With the holidays only a few short weeks away, we’re all scrambling to get our last minute shopping done. In an effort to help alleviate the stress of not knowing what to buy for your young children or relatives, I’ve put together a guide of various gifts ideas that babies from only a few weeks old to a year would love.
All of the items on the list are things that my family has personally used and loved. Our daughter received many of these toys as gifts when she was an infant, and STILL uses a lot of them even though she’ll be two in just a few months.
1. The First Years Stacking Up Cups 2. Fisher-Price Light-Up Lion Stacker 3. LeapFrog Scout’s Learning Lights Remote 4. Sassy Look Photo Book 5. Vulli Sophie The Giraffe Teether 6. VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker 7. Fisher-Price Rattle ‘n Rock Maracas 8. Mega Bloks 80-Piece Big Building Bag 9. VTech Busy Learners Activity Cube 10. Fisher-Price Kick & Play Piano Gym 11. Fisher Price “My First Books” Set of 4 Baby Toddler Board Books 12. Baby Paper 13. Baby Banana Infant Training Toothbrush and Teether 14. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Rattle Teether with Links 15. Ball Pit with Basketball Hoop 16. Lead Free BPA Free Pit Balls
1. The First Years Stacking Up Cups
I absolutely love this product because it’s so simple, versatile, and inexpensive. Infants and toddlers can use these stacking cups to experiment with different sizes and colors. They’re great to bring in the bath as they have small holes that allows the water to drain out the bottom and provide a fun “shower” effect. Since they stack, they are small enough to pack with you in your diaper bag for when you travel to keep your baby entertained as well.
2. Fisher-Price Light-Up Lion Stacker
This is another great toy to help babies explore shapes, colors, and sizes. I particularly like this model because of the sounds and lights that stimulate the infant while they play. This is a very simple toy that encourages hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
3. LeapFrog Scout’s Learning Lights Remote
This remote is a toy that I always keep in the car. It’s very engaging for infants and toddlers, therefore, my daughter always looked forward to getting in the car and playing with it. It introduces numbers, shapes, and other first words. This kind of toy is great for encouraging imaginative play. My daughter used to pretend it was a phone and “call” different people.
4. Sassy Look Photo Book
This is an excellent product for teaching your baby about their relatives. Print out pictures of all different people in your family who love your little one. Then you can look through it daily so they can learn their names and who they are if they don’t have an opportunity to see them often. My daughter LOVED her book and we often found her sitting on the couch blowing kisses to the pictures.
5. Vulli Sophie The Giraffe Teether
Sophie the Giraffe is a beloved toy to many teething infants. There’s something about the texture on their gums that they just love and feels soothing.
6. VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker
This is a multi-functional toy that will get a lot of use for a long time. Before your infant is walking, they can use this as a stationary learning station to learn about numbers, colors, shapes, and sizes. Additionally, it’s a great toy for babies learning to walk. They can lean on the walker for support and gain more confidence while learning to walk. This walker also has an adjustable speed for the wheels.
7. Fisher-Price Rattle ‘n Rock Maracas
This is another super simple toy that got lots of use in our house. These maracas help to strengthen babies’ gross motor and sensory skills. One end is filled with colorful beads, while the other has soft pom-poms.
8. Mega Bloks 80-Piece Big Building Bag
While these blocks might be geared a little bit more for toddlers than infants, I put them on the list because my daughter received them as a gift when she was an infant and still enjoyed playing with them even though she wasn’t able to fully connect or discount pieces on her own yet. You can use these to practice stacking, discuss colors, sizes, and other attributes. This is a great hands-on imaginative toy that can be used for many years in the future.
9. VTech Busy Learners Activity Cube
This toy got used daily for many, many months. In fact, at almost two years old, we are still using it every once in a while. Be careful though, the songs WILL get stuck in your head. The cube has 5 functional sides that encourage exploration. It lights up, plays music, and has various has slides and buttons to press. Endless fun for any infant!
10. Fisher-Price Kick & Play Piano Gym
This is a perfect gift for young infants who aren’t crawling yet. This mat is the perfect place for tummy time or just hanging out and relaxing. Babies LOVE being able to push the piano keys with their hands and feet and listen to the sounds they make. Plus when laying down, they get to play with the hanging toys as well.
11. Fisher Price “My First Books” Set of 4 Baby Toddler Board Books
These books are very simple. However, my infant was drawn to them right away. We read them so much that when she was only 9 or 10 months old she was able to point to the different animals, letters, numbers, etc. on the pages as we read. These books will always be special to me now because they were the first books where Taylor communicated that she understood what we were reading. They also became one of her favorite teething toys! ;)
12. Baby Paper
Ok, so this one might sound unfamiliar or strange, but my daughter was OBSESSED with baby paper. We took it with us everywhere we went. It’s so simple too. All it is is crinkle paper underneath a felt-like cover. When the baby grabs it, it makes the crinkling sound that they love. Such a simple, but useful product to keep our baby happy!
13. Baby Banana Infant Training Toothbrush and Teether
I really like this product because it’s multi-functional. You can use it as a regular teething toy AND you can also use it to help introduce an infant to brushing his or her teeth. We used this for a while even before teeth popped through.
14. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Rattle Teether with Links
This brightly colored teething toy is perfect for any infant. My daughter LOVED chewing on this and wanted to take it with her everywhere we went. Now that she’s older, it’s one of those toys that now stays in our car, but she still gets excited to play with it on long car rides.
15. Ball Pit with Basketball Hoop and 16. Lead Free BPA Free Pit Balls
This was a hit at Christmas for us when our daughter was about eight months old. One of the nice things about this ball pit is that you can fold it up into a small carrying case so that if you have a smaller living space, you don’t need to have it out and open all of the time. The balls also come with their own carrying case too, for convenience. These are great items to have in the winter when it’s too cold to go outside and play. You can temporarily transform your living or play room into something special with this ball pit.
I hope this list was helpful! Comment below if you have any items to add or bought and used something I recommended! I’d love to hear :)
-Michele
*Please note that this page may contain affiliate links to different products and I receive a small commission that helps support my blog when someone purchases something from the links. I don’t recommend stuff I wouldn’t use myself :)