How long do you let babies be babies?

[Sindocat]

First time parent in TS4, looking for advice. 

I am in the first day with a new baby in my household, with aging off in settings because I only got on the TS4 bandwagon with the free base game give-away and am still learning the game.

So my baby is a baby and will be one until I decide to age him up.

I have seen the options from the basinette in base game, and it looks about comparable to what one could do with the larval stage babies in TS3, that is to say, a few cute cuddles, feeding, changing but not a whole lot more.

I am considering the Parenthood Game Pack (having read Carl's guide to its features). Does it add anything for infants?

Both parents had completed their initial Aspirations and I had them each pick a different branch of the Family-oriented Aspirations to move on with, as I had already decided that they wanted at least one child.  But all those Aspiration interactions seem to center on Toddler+, and none of my interactions with a baby count for either.

Will I be missing stuff (hidden rewards, etc. or even just fun, non-obvious interactions) if I head right on to Toddlerdom?

Thanks for any advice and happy Simming!

[reggikko]

Parenthood doesn't add anything in regard to babies except that the parents can get Parenting skill by interacting with them. Parenting skill builds pretty quickly, though, so there still isn't much incentive to keep them as babies. The toddlers are a lot more fun and add quite a bit to gameplay.

[Sindocat]

Just what I needed to know, thanks! <3

[Playalot]

I make it part of a mini-challenge in some of my games. Can't age up the baby until the older toddler sibling maxes all skills; can't age up the older again child until 'x' happens...and so on.

Keeping a baby is useful for leveling parenting skill or just to increase the difficulty level of a game if you've been lucky enough to have triplets etc

[Sindocat]

I can see that. This is my first TS4 child, however, so my Challenge Level is already over 9,000. I appreciate the insights, however, as this is certainly not the last time I'll do this. 

Also, I am so glad I didn't get twins or triplets.  Alfie is a handful all on his own!

[Nindigo]

I tend to age them up immediately, as I'm not too fond of crying furniture with no way for me to check on their needs. Plus, I'm always really curious to see how they turn out appearance wise.

[Sindocat]

Right? The more I look at Alf, the more sure I am that he inherited Avery's bone-structure rather than Riley's. And I am glad. Riley was an early effort. Avery is the more interesting-looking Sim.

[Playalot]

I tend to age them up immediately, as I'm not too fond of crying furniture with no way for me to check on their needs. Plus, I'm always really curious to see how they turn out appearance wise.

lol!    btw if you did level up parenting skill you can see what they need..but I get your point. I like keeping 5 or 6 babies and toddlers in a single parent household... the mess is amazingly good for making a single sim work hard. *evil grin*

[Dadjokes502]

I aged up immediately I had triplets Ivy Rose, Twain and Atticus
Toddler is  hard not sure how I’m going to do it.

[coolsim9999999]

I age babies up after they are fed and have had their diaper changed.  I also sometimes have both parents rock the baby.  Then, I age up.  I used to just have each parent rock the baby and age it up.  After toddlers happened, I decided to get the baby's needs up first!

[DrWho42]

almost never but then i'm a terrible parent

[scoed]

I age them up as soon as I get the object in the shape of a baby needs are up.