It's raining, you're late for school, and the children's wellies come out of the cupboard for the first time in months. But do they still fit? Why the welly check matters, what to look for in children's wellies and socks, and how retailers can turn a rainy-morning scramble into something better.

Your skin is your largest organ. In Part 2 of our Preparing for a baby series, I look at chemicals in pregnancy: what goes on your body, from skincare to the clothes you wear for nine months, what the evidence says, what it doesn't, and the simple swaps both parents can make.

A trade show is where you see a brand's heart. At Harrogate International Nursery Fair 2026 three stands stayed with me: Will & Finch, a changing bag designed by a stay-at-home dad; EcoKinly, the Irish reusable nappy brand that asks parents to start with just one; and Newlife, the charity turning brands' dead stock into equipment for disabled children.

Halloween fun doesn't have to cost the planet. Not everything we do is perfect, but a charity shop dress, a borrowed top, reusable spider buns and pumpkin soup are little steps in the right direction, without taking the fun away from the children.

Hegen has won the BPIA Concept and Innovation Award 2026 at Harrogate for a feeding system built to grow with your baby, voted for by its peers. Here's what the win tells product developers.

It's Infection Prevention Week. The Lullaby Trust's new guide helps parents ask visitors to wash their hands and not kiss the baby, and brands can help share it.

To celebrate 15 years of the Junior Design Awards, Junior Magazine created a bonus Best Small Business award: Gold to Talou, Silver to Huddle Baby, Bronze to ODA London. All three also won Gold in their own category. Meet the small brands beating the established names, and why the judges chose them.

Preparing for pregnancy starts before the baby. In Part 1 of a three-part series, I look at what the research says about weight-loss jabs, Botox, fillers, food and plastics before conception, why it's a shared responsibility for both parents, and what I'd love to see change.

Harrogate Nursery Fair 2026 runs from 18th to 20th October: more than 50 exhibitors across four halls, a new New Brands Zone, and the BPIA Concept & Innovation Awards finalists. Who exhibits, who visits, the trade press worth meeting, and where to find me on Monday.

Since 27th September, the EU green claims rules ban vague environmental claims without proof, self created sustainability labels, and carbon neutral claims that rely on offsetting, even on stock already on shelves. For brands doing things properly, this is a levelling of the playing field. Here is what changed and where to start.

Organic Zoo's Midnight print meets BINIBAMBA's merino sheepskin in a limited edition brand collaboration launched on 1st October. Two British, female founded brands, the same customer, no overlapping categories, and values that genuinely match. Here is why it works, and what to ask before you agree to any collaboration.

The SEFAR directory opens today with over 40 resources: The Nest's curated network of consultants, partner businesses, organisations and charities for maternity, baby and children's product brands. It is not a list you work through alone. We get to know your business first, then make a warm introduction to the right person.

Mothercare has lost both of its biggest franchise markets in five years. The easy story is that both were things that happened to it. A former Global Product Director on why the Mothercare franchise story is more complicated than that, and the three things a turnaround would need.

Levi's and M&S have launched a shared renewable electricity programme for their suppliers. The useful read for a smaller brand is not that factories need persuading, many were doing this years ago. It is that asking how a factory runs belongs in your normal due diligence.

I judged the BPIA Concept and Innovation Awards last Friday, the round that selects the three finalists. The BPIA has now announced them. Here is what a judging panel actually listens for, and why entering is worth far more than the prize.

Global Standards, the body behind GOTS, has launched a new certification covering fibres organic standards never touched, including recycled polyester. Babywear leans cotton, but children's clothing is far more polarised than that, uniform, sportswear and swimwear mean polyester is a huge share of what school-age children actually wear. Until now, none of it had a credible certification to point to.

Charlotte Morley's business, once thelittleloop and now Lloop, is worth a proper look from a trade perspective, not just a consumer one. A badge on Kite's product pages already lifts conversion before a customer has bought anything, and the real case for a brand is what happens after: repeat spend, new customers, an excess stock route, and a head start on EPR reporting.

At the Real Circularity Summit's True Size Roundtable, Julia Reynolds showed a table of industry experts two avatars side by side, the UK's current standard sizing block, and the true shape her data says customers actually are. The gap was obvious, and it exposes a grading system overdue an overhaul, in children's clothing every bit as much as adult wear.

Since 12th August, the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation has been properly in force, and it now classifies swing tags, hangers sold with the item and dust bags as packaging. If you sell into the EU, that changes what you're responsible for.

JoJo Maman Bébé just marked ten years as a certified B Corp with a T-shirt designed around ideas from its own young customers. I heard founder Laura Tenison speak about how she built the business this week, and there's one thing, even I can't work out: why she called it JoJo Maman Bebe?