As your little bundle of joy grows, you realise that she must be given toys to play with. But looking at the array of toys in toy shops, anyone may get pretty daunted.
Image Courtesy: tinytinyshopshop.com.au
Well, toys should be chosen wisely because sometimes you may buy something which is seemingly quite sweet to look at, but in fact may be dangerous or just boring.
But don’t worry. There are a few tips and tricks that you can use to choose toys wisely for your little prince.
1. Understand What Your Baby Wants
Up to one year, babies tend to explore their amazing new world through all their senses which develop quickly.
However, during the initial few months, they are a bit unable to use motor skills and rely more on their eyes and ears to figure everything out.
Thus they get attracted towards bright and highly contrasting colours and changes in sounds. At this age, a crib mobile is the best option for baby entertainment.
But as there is a risk of strangulation if the baby is able to access it by around 5 months, you should remove it from the crib.
Once your little princess becomes able to reach and grab things, you should give her toys that are safe to test with mouth. Kids may also like keys and disks on a ring which they can hold, shake and enjoy their sound.
6 months of age is the time for teething toys. You can get all these toys at Tiny Tiny Shop Shop. Once the little ones learn to sit up, they also master gross motor skills and eye-hand coordination. At this stage, they love toys that cause an impact.
At this stage, push and pull toys, activity cubes, squeaky toys, large pop beads, nesting and stacking toys, balls, shape sorters, rubber blocks, pop-up toys and simple musical toys are the best. Buy baby musical instruments from Tiny Tiny Shop Shop for your kids.
2. Choose Safe Toys
Kids under 4 years tend to put everything in mouth and most toy-related injuries happen in this age group.
But instead of getting scared, you should just choose safe toys. First and foremost thing to do is to buy toys that are age-appropriate for your child.
Read the warning labels on toys, like the choking hazard warnings on balloons, balls and marbles. For their activity you can also have baby bouncer jumper.
Latex balloons can be hazardous as their small pieces can easily go down the baby’s throat and get stuck. If you have to give balloon to your baby, mylar is a safer material.
Image Courtesy: tinytinyshopshop.com.au
3. Check Gifts for Safety
You should also check toys that come to your child as birthday or Christmas gifts. The gift-givers may ignore the warning labels.
If your baby is taken care of by a caregiver, make sure she is well-informed about toy safety. You should talk about toy safety to the person who takes care of your baby.
Whether you or anyone else has given a toy as a gift to your baby, don’t forget to toss all the packaging. Plastic wrappings and bags can cause suffocation and hard shell cases can have sharp edges.
Hopefully, these tips will help you choose safe toys for your kid that he’ll have fun with.
