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I just told someone on parenting that a baby becomes a toddler when it starts moving around. The question which came back was "what age does a toddler stop being a toddler?".
That got me searching, and I found at least one reference that said "Toddlers are babies from one year to four years of age".
I'd never consider a four-year-old as a baby. Is this just me, or a geographical difference?
I don't think there's a universal definition.
Going by the American Academy of Pediatrics:
Clothing manufacturers, on the other hand, consider toddlers from 2 - 4, which is why you see 2T - 4T clothing sizes.
I would say the real test is based on developmental milestones rather than age. A child is a toddler once they begin walking/toddling around, and ceases to be a toddler when they have met a number of milestones such as communication, toilet training, and motor skills.
While it can vary to some extent based on a child's development; the above is fairly common across the US.
Baby on the other hand is an umbrella term and has no distinct cut off point.
Neither toddler nor baby are defined strictly according to age. I would take them to be mutually exclusive, using the definition that a baby is a very young child who has not learnt to walk while a toddler is a young child who has just learnt to walk.
To me, the word "toddler" emphasizes a characteristic gait or style of movement, toddling. Toddlers are mobile, but their movement is a little awkward and inefficient. Adults don't trust toddlers to have an accurate sense of their own physical limits, and so toddlers require fairly close supervision to keep them from hurting themselves.
I think a child ceases to be a toddler when their motor skills develop and they move more like adults, and when they understand their bodies well enough to need less vigilance for physical safety.
Related to this I think is a change in developmental focus: a large part of a toddler's learning is around movement and motor skills. A pre-schooler has reached a level of dexterity where movement is no longer a primary developmental focus.
This transition from toddler to pre-schooler is gradual, of course; there's no hard cutoff. I agree with the other answers that this transition often happens in the 2-3 year range.
Disclaimer: I don't have a background in child development; my answer is based on my own experience.
The term Toddler is pretty definitive and self defining. "Baby" is much more ambiguous, and can be applied over a range of ages, so yes, they certainly can overlap. I don't consider a four year old a baby either, but I know an almost two who is very much a toddler (busily running everywhere) but who is typically referred to as baby.
According to developmental studies (and don't ask me why age 5 is an overlap, I am not the one who created these):
I kind of agree with last two I guess 5 can fit in both slots. But yeah they kind of got cruddy names for developmental stages but what ya gonna do about it. I have mass pet peeve with clothing manufacturers and the T but I do understand maybe not wanting to put letter p on clothing. Newborn is also fine. However I find infant and toddler very broad age group, is your 4 month old same as your 9 month old, probably not.
For me I have added couple things to infant and toddler area because I see the difference that science hasn't quite caught up to.
The rest is reasonable as is.
The term baby can be numerous things depending on circumstances.
I don't know why but it bugs me when a parent calls their 3, 4, or 5 yr old a toddler when they really aren't. If you want more general way to refer to children: baby 12 months and under, toddler 1-2. Little child/kid 3-6 yrs, big child/kid 7-9 yrs, tween/preteen 10-12. Though don't be surprised if 3-6 says I am big — they want to be bigger then they are.
They are definitely not mutually exclusive in at least one instance: when referring to "the baby" (of the family), you are referring to the youngest child, regardless of age. In that sense, "the baby" might be a toddler or even a child or teenager.
I think in common usage, a toddler can be baby that can walk or a young child. A baby becomes a toddler when they can walk, but you can still call them a baby until they are maybe two years old. You can call them a toddler until they turn 4.
The terms 'baby' and 'toddler' would not be used of a child simultaneously but because of their vagueness might overlap if applied logically. Some sources give definitions by age that do not overlap, but that is an artificial division.
The upper limit between a toddler and just a very young child is much vaguer, I think of it as literally when the child is well-balanced (that is not 'toddling' any more). A four year old doesn't seem to be a toddler any more but a three year old might be. Even a two year could get away with not being a toddler and instead just a very young child.
But despite the logical fact that one might be able to talk but not yet able to walk or walk and not talk (in the varying ways that abilities develop in a child), one would be hard pressed to label a child both a baby and a toddler. If you can walk, you're not a baby any more, you're a toddler. If you can speak but can't yet walk, you'd probably still be labeled a baby (though maybe not an infant).
