Playing with Baby

Playing? With a tiny baby? Some of you may be wondering exactly how to when humans are that young. Babies are tiny and fragile - but not easily breakable. And truly, playing is essential to a baby's development and initiating early learning skills. In honor of Baby Safety Month we want to take a moment and share some fun, safe and creative ways to play the youngest of us.

Babies love objects and holding things. They love to look at objects too! Sit your baby up, or lay them on the ground or bed, and move an object in front of their face (not too close though!) and watch their eyes follow it back and forth, and all around. This is called tracking and one of the first ways they explore the world and build their visual skills.
Sound making toys are great for young babies - a mobile or rattle for example. Place your baby so they can kick or hit the toy and hear the noise. They will have a blast making noise on their own and this practice will teach them the basics of cause-and-effect.
Read books together! Even though your baby may not understand a story, they will love gazing at the pictures, hearing your voice and watching you flip the pages. As your little one gets older they will catch onto this routine and grab for books they like to see and read.

Sometimes as parents we find ourselves confused that one moment you and baby are playing and everything seems happy and calm. Then, the next minute everything is upsetting and baby is crying. This could mean that baby has reached the limit for stimulation and is telling you they need a break. When this happens, don't worry - just put any toys aside and stop them from moving. Just hold them and snuggle them, and reduce anything that could still be stimulating. This will give them time to calm down and regroup. They may even fall asleep. You'll know when your baby is ready to play again when his expression is calm and eyes are clear. Some common break-time signals are:

crying
fussing
closing eyes or falling asleep
turning head away

Safety is a big deal at Manhattan Toy and for more than 30 years we have made a commitment to providing customers with safe, high-quality toys that enrich young lives and developing minds. Our toys are designed, developed, and manufactured with every child's safety in mind. Testing is done by a third party, accredited laboratory, and our toys must comply with the most rigorous national and international standards for children's products put forth by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), European Union (EN71) and Health Canada. You can feel 100 percent safe if you and your baby play with any of our products. For more ways to learn best practices in keeping baby safe, we like the Baby Safety Zone website. They have lots of great information!