I’m absolutely thrilled, as you can imagine, to have turned an idea for something to help a friend into a successful home based business that now supplies Chiggs Wheels to shops throughout the UK, online and abroad.  Not only that, but a business that has been shortlisted as a finalist in a national award!!

The award ceremony is held in London on the 1st of September, so keep your fingers crossed for us

Children’s medicines such as Calpol, etc, also have a recommended time to wait between doses, usually 4 hours, and you have to adhere to these times, again to avoid overdosing. Which is why I designed the Baby Medicine Wheel (and Get Well Wheel for older children). You just rotate the numbered dial to the time the medicine is given, and you’ll know when the next dose can safely be administered.

If you’re looking after a poorly child (my sympathies, I’ve been there!) and would like the peace of mind a Baby Medicine Wheel (or Get Well Wheel) can give, they are available for a mere £3.99 (UK Postage and Packing is included in that price) from the Chiggs online shop or from some of our many stockists.

Only slightly off topic, I remember the first time I gave Holly medicine using a syringe. I didn’t realise how powerfully they can squirt, so I popped it into her mouth, firmly pushed the plunger, and wondered why she had a bit of a shocked look on her little face. I assummed it was something to do with her first taste of medicine- it was only when I was washing the syringe and saw the power of the jet of water squirt out that I realised why Holly had looked so startled!

For example, if a retailer sells presents for a new baby, or new mum gifts, the customers buying these will certainly want to send a card to the new parents, too.

And this is where we at Chiggs can help (bet you knew that was coming, didn’t you?!) Whether a nursery shop, baby boutique, lifestyle store or a party planner, adding the Baby Feed Wheel to your range works a treat. This Chiggs product is a stand-alone, useful parenting product that new parents buy for themselves to help keep track of baby’s feeds- even buying it before the baby is born to add to their hospital bag. As the Baby Feed Wheel also has “to” and “from” printed on the reverse, and is supplied with an envelope so it can be sent as a new baby congratulations card, it can also be offered as an add-on sale to a customer buying a new baby gift. It saves them the effort of finding another shop or website to buy a card- a retailer can both maximise sales, and increase their customer’s shopping experience by saving that customer time and money. Everyone’s happy !!

If you are a retailer who would like to add Chiggs Wheels to your product range, we’ll be delighted to send you our trade price and terms- please get in touch via the trade enquiry form on the Chiggs website.

(PS apologies to both Simon and Garfunkel for plagiarising their song title for the title of this post!)

   When I was breastfeeding  Holly, like many, many Mums (whether breastfeeding or bottlefeeding) I would jot down her feed times on scraps of paper (which I would promptly misplace). This, of course was before the Baby Feed Wheel exisited, and I was a first time mum wanting to feel even a tiny bit organised in dealing with this little person!

It’s every mum’s choice whether she feeds on demand or follows a routine (either her own or her baby’s!), and when demand feeding sometimes you just need to know what baby is demanding! Babies cry because they’re too hot/ too cold/ tired/ need a nappy change and of course when they are hungry. The Baby Feed Wheel can help with the latter, and can also help you recognise if your baby is having a ‘growth spurt’ and feeding more often.

The design of the Get Well Wheel actually took longer than the other Wheels, mainly because I got fixated with a

Sorry you’re ill

Time of Last Pill

rhyming couplet which, frankly, was never going to fit on the front of the card, and also because for a while I couldn’t find an embellishment I was happy with.

Eventually it all clicked into place, with the Get Well Wheel designed as a neutral cream card with a red hot water bottle embellishment, and ‘Time of Last medicine’ printed on the front. To appeal to our greeting card shop stockists who sell the Baby Feed Wheel as a (useful!) new baby congratulations card, the Get Well Wheel is supplied with an envelope so that it’s a (useful!) get well soon card- far more practical than a bunch of grapes!

While designing and developing these new products to increase the Chiggs range, we have continued to focus on the wholesale and trade side of the business. Features in trade magazines such as Gift Focus Magazine (pictured below)  launching the Get Well Wheel have helped us build up the number of greeting card shops selling Chiggs Wheels, adding to the nursery/baby shops and online retailers already selling our products.

While we were on our break, our friends’ little boy started teething, and they were giving him Calpol to help take the discomfort away. I offered the use of one of our sample Baby Feed Wheels (told you that was relevant) to set the dial and note the times of his medicine so they’d know when the four hours were up, and he could safely be given the next dose.

As soon as we came home I began the search for a suitable embellishment to use (finding the smiling fabric teddy bear) and I was back in contact with the Patent office, with my second invention, the Baby Medicine Wheel!

When designing this gadget, I went for a neutral white so it would be suitable for baby boys or girls, and decided to supply it with an envelope so as well as parents buying it to use themselves, it could easily be bought for, and sent to, a friend with a poorly baby. Like all Chiggs Wheels, it’s supplied sealed in a cellophane wrapper -because it looks good for customers, and helps our stockists store and display them (we really do try to think of everything!)

Just a few days before Christmas [*Chiggs fact* Christmas day is also Chiglet (AKA our daughter, Holly's) birthday] the boxes and boxes of Baby Feed Wheels, packets of pram embellishments and endless envelopes arrived at Chiggs Towers (AKA the spare bedroom).

Once the New Year arrived, I had a major resolution to fulfil- sell Baby Wheels! In the design process I’d added “To…..” and “From…..” on the reverse of the cards, and decided to present them with an envelope so that they could be sent as really useful ‘New baby’ congratulation cards (or gifts- just like I’d given to my friend). So, another deep breath, and I made appointments to visit a couple of local greeting card shops- and received a fantastic response! Both shop owners loved the cards, and placed wholesale orders there and then. Chiggs was on it’s way!

Naming my company, however, proved to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. I didn’t want a name particularly associated with baby products or with greeting cards in case that proved limiting in the future.

I’d been mulling it over for a while when, on the same day my Dad ‘phoned me up and said “why not call it Chiggs?” and Andy, my husband came home from work and said “we could always call the company Chiggs“.

So why did they both suggest the same name? Well, ‘Chiggs’ is my childhood nickname- it’s the name my Mum and Dad have called me as long as we can remember. So long, in fact, that they can’t remember why they started calling me Chiggs in the first place!

There was an uphill task ahead, but I knew the idea of the Baby Feed Wheel was too good not to take further, so spent the next couple of months researching, researching and researching some more. By November, I had finalised the design, and adding “To” and “From” on the back of the card turned a really useful baby product into a really useful baby product that can also be sent as a new baby gift or present for new parents; just as I had originally made for my friend in October.

Once the design was finalised, embellishment selected (a shiny silver pram) and colours chosen (blue for a boy, pink for a girl, and neutral lemon), I made a prototype and contacted the Patent Office.

This was quite a scary moment, as although I was sure through my research the idea was unique, applying for a patent would be the moment of truth. When I spoke to a very nice man at the Patent Office, and described the Baby Feed Wheel, he said “I don’t think we have a category for this” so he made one!

That’s when I knew the Baby Feed Wheel was unique.

 ” He’s crying, I think he’s hungry”

 ”Well, when did you feed him?”

 ”I think it was when Neighbours was starting”

 ”No, that was yesterday, today you were feeding him when I popped out to the shop”

 ”You haven’t been to the shop today”.

It was exactly how we were in the hazy days of new parenthood, when I resorted to writing all Holly’s feed times down on pieces of paper!

I jokingly suggested that our friends should use a car parking disc to set the time whenever he had a feed.  A couple of days later I took round a little ‘homemade’ version (covered in blue paper with a little picture stuck on the front!). And Voila! the Baby Feed Wheel was born!