Making use of household items for baby's playthings

Many household items, which we take for granted, will hold a world of excitement for your baby.

A baby under one year old really doesn't need formal toys, although she'll inevitably be given some. Everything she comes across is fascinating. Any object that smells, looks or sounds interesting will appeal to your baby. Here are a few everyday things that you might like to try as “toys” for your child:

• Wooden spoons and spatulas, small saucepans and their lids, plastic or metal colanders and sieves, funnels, a set of plastic measuring spoons, plastic cups with lids, plastic bottles of different sizes with their caps taped or glued on securely, small plastic boxes that you might use in the fridge, plastic ice-cube trays, a whisk, an old egg carton, old loaf and bun tins. Just hand them to your baby and she'll work out what she wants to do with them herself.


• Anything that rolls: the cardboard tube inside rolls of kitchen paper, film or foil, and cotton reels.


• Round objects like balls - balls of every type, balls of wool, balls of string, grapefruit, oranges, apples.


• Things that are very light: sponges, foam rubber, polystyrene.


• Anything that rattles: transparent plastic jars with pulses, coloured beads or paper clips inside. But do make sure that the lid is firmly on.

• Things that are flat and hard: a wooden plate, a table mat, a ruler.


• Things that are stretchy: stretchy cloth, elastic itself, a piece of cloth that's been cut on the bias.


• Anything that has a hole that a baby can poke her fingers through: a roll of sticky tape, an old roll of sticking plaster, a napkin ring, a set of shaped plastic biscuit cutters.

• Things that are quite large and heavy but perfectly safe, like a cushion, a football, a soft-backed book, rice or dried fruit in a tough polythene bag, a loaf of bread (not bread with seeds though).


• Objects that have different textures that will be interesting for your baby to feel. Good examples are pieces of felt, strips of fine sandpaper, thick strands of wool, a fabric-filled bean bag.

Dr Miriam Stoppard

New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard

Posted 03.11.2010

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