This might sound silly, but giving littles a pile of socks or other small objects to sift through can spark their imagination and also keep them busy! Plus this targets matching!
Puzzles. Grab a stack of your little’s favorite puzzles and help them put them together over and over again! If you’re not sure which puzzles are appropriate for which age, we have you covered here in our Free Puzzles Guide!
Coloring: We love the Water books shown below because they are NO mess! Sit down with your little one and help them draw on the pad or even snag an LED drawing pad for fun without mess, too!

Activities for Your Busy Toddler

If you need to sit down to feed but your little one isn’t feeling like joining you, here are some great activities they can do while you sit nearby!

Independent Board Game: I love this game for young toddlers! Not only is fun it also gets your little one working on following simple directions! Have your little one pick a card and complete the silly direction! You can help them pick the cards and they do the moves!
Music: If you’re needing to sit down and feed your newborn and your toddler had the wiggles, try and put on an active song for them to dance to! Some of my favorites are The Floor is Lava, Hop Little Bunnies, Animal Freeze Dance, The Goldfish by The Laurie Berkner Band.
Make a Stepping Stone Obstacle Course: You can just use colored paper for this if you don’t have stepping stones at home, and your toddler can hop from step to step pretending to be different animals!
Get out the Tonie Box: If you’re looking for a screen free alternative, a Tonie Box is a lot of fun! Your little one can listen to stories, songs, and even follow directions along with the characters! We love Monsters Inc., Cookie Monster, Lion King, Minnie Mouse/Mickey Mouse, and The Paw Patrol characters!

Reconnect with Your Toddler

One thing I tried to do after feeds with my baby is reconnect with my toddler. If the baby fell asleep after the feed, I would try to pop her in a baby carrier and make myself available for my toddler by playing with them or going outside/on a walk. I would also try to make just “Toddler and Mommy” time as much as I could (which to be honest, was extremely hard, even with my partner working from home and support from my mom).

Try not to beat yourself up over shared time! This part of your life is very temporary and every day will look different. Take the wins as they come and know that with every low comes a high right after it. Hang in there, you’re doing great!