Toddler is the second life stage in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. It is the youngest life stage that can be created in Create-A-Sim.
The Sims 2
Toddlers in The Sims 2 huggling
Toddler is the second life stage in The Sims 2, and it lasts for four days. It is the youngest life stage that can be created in Create-A-Sim. All toddlers have the Grow Up aspiration and can start earning aspiration points, although they won't be able to redeem them until they are teens, unless the FreeTime expansion pack is installed.
The manual suggests this isn't possible, but it actually is.
When a baby turns into a toddler, most of its genetic traits become visible for the first time. Its personality and interests are visible, and it is controllable. Toddlers require the most attention of any life stage given their lack of independence. They depend on older Sims (teens, adults, or elders) to feed them, put them into and take them out of their cribs, carry them up and down stairs, and bathe them. If they have not been potty trained, they also depend on older Sims to either change their diapers or take them to the potty when necessary. Unlike teens, adults or elders, children can't interact with toddlers in many ways. Children can tickle toddlers and give them a family kiss, and the FreeTime expansion pack allows children to teach toddlers a nursery rhyme and sing it with them. Toddlers can cuddle cats and dogs, and may be licked by dogs; this will build a relationship between the toddler and the pet. Apartment Life allowed two toddlers to "huggle", but before that, toddlers were essentially unable to interact with other toddlers, though two toddlers could autonomously fight over a bottle.
What happens when a toddler is unhappy
Toddlers can build relationships with children and/or other toddlers by sharing toys, though this will be slow unless the toddler has learned to talk, and it may not occur with all toys. Children can play with toddlers who are using skill toys that have the "Play With" interaction. Two toddlers, or a child and a toddler, can use the same toy box or play together at the Will Lloyd Wright Dollhouse or Teeny Tykes Activity Table[TS2:FT].
Toddlers do not have the comfort or environment motives. Toddlers lose energy more quickly than older Sims do, but also replenish it more quickly, especially if they sleep in a crib. In general, they will need to sleep two or three times a day, depending on how tired the player lets them get. They will wake up whenever their Energy bar reaches 100%, regardless of the time. If they are in a crib, they will demand to be let out by screaming and rattling the crib. If the toddler has been taught to walk and is left in the crib for an extended period of time, they may occasionally escape from the crib on their own.
Toddlers can gain hygiene by being bathed in a bathtub. If a bathtub is available, older Sims will frequently respond to even a small drop in a toddler's Hygiene bar by autonomously bathing the toddler. Toddlers can also gain hygiene by having their diapers changed, preferably at a changing table.
Unlike babies, toddlers despise being in their cribs for too long
Toddlers can be fed Smart Milk, which temporarily improves their learning abilities, or regular bottles from a refrigerator; if placed in a high chair, a toddler can also be fed solid food from the refrigerator. A toddler given a bottle can hold it, and a toddler can pick up a bottle that is on the floor and drink from it. If very hungry, toddlers can also play in and eat snow in Winter. They can also eat sand on beach lots. Toddlers will stop eating or drinking when their Hunger bar is full; toddlers with a full Hunger motive will throw away food served to them in the high chair.
If the Pets expansion pack is installed, a hungry toddler can eat pet food from a pet bowl, and may do so autonomously. If the Apartment Life expansion is also installed, toddlers can sleep in pet beds, thus eliminating the need for somebody to put them in their crib.
Toddlers can have different sets of everyday clothes, pajamas, and Seasons outerwear, if a teen, adult, or elder household member buys some for them. However, separate tops and bottoms for everyday wear are not available for toddlers. Changing toddlers' clothes and planning their outfits is done by taking them to the changing table. Starting with Open for Business, older Sims can use a mirror to change a toddler's appearance.
Toddlers playing with the Teeny Tykes Activity Table while being painted
Toddlers can be taught three core skills: walking, talking, and potty training. Once potty trained, a toddler will be able to use the potty chair independently. It is not necessary to teach toddlers these skills (there is no penalty for not doing so), but teaching and learning them are often major wants for both parents and toddlers. Teaching these skills also leaves positive memories, and improves their relationship scores with the Sims who teach them. FreeTime added another skill, Nursery Rhyme, but toddlers who learn this skill do not get a memory of learning it.
Toddlers can gain skill points in Charisma, Creativity and Logic from their toys. FreeTime also lets them gain Charisma by being taught a nursery rhyme from any older Sim - once learned the toddler can sing independently and gain enthusiasm for Music and Dance, as well as Charisma skill. FreeTime also adds the Teeny Tikes Activity Table. This toy allows toddlers to gain Mechanical skill points and Tinkering enthusiasm by playing with blocks, and to gain Creativity and Arts and Crafts enthusiasm by drawing.
Toddlers' wants usually revolve around getting attention from family members or friends, learning the three basic toddler skills, or gaining skill points. Except for wants related to learning skills, these are usually low in value, though low-value wants are still significant on the scale of a toddler's aspiration bar. Their fears are similar to those of older Sims, though they will frequently have fears of a relative breaking up or dying. Since these fears have values of -3000 and -5000, respectively, either one will cause a toddler's aspiration bar to bottom out. Toddlers can also earn influence points and influence other Sims in all the ways that older Sims can.
Like babies, toddlers can be removed by a social worker if certain motives are allowed to drop critically low, or if they become too hot or too cold.[TS2:S] Other than that, as of Apartment Life, there is no other way to take them off the lot without cheats. With FreeTime, the Family aspiration benefit Plead with Social Worker can prevent a toddler from being taken away by the social worker.
After four days, toddlers become children. Optionally, a toddler can celebrate this birthday by being carried to a birthday cake by a Teen, Adult or Elder, who will then help the toddler blow out the candles, or by being selected by the player and directed to "Grow Up" from the selection of self-interactions.
PlantSim toddlers
This section describes features that are only available in The Sims 2: Seasons.
An example of a PlantSim toddler, Daisy Greenman.
In The Sims 2: Seasons, toddler is the first life stage for PlantSims grown from spores. Like the normal toddler stage, it lasts four days. While it has much in common with the regular toddler stage, there are also significant differences.
PlantSim toddlers have the same free will impulses to interact with older Sims that normal Sim toddlers do, and can roll most of the same wants as normal Sim toddlers. However, they will not roll wants to learn the three basic toddler skills, though they may roll a want to learn the nursery rhyme if FreeTime is installed. PlantSim toddlers come into the world already able to walk and talk, and they don't need to worry about potty training, as PlantSims have no bladder motive. They also begin life with all of their spore-parent's skills. They can learn skills in the same way that normal Sim toddlers can, but if they inherit medium or high levels in a skill, they will take longer to gain points in it.
If a bathtub is available, older Sims will respond to a PlantSim toddler's water motive as they do to a normal Sim toddler's hygiene motive. Even if the Water bar is almost full, a very small drop will frequently trigger an autonomous reaction to bathe the toddler. PlantSim toddlers can also drink from bottles, which will replenish the water motive. They can be placed in high chairs for this, but as with normal Sim toddlers, this is not necessary.
PlantSim toddlers can be placed in cribs, but for them, a crib is primarily a way to keep them in one place. PlantSim toddlers, like older PlantSims, will remain active as long as their sunlight motive is not depleted.
In some ways, PlantSim toddlers require less attention than normal Sim toddlers. Like normal Sim toddlers, they cannot get up or down a flight of stairs unless they are carried, but they can raise their own sunlight motive if they can get outside during the daytime, or can get to a room with a greenhouse lamp. Like older PlantSims, they can boost their water motive by performing interactions that place them in contact with water. If they can get to a flowerbed, they can also boost their water motive by eating flowers.
Perhaps the most significant difference is that, unlike normal Sim toddlers, PlantSim toddlers grow into adults. Since an adult's aspiration bar has four times the capacity of a toddler's, it is even more important to keep a PlantSim toddler's bar as high as possible, as their aspiration bar will drop sharply when they grow up.
Player Tips for The Sims 2
- Keep a close eye on their energy levels and make sure you put them into the crib before it hits rock bottom or things can get difficult. If they've just had a nap on the floor you might find picking them up is difficult as they tend to wander around randomly, cry, and throw tantrums. And if they're tired they won't eat, won't play (so they don't learn skills, socialize or have fun) so their lives become difficult in their opinion, and you might get a visit from the social worker.
- As well as maximizing hygiene, giving them a bath will maximize social. However, it takes a lot of time. To deal with hygiene issues quickly, don't potty train them and just use the changing table when they fill their diapers—after a few seconds they will have full hygiene again.
- Wait until your toddler gets tired before you feed them, then put them in the high chair and give them a bowl or a bottle. They won't fall asleep in the high chair no matter how tired they are. They will throw a tantrum and refuse to eat, so select the toddler, click on the high chair, and select "Consume Food". This will force them to eat. Once they've eaten, put them straight in the crib. This way you deal with hunger and energy together.
- One way to get them to potty train easier/quicker is to wait until the Bladder bar is red. It will fill the bar quicker in the long term.
- Toddlers like to splash in toilets, and will do so autonomously, so a good way to prevent messes is to put the bathroom upstairs. If you only have one floor, when you catch a toddler about to splash click on his/her thumbnail and cancel the action . When you mop up, they will try to splash again. Putting them in their crib or highchair will stop them.
Two toddlers fighting for a bottle
- If one toddler has a bottle and another hungry toddler is nearby, they will attempt to take the bottle for themselves.
- Using the "MaxMotives" cheat will also raise the toddler's motives to maximum. You can use this cheat as many times as you want. This way, mom and dad won't have to constantly be getting up for little Johnny's late night bottle and can focus more on teaching him how to walk and talk (they'll also be able to get some sleep and enjoy their lives). The disadvantage to using this cheat is that it refills the Bladder motive, meaning that it will be harder to potty train them. To counter this, use the "boolProp testingcheatsenabled true" cheat and spawn the Sim Modder. Use it to drop the toddler's bladder motive, then potty train the toddler.
- If Lifetime Aspiration is present, toddlers in gold or platinum gain lifetime aspiration points very quickly compared to other life stages. If a toddler's aspiration bar can be kept high, it may be worthwhile to let the toddler stage run its full course, in order to take advantage of this.
Using Smart Milk
Skills are essential, but they can be hard to raise, since toddlers' motives decay quickly and they learn slightly slower than older Sims. The only way to improve this without cheating is with the assistance of aspiration rewards. The player can use Smart Milk to enhance a toddler's skill-building rate. Sims fed with Smart Milk as toddlers may continue to learn skills at a faster rate as children, which can help them significantly with their careers as adults or in college as young adults. However, once they become teens, their skill building rate will be the same as that of Sims not fed with Smart Milk.
Notes
- There were reports that the wrong message would appear when a toddler earned a skill point while independently singing the nursery rhyme. The message would say the toddler had earned a point of Body skill, when he or she had actually earned Charisma. The notes for the FreeTime patch do not mention this, but it appears that it does correct this.
- The Sims 2: Seasons refers to the toddler stage for PlantSims as "Plantbaby".
Gallery
The Sims 3
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A toddler in The Sims 3
Toddlers are included in The Sims 3. Toddlers can be assigned two traits in Create-A-Sim, or will have the same two traits they were born with if they grew up from a baby. They appear to represent Sims between 1 and 3 years old, and take seven days (if lifespan is set to 'Normal') to progress to the next life stage: Child.
As in the previous game, toddlers can be picked up and held by teens and above, and must be carried in order to get up and down staircases and into their cribs. While an older Sim is carrying a toddler, they can still perform most normal social interactions, such as talking to people or watching TV. Toddlers can also be placed in vehicles and brought to community lots, though they are unable to enter many rabbit hole buildings.
Toddlers in The Sims 3 will begin to cry if they are hungry, tired, lonely, or need their diaper changing. There is also a minor glitch in the game that can occasionally cause a toddler to cry even if all its motives are full, possibly because it wants to get out of the crib. The length of time a toddler will continue crying is influenced by how many low motives it has. Toddlers will usually stop crying quickly if they have only one low motive, and will usually entertain themselves temporarily before getting bored and crying again. However, if negative moodlets resulting from a toddler's low motives continue to stack up, the toddler will cry for longer before ceasing. If a toddler is running low on all four of its main motives (hunger, energy, social, and hygiene) at the same time, it will cry indefinitely and only stop to go to sleep (which will cause the energy meter to rise and automatically take care of one of the aforementioned motives). Toddlers will also burst into tears for a short time when candy is stolen from them by Evil Sims. When a toddler is in its crib or high chair and needs something, it will scream and cry every few seconds, as it feels trapped. The scream sounds vaguely like the word "stupid". It's possible that this similarity is an intentional Easter egg. Unlike in The Sims 2, toddlers that have learned to walk cannot escape from cribs by themselves.
Toddlers have fewer interactions than they had in The Sims 2. Most significantly, they can no longer ask older Sims for food or attention. They can, however, still play with certain toys (available individually in Buy Mode) through which they can learn skills. These skills will not be visible in the toddler's Skills Journal until it ages up into a child and performs an action related to the skill (e.g., if the toddler reaches level one in logic, the skill won't appear in the skill journal until it begins playing chess, using the telescope or reading a logic book). Older Sims also have the option to read to toddlers, provided that they have purchased children's books from the bookstore. Reading different children's books to a toddler can help develop the Logic, Painting and Writing skills. Toddlers can play in the playpen (a special Premium Content available only in Aurora Skies) and earn Logic and Charisma skills. They can also teach themselves to talk by interacting with a mirror in the playpen. By using the walker Premium Content, toddlers can also learn to walk by themselves. The table below demonstrates more specifically how each skill can be developed:
| Skill | How to Learn |
|---|---|
| Guitar | Playing with the xylophone |
| Handiness | Playing with the activity table |
| Logic | Playing with blocks on floor |
| Book: Counting for Those who Cannot | |
| Book: Being Smart for Fun and Profit | |
| Book: Squares are Not Triangles | |
| Painting | Book: Finger Painting 101 |
| Book: Handprints of the Masters | |
| Book: Don't Stay Within the Lines | |
| Writing | Book: Bluish Eggs with a Side of Pastrami |
| Book: Frank, I'm Not | |
| Book: Oh the Destinations You'll Briefly Visit | |
| Charisma | Talking to themselves in the playpen mirror (only available after they learn to talk) |
Toddlers also no longer need to be bathed regularly. Instead, when their hygiene meter falls into the red, Teens and above can simply use the 'Change Dirty Diaper' interaction to refill it. The player can, however, bathe a toddler using a special bath available as premium content at The Sims 3 Store if they wish.
Once again, Toddler marks the first life stage in which Sims can wear clothes, although their outfit categories are limited to Everyday, Sleepwear, and Formal. If Seasons is installed, toddlers will also have an Outerwear category.
In order for The Sims 3 toddlers to age up well and allow the player to choose a new trait for the child stage, the toddler must always be potty trained and taught to walk and talk. This differs from toddlers in The Sims 2, who only need to be in gold or platinum aspiration at the end of the toddler stage in order to age up well.
Things that Toddlers can do that lower life stages can't:
- Learn some skills
- Learn toddler skills: Walk, Talk and Potty training
- (Once skills are learned) Walk, Talk and use potty
- Change Hair, Clothes, etc.
- Ride the elevator by themselves.
- Play inside toy box.
- Be tickled.
- Be Attacked with the Claw[TS3:G]
- Read toddler books
Things that Toddlers can do that higher life stages can't:
- Sleep in a crib.
- Be taught how to walk, talk, and use the potty.
- Be picked up and carried, tossed in air, tickled, and snuggled.
- Be Attacked with the Claw[TS3:G]
- Read toddler books (Childish Sims can)
- Play inside toy box
- Play with xylophone and pegbox
As of patch 1.6, children can play peek-a-boo with toddlers, read to them, hug them and feed them, significantly increasing the total number of interactions possible with toddlers. In addition to drinking from bottles and eating baby food, toddlers can also eat regular Sim food, (Mac and Cheese, Waffles, Cookies, etc.) but in order to do so the toddler must be placed in a high chair and the food must be processed in the Food Processor and fed directly. Toddlers with a full hunger meter will not eat when fed in the high chair; when a bowl of food is given to them, they will poke at it in confusion, make a mess, and then throw the bowl off the table in frustration.
Vampire Toddlers
This section describes features that are only available in The Sims 3: Late Night and The Sims 3: Supernatural.
If a player has Late Night or Supernatural installed, it is possible to produce a toddler that is also a Vampire when one or both of a new baby's parents are vampires, with a 50% chance of vampirism being inherited when the baby has one vampire parent and a 100% chance of vampirism being inherited when both parents are vampires. With Supernatural installed, vampire toddlers can also be made from scratch in Create-A-Sim. A vampire toddler can be physically distinguished from other toddlers by their different skin color and glowing eyes (much like adult vampires) and will bite at the necks of teddy bears, Imaginary Friend dolls and other soft toys when playing with them. Vampire toddlers initially have the same motives as regular toddlers, but will eventually switch to having unique vampire motives and abilities upon reaching the young adult stage. The only premade vampire toddler is Belisama Hemlock.
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The Sims 4
Toddlers do not appear in The Sims 4.[1] It is unknown if they will be introduced in an expansion pack, game pack, game update, or at all. A statement from Rachel Franklin, executive producer of The Sims, stated that the omission of toddlers was to "focus on revolutionizing the Sims themselves".
The Sims FreePlay
Toddlers are also included in The Sims FreePlay, being aged up from a baby using a birthday cake. At this point, they no longer require their crib, can walk, climb stairs, and leave their house. Additionally, wider customization becomes available, including hairstyles. Though they are able to interact with certain objects on their own, toddlers are still dependent on adults: they can only be fed by adults and can only bathe when an adult is nearby. Unlike all other age groups in Freeplay, idle toddlers will occasionally sit on the ground (in addition to sitting on furniture like all other Sims). If a toddler's needs get too low, they will continually throw tantrums.
References
Dates featured: April 2015.
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