Basic Gear for Infants

What you need to know about your baby's development, what toys they need and perhaps more importantly, what toys to avoid.

Toys and Development. As babies develop, so does their need for playthings that fit their growing abilities. Like clothes, good toys need to fit. Some toys for infants will have short-term use and then get packed away or passed along to a new cousin or friend. Others will be used in new ways as your child grows. During the first year, babies need toys to gaze at, listen to, grasp, chomp on, shake, pass from hand to hand, bang together, toss, chase and hug.

Basic Gear Checklist for the Horizontal Infant

*Mobile

*Musical Toy

*Safety Mirror

*Activity Mat

*Soft small fabric toys with differing sounds and textures

*Fabric Dolls or animals with easy to grab limbs

Toys to Avoid

These toys pose a choking and/or suffocation hazard :

*Antique Rattles

*Foam toys

*Toys with elastic

*Old wooden toy might have lead paint

*Furry plush dolls that shed

*Any toy with small parts

*Dolls and pillows in cribs

Basic Gear Checklist for the Vertical Infant

*Rattles and teething toys

*Containers for filling and dumping games

*Manipulatives with differing textures, shapes, sounds

*Cloth and sturdy board books

*Washable dolls and animals

*Soft fabric covered ball

*Rolling toys or vehicles

*Musical toys

*Cloth blocks

*Bath Toys

Toys to Avoid for Vertical Infants

These toys pose a choking and/or suffocation hazard :

*Antique Rattles

*Foam toys

*Toys with elastic

*Old wooden toy might have lead paint

*Furry plush dolls that shed

*Any toy with small parts

*Shape sorters and ring and post toys.(These call for developmental skills beyond those of an infant.)

*Dolls and pillows in cribs

*Bath toys that take on water that collects bacteria

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