Baby Toys - Ideas wanted!

Gillby1

Hi all,

I have a ten week old baby, and am trying to find suitable toys for him. Does anyone mind sharing ideas for what they did/do with babies of a similar age?:o I'm particularly looking for ideas that might help to strengthen his neck, and that might help him to 'find' his hands.

We're trying not to spend too much money, and i had a mini lightbulb moment when i found myself thinking about buying one of these: Tummy Time Mat. Not very MSE!:rotfl: It suddenly occurred to me that i could easily knock up something similar using a fleece blanket, rolled up towel/pillow and a couple of toys. Has anyone had any similar ideas for creating your own versions of expensive toys?

Thanks!

Gilly (and baby James;))

Kelinik

Do you have a baby gym gillby? We've got a basic one (I was given it but would have bought something similar) and my little man has just started enjoying it in the last week or so. He's 12 weeks and 'found' his hands last week, he now spends half his time sucking his fists and can bash the hanging toys on the gym. Also caught him rubbing his eyes last night so he's definitely getting the hang of hands lol.

Oh he also has a couple of rattles that he likes, a crab shaped one in particular but they were my daughters' so i don't remember how much they were - elc ones though I think.

Ryan says hi to James by the way!

clairehi

Baby gym is the obvious - look for one with lots of different things attached to it, some are a bit carp if you ask me. get one that you can readily tie on other things to vary it but obviously be very careful to attach things safely.

(get it soon though, once he can roll over, he will just turn over and ignore the baby gym!).

what about pram rattles that you stretch across the pram on an elastic.

also you can get wrist rattles that velcro onto the wrists, handy before they can hold onto things for long without dropping.

clairehi

PS I wouldnt use that Tummy time mat with a cushion until your LO can sit up. I would be a bit worried about very small babies wriggling and getting themselves wedged under the cushion.

stick to lying him flat on his back on a mat for now with the baby gym overhead or similar. he will try and lift his head and roll, this will strengthen his back/neck muscles plenty.

Gillby1

Kelinik - James has been sucking on his hands for the last few days, and can now keep them in his mouth for more than a couple of seconds, although he spends half his time bashing himself in the face with them. I guess that's the start of him finding his hands then, thanks! He does bash toys, but i suspect that's more luck than judgement. I'm sure we'll get there eventually. Hi Ryan!:wave:

I should have said - we do have a baby gym, but great idea to tie other items to it coz i'm sure he's getting bored looking at the same things every day. I've also made my own black, red and white cards (which he's just started smiling at) as i thought i could do almost as good a job as the bought ones, despite not being very artistic.

clairehi - thanks for the warning. I only put James on his tummy when i'm right next to him, so he should be ok. I must stop reading about what he should be doing each week, though, coz i'm always worried i'm not encouraging the right things, and tummy time is one of those!:o

I've just started trawling mothercare for ideas for toys that i can make. Better practice my sewing: FabricBook

Gilly

gill_81uk

:wave: Hiya Gilly

If you don't have one I would definitely agree with baby gym. Thomas is 10 weeks tomorrow and LOVES lying on the floor on his baby gym. In the last week he has really found his hand and bats away at the animals, and can grip the giraffe's legs and pull it about that way too. He loves kicking his legs to make the elephants ears rustle too. He can roll over onto his side as well.

We have two

This one which was £15 in asda baby event. it's ok for travel but wouldn't reccommend for all the time as it's very padded and Thomas can't move about on it as easily.

This one which we have borrowed off my cousin and is brilliant, altho it only has the elephant and giraffe attached because they lost the rest lol and the music bit didnt work. Would def reccommend getting a flat one similar to it. We do tummy time as well by just putting him on his front and he can push his head up and look forward for a few seconds now.

This is pretty much all we use other than swing and bouncing chair atm (bouncing chair is also good for hands as he reaches out to bears.

Gillby1

gill_81uk - funnily enough i've just been offered the second babygym you mention, so things are already looking up! I just can't wait till James starts trying to use his hands to hit things, and i guess the best way to encourage it is to give him something to bat at...

Is the baby swing any good? What one do you have? I might try and track one down.

gill_81uk

we have one of the fisherprice takealong swings. it is no good for stimulation imo, but very good at getting him to nap through the day. thomas needs constant entertainment and then gets so over stimulated that he can't switch off and just gets really whiney and impossible to settle, the swing has been a godsend in getting him to calm down!

The batting toys happened very quickly, he progressed from aimlessly waving his arms in the air and hitting the toys by accident to deliberately batting them in just a few days, he does spend hours each day (if we're not out and about) lying on his mat as he much prefers that to being cuddled. i'll often lie down on the floor with him and talk to him or wave some of his other toys at him which stops him getting bored, then he goes back to his batting!

I attach a dangly toy to the handle of his car seat and position that within batting distance too which he likes. I had to try a couple of different toys until i found one he cooed at and wanted to interact with!

choccymoose

as your little one gets older and is beginning to sit, consider introducing a treasure basket, fantastic value and very MSE. Just google the term and read about them, then begin to create your own, adding to it as you go along, although never leave your child unsupervised with it. Then as they become more mobile, extend it into heuristic play (again google)

hth

Choccy

Kelinik

Gillby1 wrote: »

I must stop reading about what he should be doing each week, though, coz i'm always worried i'm not encouraging the right things, and tummy time is one of those!:o

That way madness lies hun, neither of my girls would be put on their tums at all, screamed blue murder every time I tried. Interestingly they were both bottom shufflers not crawlers and both walked late too, sure its all connected. Of course I drove myself nuts worrying that I must be doing everything wrong (mums and tots group and one very unhelpful health visitor only made it worse!) but hindsight is a wonderful thing and at nearly 10 and 8 the pair of them have somehow turned into very bright, capable kids in spite of my terrible mothering!

Ds likes being on his tummy btw, I can tell he's going to do everything different to the first 2 just to keep me on my toes.

Oh and back to toys we have a kick and play piano which he loves. Don't know how you'd go about making something like it but it was very reasonable on ebay,

Sharra

The best advice I can give is to hit the boot fairs, you will get a HUGE sack of toys for the price of one brand new thing, and so often they are hardly played with