Baby and Kids Toys

Play is how your baby makes sense of the world. Every rattle shaken, every texture touched, every giggle at a peek-a-boo is your little one doing the extraordinary work of growing up and developing. The right baby toys make that essential development work feel like the best kind of fun.

Parent Buying Guide for Baby Toys

Buying baby toys can feel surprisingly overwhelming because there is a lot out there, and most of it promises to make your baby smarter, calmer, more creative and significantly happier, ideally before morning tea. The truth is simpler and rather more reassuring: the right toy at the right age, played with alongside someone who loves them, is genuinely all it takes.

How to Choose Safe Baby Toys

Safety first, always. When choosing baby toys, look for:

• BPA-free materials — particularly important for anything that will end up in a mouth, which is to say, everything
• Non-toxic finishes — painted toys and wooden pieces should be finished with baby-safe, non-toxic coatings
• Age recommendations — these exist for good reason. A toy designed for a three-year-old in the hands of a six-month-old is a different kind of toy entirely
• No small detachable parts — if it fits through a toilet roll tube, it is a choking hazard
• Sturdy construction — baby toys need to survive being dropped, chewed, thrown and loved with considerable enthusiasm.

What Toys Help Baby Development?

The wonderful thing about play is that it is doing far more than it looks like from the outside.

Sensory toys for babies — rattles, crinkle books, soft textured toys — engage sight, sound and touch all at once. They are the foundation of early learning and endlessly fascinating to a brand new brain. Explore our range of Sensory Activities for ideas beyond the toy box too.

Toys for tummy time — floor gyms, soft mirrors, high-contrast toys placed just out of reach — give little ones a reason to push up, look around and strengthen those tiny arms. Every minute of tummy time is doing something, even when it does not look particularly joyful.

Educational and learning toys — shape sorters, stacking rings, simple puzzles — come into their own from around six months as babies start to understand that objects have properties, and that some things fit inside other things, and that this is extremely satisfying. Our guide to educational toddler toys is worth a read as they grow.

Bath toys for fun and play — because bath toys turn what is sometimes a battle into something everyone looks forward to. Pouring, splashing and watching things float is quiet science at its most delightful.

Teething toys and comfort toys — when those first teeth are making their feelings known, the right teether is genuinely a lifesaver. Cool, textured and safe to chew — read our full guide to baby teething for what to expect and what helps.

How Many Toys Does a Baby Need?

Fewer than you might think. Too many toys at once can actually work against engagement: a baby confronted with forty options will often pick none of them and go for the TV remote instead.

A few things worth knowing:

• Toy rotation — rotating a smaller set of toys in and out of circulation keeps things feeling fresh without buying more. What was boring last week is suddenly fascinating again after a few weeks away
• Reducing overstimulation — particularly in the early months, a calm play environment with one or two well-chosen toys is more beneficial than a busy, noisy one
• Purposeful play — one toy with your full attention is worth more than ten toys played with alone. You are still the best toy in the room for a very long time

For rainy days when you need fresh ideas, our Rainy Day Games guide has plenty of activities that need nothing more than what you already have at home.

Best Toys for Travel and On-the-Go

A pram clip that attaches to anything. A soft toy small enough to live in the nappy bag. A crinkle book that folds flat. The best travel baby toys are the ones that are compact, quiet enough for a café and impossible to lose irrevocably. Outdoor toys are brilliant for trips to the park, the beach or anywhere that already comes with its own entertainment (with sand, water and sticks being the perennial favourites that cost absolutely nothing)

The Final Word

There is something quietly magical about watching a baby discover that shaking a rattle makes a sound, or that a ball rolls away and comes back, or that their own reflection is apparently the most interesting thing they have ever seen. By encouraging and engaging their sense of playfulness, you may just discover some of it in yourself.