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Tips and Advice for Shopping
for The Best Baby Toys
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There are many things which delight a baby. But best baby toys are undoubtedly at the top of the list. Playing with baby toys is baby's work. And if you shop wisely, not only the baby will get fun toys which you feel good about giving. She will get the educational ones too.
Baby Toy Shopping Guide
Choosing an infant toy which is fun, safe and educational sounds simple, but in reality it is not that simple. Go to any toy store and you will know what I mean. Today's market seems to be saturated with baby toys, all marketed as best baby toys. So which toys are the best for the baby ?
Here are few tips to make your shopping for the best baby toys easier:
First, the toy has to meet safety standard. This means that you have to adhere to manufacturer's recommended age. Don't buy toys which are intended for older children, even if you think your baby is a genius. For safety reason, don't buy any toy which has these followings : sharp parts, small parts which can easily be put into the mouth and swallowed, and long string. Read more about toy safety here.
Second, buy infant toys which are durable and have a good play value. Aim for a toy which can be played in many different ways and at the same time can grow with the child. Get the good quality version of toys of this nature because they are worth it.
Third, if you plan to buy more than one toy, try to get toys which address as many as key developmental area as possible. What are the key development areas we talk about here ? - Gross motor skill. Toys which encourage gross motor skills including kicking and throwing are good to buy, for instance: play gym and small balls.
- Hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Toys to be manipulated including for poking, grabbing and turning are good for babies older than 3 months. Examples of such toys are play gym, and toys with an activity center.
- Spatial awarenes. Toys which are good for this purpose includes baby building blocks, stacking rings and nesting cups.
- Senses: touch, sound, vision and possibly smell. In order to stimulate senses, get infant toys with these following features: bright contrasting colors, lots of different textures, different sound and possibly different smell.
Four, avoid baby educational DVDs and any games which involve 'screen' time. Baby needs to be active, not staring passively to the screen. American Academy of Pediatrician also recommends that no child under 2 years old should be allowed TV time.
What I Recommend
My toy recommendation is based on what I think is the best toys (play-value and price wise) for baby.
For each of the toy I recommend, there is an article written about it which tells you why I recommend a particular toy. You can read these articles by clicking on the links below.
It is important to note that the toys I recommend are not necessarily the 'HOT toys of the year' or the 'newly-released toys'. If you're looking for such recommendation, I'm afraid you're at a wrong place.
I also show you where you can buy these best baby toys online. Therefore, I also include links for shopping at our favorite online stores: Genius Babies and Baby Center Store for your convenience. If you want to know why I like to shop in these toy stores, read the side bar below. Otherwise, scroll down to go straight to the toy recommendation section.
A Note on Online Toy Store Recommendation
To reduce your shopping stress (especially during peak shopping season), to get better selection of best baby toys and to get better price, I recommend you to shop for toys online.
I've been shopping online for a few years now, and I can attest that it is safe to do so as long as the shop directs you to the secure payment page which has https:// instead of http:// in the URL. In addition, I suggest you to use credit cards instead of debit cards for online purchasing, since credit cards have fraud protection.
If you do consider to buy infant toys online, I recommend you to buy at our favorite online baby toy shop, Genius Babies
Why do I like to shop in this shop ? First, it's because they have a good selection of baby toys which can be hard to find locally. In addition, they only carry the best infant toys and they categorize their product neatly. These make shopping at this store easy and quick, since you don't have to wade through thousands of 'not-so-good products' to find one gem. I'm sure you know what I mean.
In addition, I also find their selection of infant stimulation stuff to be impressive. Some of these items are not available elsewhere. So if you're into infant visual stimulation, you will love this store.
Secondly, their customer service is top notch, their price is competitive and they routinely have clearance and items on sale.
Thirdly, this is an ideal store for buying toys as a gift since they have a gift wrapping service and a wonderful 'gift section' where you can choose different toy gift package not available elsewhere for either newborn baby or 1st year birthday
My other online store recommendation is the Baby Center Store. It's a big internet retailer and is very reputable. They carry a huge selection of competitively-priced baby products (not only toys). However, their strength (has a huge number of products) is also their weakness, since it can take a long time to select items from this store unless you know precisely what you want to buy.
However, they routinely knock out the prices of a lot of items
and offer various BabyCenter coupons.
 Therefore, I occasionally shop there if they happen to have deep discounts on items on my 'wish list'.
Recommendation for best baby toys (including best newborn toys):
(Note:Ooops ... before I forget. I'd like to remind you that if you want to shop at the Baby Center Store, be sure to check their BabyCenter Coupon page
first for more saving.)
- GIFT
- Baby and newborn toy gift package, available from Genius Babies.
- First birthday toy gift package, available from Genius Babies.
- Newborn Gift Series, available from eBeanstalk. Okay, I didn't write about this store in store recommendation because both Genius Babies and Baby Center Store are my preferred stores when it comes to baby products.
However, if you want to give your baby or other people's baby a special toy gift, you should consider eBeanStalk gift series. Basically, if you purchase their gift series, your baby will get one toy every 3 months for a period of one year.
All toys carried by this store and sent to you are meticulously picked by their team of child development experts and are tested by hundreds of eBeanstalk mommy's board. So you can be sure that your baby will receive toys which are fun (as tested by hundreds of moms) and developmentally appropriate.
NOTE: They're currently running a promotion where they will give you a 15% discount and free shipping for their gift series scheme (use code:GIFTSERIES)
- INDIVIDUAL TOY
Happy shopping !
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Wanna learn more about best baby toys ? Check out these following articles:
Choosing best developmental infant toys for newborn - 6 months
Choosing best baby developmental toys for infants 6 month - 12 months
Why baby needs educational baby toys ?
Advice on choosing and shopping for toys for any age groups:
Toy shopping for other age groups :
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