The first year of a baby’s life is an incredible journey of development, and the right toys can play a significant role in this process. Baby toys that stimulate the senses are essential to keeping your little one interested and engaged. Even before they can grasp an object, babies are ready to explore their surroundings, and the best toys capitalize on this curiosity by providing visual contrasts, interesting sounds, and engaging movements.
When choosing toys for your baby, it’s important to follow the age recommendations on the packaging and prioritize safety. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding soft objects, loose bedding, and other potential hazards in the crib to reduce the risk of injury (1). As you shop for toys, keep in mind those that promote developmental milestones and encourage physical activity, while being safe for your baby to use (2).
In This Article
HappyBabyHub’s Best Baby Toys Picks
Sassy Stacks of Circles
- The rings are all different colors
- Some rings can be used as teethers
- While the rings are of different thicknesses, they can be stacked in any order or used alone as individual toys
- It’s very stimulating with the sounds and colors and textures
- The only con is that it’s definitely made for carpet
Stacking rings is a delightful game that your baby can enjoy with the Stacks of Circles! These rings are designed to stack in any direction without getting stuck, making it a fun and enjoyable experience for your little one. Plus, they provide an excellent opportunity for early STEM learning by teaching sorting, sizing, sequencing, and building skills.
The rings are chunky and easy for babies to handle, which also helps improve their fine motor skills. Plus, the different textures and weights of the rings provide an exciting sensory experience that encourages exploration and mouthing. The transparent ring with colorful beads is a great way for infants to connect sound and sight, adding even more fun to the game.
Find more great toys like this by checking out our guide to the best toys for 9-month-olds.
- Age Guidelines: 6-24 months
Fisher-Price Lil’ Gamer Learning Toy
- On the side of the toy, there are a few pieces that look like Tetris that can be slid up and down
- The toy lights up and has different sounds and songs that it plays
- If you enter the popular Konami Code, it plays a couple of sounds
- It can also hold a lot of baby dribble
- The pretend game at the top does not come all of the way out, but you can push it down and it pops back up
This musical activity toy is perfect for your little gamers-in-training. It’s designed to look like a real portable gaming system, complete with a D-pad, A and B buttons, a fake game cartridge, and a light-up screen.
But that’s not all – as your infant presses the buttons, they’ll hear fun music, noises, and sentences that teach them about shapes, colors, and numbers. And the different activities and buttons they interact with will help develop their hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
- Age Guidelines: 6 months – 3 years
VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker
- The handle is the perfect height for a baby learning to walk
- The rolling rattle on the bottom is also great for keeping a small baby entertained
- This toy can be used starting when your baby is able to sit up all the way up to the baby learning to stand and walk
- The musical unit will keep your baby entertained for hours
- Interlocking gears are a little difficult for babies to play with
VTech’s Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker is an innovative tool designed to assist babies in their transition from crawling to walking. The walker features adaptive technology, which encourages and supports your baby as they learn to take their first steps.
It comes with an easily detachable activity panel, perfect for playtime on the floor or entertainment while on the go. As your baby grows and learns to walk, the walker is easily transformed into a user-friendly tool. With a telephone handset, five piano keys, three colored rollers, three light-up shape sorters, three light-up buttons, and spinning gears, the walker provides hours of entertainment while also promoting learning and motor skill development.
- Age Guidelines: 9 months – 3 years
Infinno Inflatable Tummy
- Easy to fill and empty
- Easy to move from room to room
- Fun floating sea animals inside
- Reasonable price
- Floating animals tend to get stuck together
This baby tummy time water mat is the ideal sensory toy for strengthening the head, neck, and shoulder muscles as well as hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and social skills. It is soft and comfy. Your infant will spend hours playing thanks to the vivid, colorful marine creatures and appealing artwork.
They are made of sturdy, thick PVC that is completely free of hazardous chemicals and BPA. Plus, it is really simple to use; just add water to the water mat’s center and blow up the edge for tummy time.
- Age Guidelines: 3-24 months
Baby Infant Rattle Socks Toys
- The baby naturally holds its feet in the air
- Designed well for stimulation
- The colors a true to the photos
- They bring attention to their feet and hands
- The material could use some more elastic
These charming foot finder socks and baby wrist rattles for newborns were made as a result of scientific research into the healthy development of babies. If you want to help your infant improve their sense of touch, these foot finders are a great option.
These baby-developing toys are highly recommended since they provide your child access to a ton of fun. Aid in your child’s development of eye, hand, and foot coordination.
- Age Guidelines: 3-12 months
Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack Baby Toy
- They are lightweight
- Made of durable plastic
- All the pieces come apart and are easy to put back together
- Easy to clean
- The yellow pole does unscrew very easily with the just movement of being shaked
With its five colorful rings, this classic toy is designed for babies under one-year-old to grasp, hold, and shake with ease. The smallest ring contains multicolored beads that make delightful rattling sounds, captivating your baby’s attention and stimulating their senses.
As your child grows and develops new skills, they can learn to stack the rings on the post and bat at the base to make it rock. This simple yet entertaining activity is excellent for promoting hand-eye coordination and introducing the concept of relative size as they stack the rings from largest to smallest.
- Age Guidelines: 6 months and older
Baby Einstein and Hape Magic Touch Piano
- The interesting design of the piano is extremely modern and attractive-looking
- The wooden construction is quite sturdy
- Bright colors make this fun to look at
- The quality of the audio is good
- The only con of this toy is the flimsy plastic sheet music that gets inserted into the piano
The Hape Magic Touch Piano from Baby Einstein empowers your little one to create endless melodies using just their tiny fingertips. This wooden piano toy incorporates magic touch technology, eliminating the need for buttons or keys.
Your child can either create their own music or follow along with popular tunes using two play modes. Introducing musical toys to your infant at a young age can help them develop an understanding of different rhythmic patterns and tones.
This educational toy comes with three music sheets. By matching the color-coded notes on the sheets to the piano keys, your child will develop their color coordination skills. And even if you’re not a toddler, you can still join them on the piano bench and enjoy this toy together.
Volume control buttons allow you to adjust the music level to “low” when necessary or to “high” for a concert performance. With high-quality speakers, your baby’s sonata will sound perfect at any volume.
- Age Guidelines: 6 months – 3 years
You Might Also Like: Best Toys For 6-Month-Olds
Fisher-Price Linkimals Interactive Musical Learning Toy
- It is well constructed of plastic
- Easy to clean
- It comes with batteries already in place and is ready to go
- Most songs are short and catch
- The songs are not very long
The Fisher-Price Linkimals Cool Beats Penguin toy offers a fun and educational musical experience for infants with its new tunes, colorful lights, and cool moves. With just a touch of a button, the penguin dances and wiggles its flippers while teaching little ones about the alphabet, opposites, and more through music and lyrics.
Plus, when the penguin interacts with other Linkimals toys, they all light up, sing, and play together, making for an even more exciting and interactive playtime. (Other Linkimals toys are sold separately.)
- Age Guidelines: 9 months – 3 years
Manhattan Toy Winkel Rattle & Sensory Teether Toy
- Refrigerate for cooling teething
- The bands are thin enough for younger infants to grasp vs typical teethers/toys that are bigger and more difficult for them
- PVC and phthalate free
- Gentle rattle
- Slightly bulky
The Winkel Rattle and Teether by Manhattan Toy, a revered classic and recipient of multiple awards from child development experts, is a genuine must-have for parents and newborns. It immediately grabs and holds a baby’s interest with its labyrinth of soft, continuous tubes and its gorgeous colors.
It is incredibly simple for young hands to grasp, hold, and rattle because of the captivating loop shape and lightweight construction, making it the ideal gripping toy for developing a baby’s gross motor abilities.
Your baby may explore cause and effect by shaking the toy’s tapering center cube, which has a gentle rattle. The supple, bendable loops adhere to phthalate and BPA limits for mouthed toys for babies who are teething or who are gumming.
- Age Guidelines: 1 month – 2 years
Battat – Pop-Up Pals – Color Sorting Animal Push & Pop Up Toy
- No music or sounds
- The characters that pop up are fun and 3D
- Simple to use
- There is a handle
- The twist toggle (the lion) sometimes gets stuck open
This toy has endless possibilities for your child to explore. It features a pop-up window with four characters that can be pushed down to start over, strengthening their muscles with each spin and push. Additionally, it has a built-in handle that is sure to bring nonstop grins and laughter.
With buttons to press, flip, and turn, children will enjoy learning about animals, shapes, and colors, while also developing hand-eye coordination and an understanding of cause and effect. Adorable animal faces, vibrant colors, and unexpected sounds will engage your baby’s senses and encourage exploration.
- Age Guidelines: 18 months – 8 years
VTech Busy Learners Activity Cube
- Inexpensive toy
- Nice sounds, flashing lights
- Lots to explore on every side, but not too big
- Educational. Teaches 4 shapes and 4 different animals and the sounds that they make
- Only has one mode
This cube-shaped toy features six sides, each filled with different games and activities that capture your baby’s interest and promote imaginative play.
With its music, light-up buttons, and vibrant colors, this activity cube is sure to keep your little one engaged. Press-and-slide musical instrument buttons introduce your baby to the names, sounds, and colors of different instruments, while the shape and animal buttons teach them about animal names, sounds, and shapes.
The blocks that slide and spin encourage conversation and the development of fine motor skills, while the entertaining noises that the cube makes when moved add to the fun. This educational toy also includes 25 sing-along tunes and melodies.
- Age Guidelines: 6 months – 3 years
Bright Starts Oball Shaker Rattle Toy
- It is lightweight and easy to move around
- Not a loud annoying rattle you can hear across the house
- Easy to grab
- Nice looking design
- Slightly difficult to clean because water can get inside the middle part
Shake it, baby, shake it, shake it! The Oball Shaker Toy is made for the tiniest of fingers and is ideal for a baby’s hands to grasp. Brightly colored beads can be seen on the transparent, textured handle, which they will adore hearing rattling all about.
The rattle’s ends are constructed of flexible yet hard Oball material, allowing your baby to squeeze and play in any direction. It’s simple for a baby to pick up this shaker toy, and it’s also a lot of fun!
- Age Guidelines: 3 months – 3 years
The First Years Stack N Count Cups
- The size is perfect, you can’t really go wrong with stacking toys
- Each block has a number on the bottom and with the number is a coordinating hole
- They are perfect for the tub
- Easily fit in your purse for an extra toy at a restaurant
- No bag/box for storage for on the go
Begin your baby’s toy collection with these classic favorites! Nesting cups are popular for their simple yet enjoyable ways of playing. Children enjoy putting them together, stacking them, flipping them over, and hiding objects underneath.
These eight colorful toy cups have large numbers printed on their bases, allowing older children to practice counting and develop their number identification skills. Each cup has unique holes on the bottom for exciting water play. Fill them up and watch the water flow out of the holes!
- Age Guidelines: 3 months – 2 years
Sassy Developmental Bumpy Ball
- Very cute ball
- It’s super easy to hold
- This thing is mostly fabric
- The rattle sound is not too noisy
- Tiny fibers stick out sometimes but do not really cause issues
The bright colors and patterns not only provide visual stimulation but also aid in developing their focus and hand-eye coordination. And that’s not all, the gentle bead rattle sound emanating from the ball helps create new neural pathways in your little one’s developing brain.
The ball’s raised bumps and varied textures provide ample opportunities for your baby to explore and develop their fine motor skills. They’ll love reaching, grasping, and transferring the ball from one hand to the other, all while building their coordination and dexterity.
- Age Guidelines: 6-12 months
Related: Best Developmental Toys For Babies
How To Choose The Best Baby Toys?
When it comes to baby toys, the AAP advises parents and other caregivers to start with the fundamentals (3). Flashing screens and digital devices can seem like the greatest new thing, but they could not be healthy for the growing brain and body of your infant (4).
- Safety: Remember that choking risks are one of the toys’ major threats. Coins, marbles, toys that may be crushed by a baby’s lips, tiny balls, button batteries, beads, and balloons are among the objects that might suffocate newborns.
- Age Guidelines: Check the toy’s label or description for the recommended age range. Most will provide you with a broad range of suggested age ranges.
- Materials: Keep in mind that infants eat just about anything. Make sure that anything you’re purchasing is free of BPA and other potentially dangerous compounds, and that it is created from natural materials wherever that is feasible.
- Colors: It takes a newborn around five months to develop their vision entirely. Black and white is excellent for newborns like stripes or basic pictures, but older infants adore staring at brighter colors. Toys with great contrast in colors and patterns will help them see and focus on items.
- Audio: Your child will pay attention to anything that creates a sound, including rattles, bells, crinkles, and lullabies. Babies like producing noise, and you can foster their interest by giving them toys that generate noise in response to their activities.
Types Of Baby Toys
Does My Baby Need A Lot Of Toys?
Although a parent’s attention is a newborn’s most valuable toy, getting new toys to pique your baby’s interest is beneficial and enjoyable. A basic play mat or a mirror, especially when your baby starts tummy time, are both quite amusing. Additionally advised are items with contrasting colors and textures, as well as toys with buttons that infants may press to generate noises (5). We have a more in-depth toy guide for newborns and 3-month-olds. It is also important to regularly clean your baby’s toys as they tend to put most of them in their mouths.
When Can You Put Toys In A Baby’s Crib?
It’s recommended to avoid placing toys in your baby’s crib until you are certain that they cannot suffocate or be hurt by them and the danger of SIDS has lessened. Usually, this begins to decline after six months.
When a baby starts pushing up on hands and knees, which usually happens around 5 months, hanging crib toys should be put out of the infant’s reach and taken away.
