Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Raising Kids Toys for Your 6-9 Month Old

Toys for Your 6-9 Month Old
By Rochelle Caviness

When choosing toys for your baby, your number one concern must be safety.

Some general safety questions to ask yourself when buying toys for your baby.

• Is the toy appropriate for your baby's age?
  
  
• Does the toy have any small parts that can come off? These small parts can present a choking hazard to your baby. Beware of sewn or glued on eyes on toys. These can often be pulled or chewed off and swallowed.
  
  
• Are there any hanging strings or long cords that might become wrapped around the baby's neck?
  
  
• Does the toy have any sharp or pointing ends that can hurt the baby?
  
  
• Check all seams on stuffed animal type toys. Are they all secure? If they are not, the baby may pull out part of the stuffing and choke on it.
  
  
• Is the toy a bean bag type toy? Check to see what it is stuffed with. Many are stuffed with beans or other small objects that can pose a choking hazard if they come out.

Never allow your baby to play with a balloon! More children have suffocated after swallowing flaccid balloons, or pieces from a broken balloon, than from any other toy.

Age Appropriate Toys

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission requires that all toy manufacturers label any products that contain small parts as being hazardous to small children due to the possibility of choking. In addition, many toy manufactures voluntarily provide age guidelines on their product labels. Never let you baby play with any round objects that is smaller than 1.75 inches (44.4mm) as they can become lodged in the baby's throat.

Generally, if an object can fit inside a toilet paper roll tube, don't give the object to a baby as it may present a choking hazard.

Toys that enhance your baby's development

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) there are many toys available for babies that are marketed as being educational or as items which will enhance your baby's development. While the AAP has no objection to these products, they are quick to point out that there is no scientific evidence that these toys are any more useful in enhancing a baby's development than would be a nice shinny set of pots and pans.

If your baby is not yet at the stage where they find pots and pans fascinating, they soon will be. To your consternation, you will find that your baby will spend hours putting lids on, and taking them off (and banging them together) while their high priced "educational" toys are gathering dust!

According to the Montessori theory of child development, baby play is really baby work. Through their play, babies learn new skills and how things work.

You can best serve your baby by giving him a variety of objects, in a variety of colors, shapes and textures, and let them develop their own 'games'. You do not need to buy 'specific' toys.

Also, be sure to provide your baby with a variety of stimuli. In additional to tactile objects, such as toys, be sure to provide them with visual and aural stimuli.

Classical music has been shown to improve a baby's mental development. Music can also provide a baby with hours of enjoyment. Babies will clap, dance, and sing to the music.

Toys for Use in Cribs

As soon as your baby begins to push itself up, be sure to remove any toys that have been strung across the top of the crib, as they pose a strangulation danger.

In addition, be sure to review all toys used in a crib or playpen when your baby begins to push itself up. Toys that were suitable when you baby could not crawl, can become a serious danger once they become mobile. When in doubt about an item, remove it.

The Best "Toy" You Can Give Your Baby

Want to give your baby something fun and educational? Well then, give him a book!

To achieve the full usefulness of a book, follow this one easy rule - Read the book to him!

Reading to your baby help him develop his oral abilities, as well studies have shown that children that were read to as infants learn to read sooner than children who were not read to.