How to Choose Appropriate Toys for Your Baby
Toys play a major role in every child’s development. They are the means by which they learn so many useful skills from their earliest age including mastering their cognitive and motor skills to building better social skills with their peers and growing emotionally.
From the moment they are born we pile them with a wide range of toys to keep them happy and entertained all the time. However, not all toys are suitable for babies, so we need to be very careful when buying them. So how do we go about selecting the right toys for newborns?
What Makes a Great Baby Toy?
Stores are full of many eye-catching toys for kids of all ages. This fact can make you feel a bit overwhelmed as to which ones are truly worth buying for your baby. Therefore, it’s worth considering a number of useful features including making sure the toy you choose is age-appropriate, made from unharmful substances which are safe for your baby and can provoke your child’s curiosity while keeping them entertained and stimulated.
The baby toys Australia stores offer a wide range of products that are specially designed for little ones. These include diverse types of simulative toys, such as rattles and teethers, to various types of comforters and colorful sets of stacking pebbles. So let’s have a look at the main factors so far so you can get more informed and pick the right infant toy for your baby.
Things to Consider Before Choosing a Toy for Your Baby
We want the best for our babies, from the choice of clothing to the food we give them, we try to do the best we can with the knowledge and means we have. So choosing a baby toy doesn’t have to be excluded, even though many parents aren’t particularly mindful when choosing toys for their little ones.
Age-Appropriate
Considering your child’s age is an important factor that plays a major role in selecting the right toy. This fact is also true when choosing baby toys. Moreover, an age-appropriate baby toy will encourage your baby to start developing its vital motor and sensory skills and challenge him to develop in the right way. However, choosing toys that are way past the age of your baby may be hazardous and often cause the child to get frustrated over figuring out how the toy works.
Safety
The safety feature is very much related to the type of toy intended for a child’s age. As some toys meant for bigger kids consist of smaller parts, they are considered inappropriate for babies due to the potential hazards of choking. Therefore you should pay attention and pick toys that are large enough at least 3cm in diameter and 6 cm in length, so they can’t be swallowed or get stuck in your child’s windpipe.
Moreover, the choice of material is also very important as many kids’ toys are made from harmful and toxic ingredients that can be dangerous for your child’s health. During the first year of development, your baby will bite, suck, drop and kick any toy you give him. For this reason, you should always read the label and choose toys that are safe for babies and are painted or finished using non-toxic materials. For instance, plastic is the most widely utilized material for making kids’ toys, and many types of plastic toys contain toxins such as PVC and phthalates that need to be avoided for young kids, especially babies.
Finally, they should also be washable so you can keep them free of germs, and properly maintained for safety child’s use. When it comes to baby toys Australia parents prefer to get those made of wood, as many eco-friendly wooden toys don’t contain any toxic chemicals that can be found in many plastic toys, which makes them great toys for babies.
Stimulation
Keeping your child’s brain stimulated from a young age can play an important role in helping your child develop faster some important physical and mental skills essential for later in life. For instance, plush baby’s rattles are perfect toys for little babies as they can trigger your baby’s curiosity and give your little baby’s fingers something soft to squeeze and grasp on while hearing the thrilling crinkle sound of the toy.
Entertainment Value
Toys for babies need to be both simple, fun, and safe. However, they also need to be simulative enough to provide enough entertainment for the child’s age. For example, different types of board books with illustrations of real objects and photographs, toys they can pretend with such as dolls, baby strollers, and stuffed toys are all great for satisfying your little baby craving for entertainment and fun.
Simplicity
There are many studies that support the idea and confirm the great benefits of why kids should play with baby dolls, mostly because they are simple. Simple toys are great as they contain fewer parts and therefore they are considered much safer for little babies. When searching for baby toys Australia wide many parents are looking for simple toys such as soft baby balls, teethers, and plushy comforters. Moreover, with simple toys, your child can learn to use their imaginations which can promote independence, creativity, critical thinking, and the ability to build and develop from their earliest age.
