Ashley Reid
December 28, 2025
Beyond the Crib - Creative Uses for Your Baby Sheepskin as They Grow
Although I yearn for the days of newborn snuggles and baby coos, those moments are just cherished memories for me now. A seasoned mom of multiples, I am in the throws of childhood.
Although I yearn for the days of newborn snuggles and baby coos, those moments are just cherished memories for me now.
A seasoned mom of multiples, I am in the throws of childhood. We laugh hard, we cry hard, and we play hard. In our house, imaginative play is the pillar of what it is all about, and I choose what we bring into our house with thoughtful consideration. This is something I have always done, as someone who chose versatile baby products, and still have our non-toxic muslin swaddles in rotation 8 years later. By choosing high quality, and safe products, we get joy and use out of them for years to come.
BABIES
While sheepskin blankets and rugs are wonderful for babies, they go much further beyond that. It seems like the recommendations of tummy time have gotten younger and younger, and with good reason. But sometimes it can feel like another thing for new moms to have to focus on. Finding a nontoxic, natural playmat for baby, is more challenging than you would expect in the mainstream market. I remember being gifted an adorable themed baby playmat, and thinking it was adorable. Until, (enter thematic doom music) my baby started gnawing and drooling on the beloved fishy-face of the playmat, and thoughts of synthetic fibers, and chemicals filled my post-partum intrusive mind. In hindsight, I would have opted for using natural fibers, instead of a flashy character playmat. Because sheepskins are hypoallergenic and natural fibers, they make for safe materials for your baby to be face to face with. Sheepskin are also a sensory development goldmine. Gripping, grasping, pulling, and tactile stimulation to name a few. Your baby will have a blast, and you can rest better knowing they’re safe.
BABIES
While sheepskin blankets and rugs are wonderful for babies, they go much further beyond that. It seems like the recommendations of tummy time have gotten younger and younger, and with good reason. But sometimes it can feel like another thing for new moms to have to focus on. Finding a nontoxic, natural playmat for baby, is more challenging than you would expect in the mainstream market. I remember being gifted an adorable themed baby playmat, and thinking it was adorable. Until, (enter thematic doom music) my baby started gnawing and drooling on the beloved fishy-face of the playmat, and thoughts of synthetic fibers, and chemicals filled my post-partum intrusive mind. In hindsight, I would have opted for using natural fibers, instead of a flashy character playmat. Because sheepskins are hypoallergenic and natural fibers, they make for safe materials for your baby to be face to face with. Sheepskin are also a sensory development goldmine. Gripping, grasping, pulling, and tactile stimulation to name a few. Your baby will have a blast, and you can rest better knowing they’re safe.
TODDLERS
Ah, toddlers. Adorable little creatures that can make the exhaustion of the baby phase seem like a joke. Personality for days, and energy to match. With constant developments, growth and sure volume of changes at this age two things are important tools in your arsenal- ease, and regulation. Not just for babe either. Sleep is still precious at this age, and it’s likely your little one has dropped a nap or two, and is dysregulated often. We need simple solutions that support our ever changing days and lives. The benefits that were abundant in infancy carry over into the toddler years, and continue with age. A sheepskin toddler bed offers assistance in both easy transitions and emotional regulation. Stroking, petting or cuddling a sheepskin can bring on a calming and comforting feeling, similar to stroking an animal. The sheepskin has a powerful grounding effect, and creates a gentle heavy pressure that helps calm and soothe. Helping with those big new emotions flooding your toddlers life.
If you already had a sheepskin from infancy you can literally carry it over into the next sleeping arrangement. Implementing a floor bed for your toddler’s bed, whether it be a family bed or their own independent bed, can also help in these self regulating strategies. A toddler being able to crawl in and out of their sleeping space safely, to their comforting sheepskin is setting them up to help their emotional regulation and sense of independence. Creating more “yes” opportunities for you as a parent, and feeling good about those wins!
KIDS
Childhood. You can now venture out into the world without a brimming diaper bag, and crushing sleep schedules. The snacks are plentiful, and play is never-ending. Just like this wild and busy time of life, your sheepskin can change alongside your family’s needs. Although still a wonderfully comforting and cozy piece, it can be unlocked as a new core memory in a different way. Play. I know it is often said that all the cliches about childhood are true but…the days are long, but the years are short.
While we love to daydream that our children’s favorite memories will be one of grandiose vacations and elaborate parties we threw, that's usually not the case. I have a friend in her mid 30’s who got to travel all over Europe with her family as a child, and described the experience as “meh.” A comment that filled my middle-class inner child with extreme eye-rolling. But, instead, describes her favorite memory of her childhood as when she had mono, and her mom took the week off work to stay in bed and they made hundreds of friendship bracelets and ate a lot of microwave popcorn. It sounds unbelievable, but the moments that make up our favorite memories are so fondly recalled as the comfort in our homes. The moments we ate our favorite snacks with our sister and played together on the floor. The memories we made wrapped up in warm blankets, and shrouded in laughter.
A child’s imagination is a worthy cause to invest in. Heirloom pieces that move and grow with them. Your favorite blanket that makes you feel safe, becomes a wonderful lush arctic terrain for your pack of wolves. It is a wonderful cloak for royalty, the backdrop of a fort, or a new fur to drape over yourself when you’ve transformed into a wolf. Obviously, wolves are hot in my home right now.. But, the list goes on. Not to say my children do not have an unbelievable cache of Legos. To me, they are imaginative toys that will always be an important pillar of our childhood. But the most important memories are the ones made at home while we played and were loved. Toys that hopefully, will be there for you to hold again when life changes, and brings you back with one touch to those sweet, fleeting days of childhood.
