How to Choose the Best Toys for Toddlers and Babies

With a market full of options, choosing good toys for your baby and toddler can be difficult. Follow these guidelines to get the most out of your dollar and your toddler's toys.

The Best Toys Grow With Your Child

The first few years of baby's life have dramatic developmental changes. Instead of buying a ton of cheap toys with little educational value, invest in a few toys designed with specific motor skills and senses in mind.

For example, Lamaze's line for First Friends are the perfect alternative to a "baby's first teddy bear." Instead of a boring plush animal, these animals (which comes in everything from peacocks to butterflies for great variety) waste no space in cramming in as many textures, colors, sights and sounds as possible. At first, your newborn has very limited motor skills and can only see in black and white. The bold contrasts are easy to see. As baby learns to grab, the crinkly sounds and smooth textures, keep her stimulated. As she continues to develop she will start to recognize the bright colors and so on.

Similar ideas are used with mobile toys. Choose a toy that will start with your baby as an activity center. Later they can use the toy to build their grip and learn to crawl by pushing it across the floor. A simple transformation makes the toy a standing piece, so baby can learn to pull themselves up. Then, the toy is changed one more time to resemble a push mower, so baby learns to walk.

You will pay more money for good, quality toys, but you will buy fewer in the long run.

Toys Should Reflect Your Child's Environment

Old-fashioned toys can still be fun, but it is also important to choose toys with modern themes. The old-fashioned telephone was great when you were a kid, but your baby wants to be like mommy and talk on a cell phone. Baby cell phone toys have brightly colored buttons with fun sounds for entertainment and learning value. Personalized board books are also great for babies. They learn to recognize faces of the people in their life instead of just cartoon characters. Other great toddler and baby toys that reflect their environments are plastic plates and food (especially realistic looking food that you eat regularly), instruments, play shave and make-up sets, toy lawn mowers and play-time cleaning toys like vacuums, mops and brooms.

Choose for YOUR child, not just any child

Every child has specific development needs, so pay attention to what your child lacks and choose toys to strengthen that area. If your child has developmental delays or is diagnosed with a disability, consult your physician or therapist for specific toys.

Try to pick out toys at your child's development level. It is ok to choose toys slightly above that developmental level to encourage your baby to rise to the challenge. However, toys too far above your toddler's development level may be too frustrating. Many baby and toddler toys are labeled according to age, but if you child is above or behind her age group, then buy the toy based on her personal develop level.

Choose toys that allow for imagination

Imagination and creativity are extremely important for toddlers' development as they learn to think independently. Toys that only do one thing, which is common among licensed characters, are like "yes or no" questions. Once your toddler answers them, there is little more to learn and they quickly lose interest. However, toys that let your toddler build, like blocks and interlocking pieces, are like open-ended questions. Your toddler can answer them in a different way each time and learn something new every time. Big chunky pieces, plastic or wooden blocks, bath time and sandbox toys, and play sets with backgrounds and lots of little pieces allow your toddler to create their own world and work on problem-solving.

Other great imagination toys that will continue to grow with your child are dress-up clothes, plastic food sets, action figures, and, of course, the leftover refrigerator box which can become a fort, castle or spaceship.

Choose toys that require you to interact with your child

Sometimes new parents have to re-learn how to play with their child. Look for toys that your child needs help with to automatically force this quality time. Early board games, like Candyland, are great because your child will remind you, usually by begging, that they cannot play it by themselves. Working in quality time, through reading story books and playing board games, helps build early relationships with your child which you'll need when their pre-teens hit and you're the one begging for time.