Best Baby Toys for 0-6 Months
If you’ve been busy prepping for your baby’s arrival, you’ve probably loaded up on diapers, bottles, and footies—all the registry necessities. But there’s one category on the registry checklist that’s not often viewed as a top priority: newborn toys (for babies that are 0-6 months).
Your baby’s brain is incredible: Between birth and the age of three, more than a million neural pathways are formed per second, and play is essential to your baby’s brain development. As pioneering developmental psychologist Jean Piaget noted, play is the work of childhood—play influences cognitive, physical, emotional, and social development.
What Are Infant and Baby Milestones?
You’ll be amazed at how much your baby grows and changes during their first year. Certain major achievements—like rolling over or babbling —are called milestones. These milestones are new skills or behaviors that develop as your baby grows and have corresponding age ranges.
Milestones are typically grouped into 4 categories:
- Motor skills (gross and fine). These are observable physical developments and coordination: gross motor skills involve large muscle groups and include rolling over, crawling and walking. Fine motor skills involve smaller muscle groups and include reaching, grasping, and transferring objects between hands.
- Cognitive skills. These are the ‘thinking’ skills: how your baby’s brain develops the ability to learn, reason, and problem-solve.
- Speech and language development. Your baby’s first 3 years are the most intensive period of speech and language development in their life. Exposing your infant to sounds and language, and engaging them in “broadcasting” conversations, helps develop both receptive and expressive language.
- Social emotional development. These skills include your child’s ability to recognize and understand their own emotions, the emotions of others, and the realization that other people may have thoughts and feelings different from their own. The strength of social-emotional skills in preschool and kindergarten are highly predictive of future academic and behavioral outcomes.
Baby Milestones by Month
There are a series of basic milestones your baby will begin to achieve in the first 6 months, and you’ll likely review them with your pediatrician during well-checks (the CDC provides a complete list of milestones from birth to 5 years here.)
Baby Milestones 0-3 Months
- While lying on their tummy, can lift head
- Can open and close fists
- Social smiling
- Is calmed by being picked up or spoken to
- Watches you while you move
- Turns head toward sounds
- Gurgles and coos
- Makes eye contact
Some playtime ideas: make tummy time fun! Lay down and engage your baby with mirrors, high contrast toys, and objects with different sounds and textures. Tummy time helps your baby develop head, neck, and core strength, as well as improving their vision.
Baby Milestones 4-6 Months
- Rolls from back to tummy and tummy to back
- Reaches for feet while lying on back
- Listens and responds when spoken to
- Babbling
- Enjoys playful interactions, like peekaboo
- Raises hands to be picked up
- Uses both hands equally to play with toys
- Laughs
Some playtime ideas: at this stage, your baby will enjoy back-and-forth play, like peekaboo, or you simply mimicking their sounds and facial expressions.
And some of the most valuable developmental activities you can do with your baby are also the least complicated. Read to them every day; sing and play music; talk about what you notice your baby paying attention to; and point to objects and name them.
What Are the Best Developmental Toys for Babies 0-6 Months?
For young babies, keep it basic: choose simple toys that afford sensory-rich experiences and encourage open-ended play. Purposeful and skill building objects like grasping toys, activity gyms, and books will help develop foundational skills and encourage milestones during your baby’s first 6 months.
Can You Have Too Many Toys for Your Baby?
Research demonstrates that spaces with too many toys and play options overstimulate babies and toddlers, and impact their ability to learn and play creatively. Limit the number of toys available, and choose age-appropriate toys that foster independence and open-ended play.
Best Baby Toys for 0-6 Months
Brain development is influenced by many things, including your baby’s environment, relationships and experiences. Here’s our favorite “brain-building” gear for making every day moments nurture healthy brain connections.
Best Toys for Tummy Time
Tummy time is one of your baby’s first exercises, and will help them achieve early milestones: it builds head, neck, and core strength, and is important for visual and sensory development.
Designed by child development experts, the Lovevery Play Gym has accessories that feature contrasting colors to stimulate vision and “development zones” that encourage learning and prevent overstimulation. Bonus: a play guide is included that’s full of inspiration and activities to help you engage your baby in play and exploring.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- Organic cotton and sustainably sourced wood
Wonder & Wise ABC Activity Tent
This activity tent grows with your baby, from play mat to activity gym to a soothing spot for your toddler. Its black and white graphic print will visually engage your newborn during tummy time, and the high contrast toys have different textures for multi-sensory input.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- Cotton, polyester, and wood
If you’d prefer an eco-friendly playmat option, the Nook Lilypad is GREENGUARD gold certified and made from eucalyptus and organic cotton (plus it’s sustainable and recyclable). Use indoor for tummy time, or fold up and tote alone for a comfy rest time anywhere you go.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- Organic cotton and sustainably sourced wood
Skip Hop Doubleplay Reversible Playmat
A jumbo-sized playmat that features a kid-friendly design on one side, and a decor-friendly pattern on the other, the Skip Hop Doubleplay is big enough to accommodate you and your baby for tummy time.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- Organic cotton and sustainably sourced wood
Best Toys for Hand-Eye Coordination
High contrast black and white images help your newborn’s visual development, and easy to grasp toys strengthen your baby’s depth perception.
Manhattan Toy Wimmer Ferguson Mind Cubes
Designed to engage your baby from birth, Wimmer Ferguson mind cubes are lightweight and feature high contrast letters, numbers, patterns and shapes to stimulate visual development in early infancy.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- Meets or exceeds EN71 and CPSIA safety regulations
Poppyseed Play Wooden Play Gym
This wooden gym is made from unfinished pine, and includes high contrast black and white toys based ideal for the visual development of infants. The toys can be switched out easily, and promote hand-eye coordination.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- Natural pine and beech woods
Sassy Toys Look & Learn Gift Set
Designed to strengthen developing hearing and vision, the Look & Learn Set includes a floor mirror for tummy time play and toys with high contrast graphics. Include your own family pictures in the photo book—babies love checking out familiar faces—and the colorful phone makes a gentle sound.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- BPA-free and phthalate-free
Best Sensory Toys
Toys with multiple sounds, textures, and colors will keep your baby engaged in exploration, and will stimulate your baby’s senses as they grow.
Manhattan Toy Wimmer-Ferguson 3-in-1 Triangle Toy
This foldable triangle toy can be laid flat for tummy time, can be tied to and hung from vehicle seats during car rides, and will attach to any magnetic surface. It has simple black and white graphics on one side, and more complex color graphics on the reverse side. Multiple textures, sounds, mirrors and a teether will engage older babies, too.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 3+ mo
- Meets or exceeds EN71 and CPSIA safety regulations
This set of uniquely textured spheres encourages babies to explore their senses and cultivate curiosity. Little ones will strengthen fine motor skills, experiment with taste and texture, and engage in cause and effect learning.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- BPA-free and phthalate-free
Jellycat’s whimsical tail soft books make reading interactive with tons of squishies, textures, and crinkles. The pages contain bright colors, and are easy for little hands to hold.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- Meets or exceeds ASTM safety regulations
Manhattan Toy Skwish Color Burst
Made from renewable rubberwood, this sensory toy doubles as a teether and rattle toy. Its easy to grasp design encourages fine and gross motor skills while providing visual stimulation for your baby.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- BPA-free and phthalate-free
Best Toys for Encouraging Language Development
Reading aloud to your baby—even newborns—is an amazing brain boosting activity. Hearing sounds and expressive language early on helps your baby develop speech and supports social and emotional learning.
A Montessori library staple, this book features 100 essential words for your baby and corresponding photography. The bright and realistic depictions of everyday objects and animals are ideal for babies who are just beginning to learn.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- 24 pages
Look, Look! by Peter Linenthal
Written and illustrated by an elementary school art teacher, Look, Look! has pages full of striking black and white images to capture your infant’s interest, and a simple red typeface (the first primary color babies see).
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- 18 pages
Mudpuppy Little Artists Board Book Set
This set includes 4 board books featuring striking illustrations of various performing artists who’ve made a cultural impact on the world (and makes a great shower gift, to boot).
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- 4 books with 8 pages each
My Very First Library Eric Carle Set
Eric Carle’s boxed set includes 4 iconic children’s board books, and introduces your baby to colors, shapes, numbers, and simple words.
Noteworthy specs:
- Age 0+ mo
- 4 book volume
Finding What’s Right for You
Albee Baby is the oldest family-owned specialty baby shop in the US, and we pride ourselves on providing our customers with the best assortment of baby products anywhere, at fair prices, always. We’re committed to being an inclusive resource for parents, and hope you’re feeling empowered to find the right baby gear for your family. Still have questions? Feel free to contact our baby gear experts at 877.692.5233 or by email at [email protected].