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The Sims 3 Babies and Toddlers
Raising Babies & Teaching Toddlers to Walk, Talk, and Potty Training
The Sims 3 Babies
Since I've seen multiple people ask about caring for Sims 3 babies (both infants and toddlers), I thought I'd explain some of how the system works to Sims newbies. Caring for a baby and toddler's needs are distinct from that of other Sims. This is primarly due to them not being able to care for themselves. Every need must be taken care of by an older Sim.
Babies are in many ways easier to care for than toddlers. Ever heard of the 'terrible twos?' Toddlers in the Sims 3 don't really act up, but babies require less time overall. After all, they're not walking around getting in to trouble, and you don't yet need to spend time potty training and teaching them to walk. However, there's not much joy from having a baby around. They don't even have a fun meter yet, and just need Sims to coo and cah at them between diaper changes and bottle feedings. It's not even very amusing to watch the Sim care for the baby once you've seen all the actions.
Unfortunately, babies' biggest annoyance factor is the bladder need. After all, you can't tell a baby to go ahead and pee so they don't wet themselves at night. In this sense, diaper changes do nothing unless the baby has already wet himself. A quick diaper change will fix the situation and bring the hygiene bar to full. Too bad, but you can't bathe babies in the Sims 3. The game even represents real life babies' lack of bladder control, as once they barely have to go they let it fly. Thankfully, your Sim won't get shot in the eye while changing a diaper, much unlike reality.
Baby's Needs
Baby Sims' social bar seems to fall the fastest of all, but that is easily cured by snuggling and playing with them.
You can see the baby's needs. Try to satisfy as many of them as you can before putting them to bed, and if you see the baby is about to wet himself within the next hour, don't bother sleeping until he has. Snuggle and feed the baby just before bed to help make sure they don't wake up in a bad mood. This is the only way your Sims will ever get a good night's sleep, as even having the baby in another room will lead to frustrating midnight awakenings to a baby's cries.
Putting a teddy bear in the baby's inventory to sleep with will increase his mood, and possibly give your little one some extra lifetime reward points.
If you want a roleplay experience, consider never looking at the baby's needs bar so that you have to guess what they need. You can usually tell when they've dirtied themselves by the negative moodlet it gives your Sims!
Thankfully, it will not be long before your baby has grown up to a toddler (three days on normal lifespan). Raising them gets a lot more fun to play at this point!
Baby Cheats
There are no known cheats that are specific for babies in the game. However, if you are looking to make your baby's gender one of your selection you should read the first page of the Raising Kids Guide. You'll also see how you can greatly influence the chance of twins or triplets. Otherwise, cheats for babies fall into the same category of other cheats. They're affected by the testing cheat make needs static, for example.
The Sims 3 Toddlers
Toddlers require more care than babies in the Sims 3. You see, there is a bit more time pressure to make sure they have a good life, especially on a rather short life span setting. On normal life span, it will take a toddler seven days to grow up to a child. Toddlers need to learn walk, talk and use the potty if they are going to grow into children with good traits (traits you get to select).
You don't want your Sim's kid to grow up to be a loser, or a kleptomaniac because you didn't provide them these basic life lessons. Well, maybe you do, but this guide is for Sims 3 parents who actually want to nurture their Sims' children. In addition to the life skills, your Sim can also read parenting books to the toddler that will help them to develop skills for later.
Family Oriented
Sims with the family oriented trait will potty train, and teach toddlers to walk and talk faster than normal Sims without this trait.
Toddlers in the Sims 3finally begin having a fun stat once they've grown to this stage of childhood development. This means that you can now buy toys and see them put to use. Also, your Sim will have many more interest-based wishes that are solid accomplishments, like teaching the toddler to talk, walk and potty training him.
Potty Training
Potty training is one of three skills that toddlers need to learn to develop correctly, allowing you to choose their traits when they age up. Potty training toilets are found in the bathroom and children tabs in buy mode. Once you've purchased one, you can click the potty with the parent to initiate potty training. The child has to be on the floor of the same level as the potty to do this. You'll need to do several sessions for the toddler to be potty trained. Empty the chair every other time they potty to prevent a mess. Once potty trained, your toddler can now go potty by himself. You only have to click the potty like you click the toilet for an adult, or just wait and let her go on her own when the need gets bad enough.
Now that toddlers can avoid dirtying their diapers, the hygiene bar will drop like normal. Using the change diaper action will restore hygiene to full.
Teaching Toddlers to Walk and Talk
To teach toddlers either of these life skills, simply click the toddler. Both walking and talking are learned rather quickly. If you wait for your toddler's social need to be low before you teach to talk and use the time when they're socially satisfied to teach them to walk, you can satisfy a need and help them learn them at the same time, efficiently. You can probably get the toddler to learn one of these skills each day if you can manage their needs. As mentioned above, Sims with the Family Oriented trait will teach toddlers to walk and talk about twice as fast as normal Sims.
Teaching Toddlers Skills in The Sims 3 with Toys
Toddlers in the Sims 3 can get a jump start on life by learning skills to prepare them for childhood and adulthood. There are two known methods to teach toddlers skills. First, toys can help them. The pegbox will teach them the logic skill, and the xylophone will teach them guitar skill. You can level up to three times with items like this. This is a wonderful option for an activity for toddlers while they're at home with the babysitter and the parents are at work. They can actively raise their skills and not waste all that time. They'll have a blast, to boot! Although they don't have wishes, Toddlers can get a head start on lifetime happiness points! Great for helping them to one day afford to buy the multi-tasker or observant lifetime reward. Adults and teenagers can also play with the todder on these toys and raise the relationship bar.
Toddler Skill Books & Learning them in The Sims 3
The other option, which covers more types of skills, is to teach your toddler using skill books. You can buy parenting books under the parenting section (pacifier) of the bookstore. They are all rather cheap, at around $20-$150. Start with the short books, and read as many as possible with the toddler (click the book in your Sim's inventory or in the bookcase). Toddlers can also read them by themselves if you leave the books on the floor. For poor families, these books can be found at the library. This may actually be the best route because the parent can read all nine books to a toddler in one afternoon because of the substantial increase in reading speed at the library. You also get a substantial increase in relationship for reading to a toddler.
Nine of the toddler books will raise skill as your child grows up. The only books that don't raise a skill are those with Jimmy Sprocket in the title. The yellow books (Finger Painting, Handprints of the Masters, and Don't Stay Within the Lines) will boost Painting skill when it's learned later in life (up to level 3). The green books (Bluish Eggs With a Side of Pastrami, Frank I'm Not, and Oh the Destinations You'll Briefly Visit) will give a boost to the Writing skill up to level 3. Lastly, the pink books (Counting for Those Who Cannot, Squares Are Not Triangles, and Being Smart For Fun and Profit) will boost one level of Logic.
Later, Children can learn to cook with the little oven, and even have Bake Sales (with Ambitions).
More Fun With The Sims 3's Toddlers
Although toddlers won't gain skill from playing on the blocks table until they are children, it can still be a great toy for them. They have fun with it and if there is another toddler in the house, they will chat with each other at the blocks table if both toddlers know how to talk. The relationship bar between the two will increase the more they play together at the blocks table and both of their social bars will rise. There are also some adorable interactions available between children and toddlers. Click on a toddler with a child and you can have the child give a bottle, hug, and play peek-a-boo.
Changing Toddler's Clothes/Hair
You can change a toddler's clothes by selecting the kid and clicking on a dresser. You can select the outfits there, just as with an Adult. When you're ready to change clothes on the toddler, click on him with an Adult Sim and choose Change Clothes. There are some really cute baby clothes for you to select and customize. This is great for making kids ultra-cute for screenshots!
Hair can be changed while the toddler is selected by clicking a mirror. Make your Sims 3 babies look really cute (or really ugly).
Growing From Toddler Sim to Child
The Next Birthday Party
When the toddler is ready to age up, you can again throw a birthday party for the little tyke. It's a great mood booster. If your parenting skills were sharp when the kid was a toddler, you will be able to choose a trait for the child. If not, the game will randomly choose this next trait.
| The Sims 3 Skills | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tips | Cheats | Athletic | Charisma | Collecting | Cooking | Fishing |
| Gardening | Guitar | Handiness | Inventing | Logic | Martial Arts |
| Nectar Making | Painting | Parenting | Photography | Sculpting | Writing |
