Twinkle Tog by Dream Genii

When I saw that there was a new kind of child’s sleeping bag on the market I just knew I had to review it! The Twinkle Tog by Dream Genii is designed as a child’s wearable bedtime quilt and it is kind of like a child’s sleeping bag except that the child can get dressed in it at bedtime and then when they fall asleep you just pop them into bed with it on and there is no need for additional blankets.

This has one major improvement on the traditional child’s sleeping bags though…IT HAS LEGS! The reason I love that so much is because it means I don’t have the usual worry I face when my daughter uses a typical baby sleeping baby…the worry that she will try and stand up in the cot and get her feet caught in the bottom of the sleeping bag, fall over and hurt herself. Thankfully it has never happened but at least I know if she is wearing a Twinkle Tog it CAN’T happen.

Photo of the Dream Genii Pregnancy Pillow  courtesy of Dream Genii.

The Twinkle Tog is made by Dream Genii who are the company behind the Dream Genii Pregnancy Pillow which is recognised as being the “only specifically designed pregnancy pillow to adequately support back, bump and knees at the same time” without taking up all of the room in the bed. I really wanted one when I was pregnant but as someone else had bought me a normal long body pillow I didn’t have an excuse to go out and buy a Dream Genii one… I still regret it though as it looks like it would really offer a lot of support for when you are pregnant.

                                           

Anyway, to get back to the Twinkle Tog…. It is available in 6 different colourways and I’m afraid to say because I am so late in writing this review that you are no longer able to purchase the zebra print design in the photos. Sorry! 🙁   But not to worry…the current designs are just as gorgeous. My personal favourites that I would choose for my daughter are the Twinkle Star Pink and Pink Dots. They also have a couple of unisex designs and a couple of boy’s designs.

Twinkle Tog by Dream Genii

• You don’t have to worry about your child getting cold during the night because they have kicked their quilt/ blanket off. Whilst wearing the Twinkle Tog you know they’ll stay nice and snug and warm.
• It is practical! You can give your child their bedtime bath, dress them in the Twinkle Tog and they can continue to run around and play until they finally give up and fall asleep. You can then carry them to bed in it and there is no fuss trying to zip them up into a sleeping bag.
• It is fantastic for when you are travelling at night or early in the morning as you can leave your child dressed in the Twinkle Tog while they are strapped into the car seat. I have tried the travel sleeping bags and although I did get on okay with them it was always awkward and time consuming trying to thread the crotch strap through the hole in the back of the sleeping bag. The Twinkle Tog is much easier for travelling than a normal sleeping bag but it is more difficult for changing a nappy when travelling (see the cons for my reasoning)
• It is quilted so you know that your child will stay warm when they are sleeping in it. You do have to be careful they don’t overheat (as with using any sort of sleeping bag or blanket) but there is a useful chart on the packaging that tells you what your child should be wearing depending on the temperature of the room.
• It is good at helping your child feel comforted. Say for example you are staying in a hotel on a holiday and your child doesn’t have their usual cot – the Twinkle Tog will remind them of home and hopefully as they are accustomed to sleeping in it at home it will provide comfort for them when they are staying in a different place and they will ,with any luck, be content and fall asleep easily.
• Depending on the time of year your child will be wearing the Twinkle Tog you can choose to either buy a 2.5 tog version or a 1 tog version. I was sent the 2.5 tog version to review and was very happy with the warmth it provided for my daughter.
• The Twinkle Tog is washable at 40 degrees and I have found it washes really well and stays nice and soft. It does dry on the washing line fairly quickly but if necessary it can be tumble dried on a low heat setting.

Twinkle Tog by Dream Genii

• It is more money than I would normally pay on a kid’s sleeping bag. Each Twinkle Tog costs £29.99 and as I think you would really need 2 (one to wear, one to wash)  this would mean you would have to pay out quite a lot of money for a product that your child may outgrow quite quickly. (The thing I do like about ordinary sleeping bags with no legs is that as long as you buy one with a small enough neck hole so that the child can’t slip into the bag, you can get away with a big size that should last ages.)
• I think the sizing is a little small as I received the age 2-3 years and my daughter was about 1 yr 7 months when she received this size and it fitted her perfectly.  She is now just over 2 years and I am finding it quite a tight squeeze for her to wear it. (She is tall for her age though). I would like to see more sizes available as I could then buy her a bigger size when she outgrows this current 2-3 years one. Unfortunately 2-3yrs is the biggest size Dream Genii currently sell, which is a shame. 🙁
• I have found that the corner of the velcro tab (at the bottom of the front zipper) has started to ruin a patch of the fabric near the crotch. I think this has just been caused by the friction of the velcro edge moving against the fabric when my daughter moves around in the bed at night. It’s not a real problem but it doesn’t look all that good and makes the product look old before it’s time.
• I have on a couple of occasions had my daughter get stuck in the Twinkle Tog sleep suit and this really worried me and to be honest is the reason for my delay in writing this review. One time the zip came apart mid way leaving her stuck in the Twinkle Tog and the other couple of times I couldn’t unzip the zip it all. After many minutes of tugging on the zip I discovered it was because there was quite a big seam allowance in the material from where the zip has been sewn into the product and what had happened was this had got creased up and stuck in the zip. I think the Twinkle Tog I received had probably developed a fault but if you ever have any issues with one of your Twinkle Togs all you ever have to do is contact them and they will help resolve the issue. (In hindsight I really should have done this but before I knew it I was snowed under with other review products and I just never got round to contacting them about it. Sorry Dream Genii)  Anyway, I stopped using the Twinkle Tog for a while and then my daughter found it in her wardrobe a few months ago and wanted to start wearing it again. I have let her wear it since then and have had no problems with the zip whatsoever! The only problem I now have is, like I mentioned before, she is outgrowing it and they don’t sell a bigger size that will fit her.
• The biggest thing I’m not too keen on about the Twinkle Tog is the fact that it is very awkward to try and change your child’s nappy in it if they fall asleep wearing the Twinkle Tog but then need a nappy change (either at bedtime or when you are on a car journey). The Twinkle Tog is available in ages 1-2 years and 2-3 years and children of this age range can still need a bedtime nappy change, or at least I find they can. The awkward part is you have to try and remove the Twinkle Tog completely from your sleeping child, change their nappy and then try and get the Twinkle Tog back on them while they stay asleep. That is a very hard thing to do and more often that not if I had to change her nappy when she was wearing the Twinkle Tog I would remove it and then not bother to put it back on her but instead put blankets on her bed.  I feel that if Dream Genii could improve this issue and make it possible for you to change your child’s nappy without having to completely remove the Twinkle Tog then they would then have a 100% FANTASTIC product on their hands!! I think maybe poppered or zipped legs would be a good idea.

Twinkle Tog by Dream Genii

* The photos of the two pink Twinkle Togs are courtesy of Dream Genii.