Today I am going to share with you 4 toys you need for your baby to ensure their gross motor, fine motor and communication skills developed during this period of time. So your baby’s first three months of life, they don’t do a whole lot. They are not able to grasp anything with their hands. Here are the best toys for newborn that are required for the activities that must be done for the development of the brain of a child of this age. List of best toys for newborn are introduced here.
Baby Toys 0-3 Months: The Only 4 Toys You Need!
Baby Gym
Basically your baby will be able to lie underneath them on their back when they are awake and they will be starting to look at a toy and then visually track it because they are hanging over an arch above their head and they move. The other thing is that towards the end of three months, your baby will start reaching out and batting the toy with their hand, which is awesome. And when they start kicking their legs, they’ll also accidentally kick the toy. The other thing is the baby gym toys are often detachable, so you can pull them off. And if they’re soft, you would place it in the middle of your baby’s chest so that they can start playing with it towards the end of the 3 months where they will be able to play with toys and hold it for a short, really short period of time. So the baby gym is my must have equipment for a newborn baby.
Soft Mirror
This is to help with the tummy time. So you place it in front of the baby. We know babies really like looking at their faces when they’re doing tummy time. So this keeps them in that position for a long period of time. And if they’re in side lying, they’ll be able to look at themselves and see their reflection, lights and everything. So they will be quite happy.
Soft Toys
Soft toys are incredibly beneficial for your baby’s development. They offer essential sensory stimulation, providing comfort and security. These cuddly companions contribute to your baby’s visual and emotional growth, fostering exploration and curiosity. Incorporating soft toys into your baby’s routine, including during tummy time exercises and bedtime, can have positive effects. Additionally, these toys can provide relief during the teething phase and enhance bonding through interactive play. When choosing soft toys, prioritize age-appropriate and safe options, and always supervise playtime for your baby’s well-being.
You would check out your baby gym first because mine actually came with a mirror. So if you wanted to you could just put this mirror in front of a pillow or something where it’s resting and then your baby will still be able to see their face and you don’t need to purchase that soft mirror. Or you could just place your baby in front of a mirror that’s mounted on a cupboard sliding door so they’ll be able to look at themselves that way.
Tactile Book
Third toy that would be beneficial for this age is tactile book. initially baby will just kind of scrunching it in their hands, which is amazing. But it makes a lot of noise and it’s really lightweight. So when your baby is holding it and they accidentally drop it on them, it’s not going to hurt them. Which would happen if you’ve got those board books. You wouldn’t be able to leave a newborn baby. So a three months old with those books because they will hurt themselves. These books are made of material. They’re really easy to turn. Not that you are expecting your baby to turn it. But you can turn it for your baby. It makes a lot and lots of noise. There’s often tags on it. So they’ll be able to feel those tags. They’ll be able to hold it themselves at three months when you place it in the middle of their body as well.
Oball
Last toy I’d recommend at this age is the oball. It’s a really, really lightweight toy, which is handy. The other thing is it’s really squishy, so it’s not going to hurt your baby when they accidentally drop it on themselves, which will happen. The other thing is you can often mount these using a link that then attaches to your baby gym. So your baby will be able to reach up and grab it. This ball is really great because initially your baby will use their whole hand to grab it without their thumb. It’s got so many holes that your baby will accidentally grab it and then they’ll let go. Or they won’t actually be able to let go because they don’t even know they’re holding it at this stage. So it’s a really easy toy that they’ll learn to hold and they’re going to have more success holding it, which is amazing because there’s so many holes.
Baby Toys 3-6 Months Old: The Only Toys You Need!
After 3 months, give these toys in addition to the toys mentioned above. Giving best toys for newborn is very important because the first 3 years are the best time for a child’s brain to grow.
Rattle
The other toy I’d recommend is a rattle. So the slim handle of a rattle, babies can hold the toy which is amazing and it’s lightweight so they can actually move it and rattle it. They’ll like making lot and lots of noise.
Teething Rings
A baby can use teething rings in a safe manner. This is because they don’t have any extra pieces that could fall off and present a choking risk. They are simple for babies to handle and too big for them to inadvertently swallow.
Board Book
It’s a book with thick pages, and that’s really required because your baby’s gonna rip any other kind of book. So, a thick-paged book is amazing. The other thing is these books are great because they have kind of tactile parts on it so that your baby can rub their hands on it, so you are not expecting this. That’s not until about 10 months of age, really 12 months of age is an accurate one. But what you’re wanting your baby is to rub their hands along it, and it kind of gives them.. You can talk about how it’s rough, how it’s smooth, but these ones are really good because you can just read to your baby and also it’s got really colorful pictures.
Essential Baby Toys for 6 – 9 Months!
Give these things while continuing to give the aforementioned toys.
Shape Sorter
Your’re not expecting them to be able to put the toys into these individual holes. What I do at this age, is remove the lid and what you would do, is you’d use the blocks that it came with, and I would use them just to teach a baby to drop the toys into the open container. You can use metal mixing bowl and just use these kind of shapes inside that, or some balls or use could use an ice cream container, but shape sorters are really good investment because in like 9 to 12 months, They’ll be starting to put one shape in. It’s generally the circle and it’s towards the end of the 12 months, that they can put the circle in the top, but it’s something that they will progress on to. So you could get it now, knowing that we just remove the lid, but we’ll put it back on when they’re a bit older.
Ring Stacking Toys
Another great toy at this age are the ring stackers. Again at six months, I would take the rings off and just give it to your bubs for something to play with, because they’re lightweight and they’re circular and they can move it from hand to hand. Toward the end of more like nine months, what you are wanting to do, is for your baby to remove the rings from the ring stacker. You’re not wanting them to put it on at this age but this is a really great toy again, that we can kind of break down. So at six month we can give it to them as individual rings, nine month they’re removing it, and then towards the end of the first year, they’re putting it back on, not in any order though just putting it on. Anyway shape sorters are best toys for newborn to 1 year olds.
Blocks
And lastly at this age, I really do like blocks and that’s because it helps to work on that in three fingered grip, but also at six months, they’re gonna be banging it mainly on the table. And then they learn to bang it together. But that’s something that they’ll use quite regularly, and then we can use it to post, so we can use it for dropping into containers. And then later on, we’re gonna be using blocks to build on top of each other. So at 12 months, you’d be wanting one block on top of the other. So again, it’s another great toy that you can buy now and they’ll continue to use.
Baby Toys For 9 – 12 Months
Pop-up Toys
What’s great about this is it helps with your baby’s development of their pointer. So they’ll be able to, and their pincer grip, cause they’ll need to grab that and slide it down, or they’ll point. What’s really good is that you might, as an parent go along and open all these up and what your baby will do initially is start to pull the lid down with their pointer. So they might use their whole hand, but then you model to them with their pointer, and they’ll start doing that as well.
Toys on a String
At this age another great toy are toys on a string. So we’re wanting to work on that grip, so string enables them to do it. The other thing is it’s really good one, so your babies walking around or crawling, they’ll start to pull the toy on the string, so it’s quite motivating for them, but we’re wanting, it helps with that development. So you can get lots of different string toys on a string. You would just make sure the strings relatively long. because if it’s too short, it’s really hard to pull the toy along.
Puzzles with Knob
Another best toys for newborn are the puzzles with kind of knobs on them. And that’s because it works on that pincer grip, so they can pull the puzzle piece out. Again, you are not expecting them to put the puzzle back in, you’re just wanting them to pull it out. There are some puzzles that are really great at the moment that are out there that actually play music when they remove the puzzle piece.
Stacking Toys
Other best toys for newborn, you might want to think about are the stacking toys. At this age, I would just be expecting your baby to kind of knock them over and have lots of fun, that way they might be able to put one block on top of the other, but that’s it. But these will be great in future when they’re getting a bit older and their skills are more developed.
Trolleys
Trolleys are best toys for newborn and there’s two different trolleys out there. There’s the one way it’s kind of a wooden trolley where you can put blocks and stuff in the front of it. That’s actually my preferred trolley when using it with a baby, and that simply because you could put a weight in the front of it, so it doesn’t kind of roll away on them when they are learning to push the trolley. The other trolleys, which is the kind of plastic ones that often comes with musical components on the front. They’re really handy for this musical component because it does work on giving your child that fine motor exposure so it works on that pointing. You can open doors, you can put your finger in one of the holes and move it around, or you can spin the dial. it is really engaging for your babies. The only thing is I find the plastic trolleys really like slippery. So they’re quite lightweight, and they’re more likely to kind of slide out from your bub when they’re walking with it. So the wooden trolleys have a tray at the front, which I generally put kind of a rice bag in to weigh it down, is more successful for babies.
Those are the best toys for newborn if your are focusing on your baby’s gross motor skills, fine motor skills and communication skills.