A house with a small baby and toys around is the most enchanting and memorable picture as a parent you would like to frame in your mind. So you are puzzled by the myriads of sophisticated toys available in today's world. A world of complex toys has emerged and so does a toy with a handful of instructions tags along with it. Experience I have gathered being a mother while going shopping for toys are quite handy for all of us. Obviously there were some trial and errors and now I have become more intelligent in buying toys. Generally when I go shopping the foremost thing that comes to my mind are eco friendly non hazardous and sustainability . The benefits I have reaped from maintaining this basics are immense which I would like to share .
The most important things you should look for a toys are as follows at this stage
Simplicity
The fundamental of toys is that it should be simple enough for the baby to handle it. At this stage your baby has just started to explore her outer surroundings by crawling and able to stand. And hold hand and walk. So this is the baby step to be aware of the universe and simple toys would be the best to entertain them.The other most important thing I have noticed is lots of electronic games makes a kids more passive entertainer. The purpose of toys are lost to a great extent.
Non Hazardous
The first thing a baby does to be aware of her surrounding is to put it in their mouth. The greatest risk is chocking hazard. Moreover many of them are learning to grasp and by all means we try to avoid the sharp playing objects. Even the innocent baby drumsticks me not me suitable as from my personal experience the round of the drum my baby would more often fry to suck on it. So you have to be even aware of the size of the drum stick when you buy. ( Less moving parts , no small detachable parts , moving parts should be big and non spherical)
Non toxic
You know by now that however hard you try the first reaction of your baby is to put everything in their little mouth. So to be aware of the toxic chemicals the baby might interest every time is nerve wracking. Babies are attracted towards bright colours but the toxic chemical that goes into this plaything are really horrible to gravitate towards organic toys which would ease your mind and also let the baby enjoy their plaything.
Durability
We all want to the toy to be sturdy so no accidents happen when the toy gets broken. This happens quite often as at this stage babies are more prone to drop their toys as they are just learning to grasp them. The hand and leg coordination has just started to develop so if a costly toy gets broken by being dropped you can do nothing about it. The undercurrent of tension of the toy being broken if not handled with care and may be if the baby is too attached to replace it too much to handle. It would be wise to buy durable and sturdy toy which are ready to withstand the rough handling.
Budget friendly
Toys can be expensive. A lot of toys in my first year sat unused and packing them and dusting them and the annoying space they occupied made me wise. It is from the next year I became more selective in buying and surely brought more smartly. But one thing you have to keep in mind is that you cannot wait for the sales to start if it is too far off as this stage the toys need to purchased within a very short window pane.
Age related
As we move to shelves of toys sometimes we come around toys written from 6 ++ months. Please blindly do not follow it . Judge you own baby and go by your instinct.I will give you an example which I have experienced. I bought a squeaky monkey toy which would make a fine music when the tail is pulled. It was a soft toy so I thought it would be easy for her. In reality the tail was quite hard for her to pull which frustrated her a lot. An adult would need to pull it. My baby was a small baby so it was not be suitable for her. She could do the same when she was just above 1years above. Other hand for a largely built baby it would be perfect. The lesson I learnt is be your own judge while selecting toys.