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According to Science, This Is How Many Toys Your Baby Should Have

Your bundle of joy deserves the best, of course, but that doesn't mean he or she needs to be surrounded by countless toys. Here's how many toys your baby should have, really.

By Nicola P. YoungPublished 6 years ago 8 min read
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You want what's best for your baby, of course. But when it comes to buying toys and receiving a never-ending influx from doting relatives, how many toys does your baby really need? Is being surrounded by every kind of toy imaginable the best way for him or her to learn and be happy? Or is fewer better? It turns out, developmental psychologists actually do have a scientific answer to this question.

Now, scientists aren't going to give you one number of toys that for some magic reason you ought to stick to. But the answer to the question of how many toys your baby should have is pretty simple: only as many as is needed to cover a few important bases. Even just three to five of the right toys can provide your baby with all of the stimulation he or she needs to develop and learn. Here are the features you want to make sure your baby's toys have.

Bright Colors

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Many baby products come in pleasant, soft pastels. These colors appeal to parents because they're soft, inoffensive, and innocent. They make the products seem sweet, just like your little bundle of joy (or, just like you wish they were more often). But these colors aren't going to interest or stimulate your baby very much. Instead, they'll benefit most from, and be most interested, in toys that come in bright, vibrant colors. Especially primary colors like bright reds, yellows, and blues. And one thing to remember about baby 'toys' is that they can be anything—babies don't have a concept of what's a toy and what's not. A brightly colored set of plastic tupperware will be just as interesting to them as an expensive toy set from the toy store.

Faces

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Another thing you want to make sure your baby has in their lives is toys with faces. In part, this is because they tend to prefer such toys, indicating an understanding that they recognize the representation of sentience from a very early age, leading them to bond more closely with toys that have faces. These toys might be dolls, stuffed animals, or even anthropomorphized objects like Thomas the Tank Engine or Gumby. While this preference is weak in the earliest months, studies in child development show that babies tend to fixate on faces more and more as they grow in the first year.

Babies learn about the world in many different ways, but as any parent knows, their favorite way is by putting everything in their mouths. This is how they investigate objects and begin to figure out the uses and identities of different objects and materials. So it's very important that your baby has access to many different textures. This doesn't have to mean buy fifty different toys with fifty different textures, of course—many items you have around the house will entertain your child just as well as a toy store purchase, meaning you can create a minimalist playroom and still have you baby experience a plethora of textures. Plus, there are many toys like this one that are designed to provide many different textures and stimulants in just one object, so you give your child everything he or she needs to develop normally and happily, without the toy box overflowing.

It can be annoying, but babies love rattles. They're stimulating, distracting, and entertaining. They've also remained one of the perfect toys and best gifts for babies for a very long time, and for good reason. They're a great way for them to learn basic functions like grasping. They'll like the noise, and learn how that noise is made by shaking a rattle (or any baby-safe container filled with rice, beads, or other shakables). Once they understand how the noise is made, they will want to start grabbing the rattle themselves and shake it to achieve that noise.

This helps both their ability to understand cause and effect and their ability to use their hands to grasp objects. And again, your baby doesn't care if their toy came from a toy store or not—it's not about how many toys your baby should have, but what features they have available. Homemade toys and baby-safe household objects are just as good as store-bought. Though it would not qualify as one of the fun and quiet toys for toddlers that won't annoy you, the rattle is still a useful and classic toy.

You don't want to hand your flailing baby a breakable mirror, but many specially made baby toys have safe mirrors, which are important for your child's development. And in addition to being beneficial to his or her development, mirrors can keep a baby entertained for an incredible amount of time.

One of the best ways to include many of the features your baby needs, including mirrors, is with a baby gym. Bright colors, moving parts to manipulate, different textures—and, with a baby gym, you can lie your kid down and take a rest while they entertain themselves. How many toys your baby should have will depend a lot on how many features each toy includes—you don't need a giant toy box if you have one complex system like a baby gym that includes many of the things they need to develop.

One of the worst stages of child development—for the parent and child alike—is the teething stage. So it's important to have toys that will help your baby get through this painful step in their development. When they're teething, babies will chew on just about anything to try and get some relief, so you want to provide them with materials that will help this process, ease their pain, and distract them all at once. Plus, it's a major benefit to have toys that you can easily wash, either in the dishwasher or washing machine. Otherwise, anything that stays in a baby's mouth is going to get pretty gross pretty fast. Teething toys can be anything, from simple wood or rubber rings, to brightly colored, lovable stuffed animals, even the good old classic Gumby (my personal favorite).

You can do this with any combination of characters, but you should make sure you have at least enough anthropomorphic toys to 'act things out' with or for your baby. This is a great way to help them learn the structure of conversations and interactions, something they start doing almost from the moment they're born. You don't have to buy something extravagant, like a whole set of puppets or characters to do this, of course—your infant certainly won't mind if you act out scenes with a mix of stuffed animals, a teddy bear, and Gumby. Just make sure there are at least enough toys with faces to let you demonstrate how social interaction works.

Obviously, this doesn't mean you should be giving them etiquette lessons with their teddies. Just funny, silly scenarios that make your kid giggle is all it takes to help them learn the structure of conversation and interaction.

Board Books

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As infants, your baby isn't going to understand books, much less be reading them him or herself. But it's actually not a bad idea to start giving your child board books at an early age, for a couple of reasons. First, board books are sturdy and relatively waterproof, so they can make great toys for your infant to just chew on. But secondly, you can begin teaching them to sit and mimic the kind of reading time you'll be having for the next few years, setting them up for success long before they even know what their actions mean. Plus, many board books contain elements of new and interesting textures and materials, which help your baby learn and keep them engaged.

Things to Manipulate

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It's important for babies to have toys that teach them to manipulate objects and understand the basics of physics and geometry. It will be years before they understand that on a mathematical level, of course, but in the first year of child development, they should learn to do basic things like stack building blocks and nest stacking cups. For the very early months, they won't be able to really have much success with these kinds of things, but a set of soft, crinkly building blocks or other geometric forms is a safe way to keep your baby entertained, and give them the opportunity to develop those skills over time.

While there's no strict rule about how many toys your baby should have, there is one last thing you want to make sure to include, which may involve at least one last, big toy. You want to give your child something that they can lean against while kneeling or standing, that encourages them to do so by providing something fun and amusing at a minor height. As they get older, you may even want to have something with wheels, so they can begin scooting around the living room and learning to walk. It's also beneficial to their child development to have at least one toy they play with directly in front of them, to help them develop better motor skills and manipulate their wrists and hands more effectively.

Final Conclusion

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The ten features I just listed don't mean that your baby needs ten toys or more. Many of these features can be combined, and their uses can be achieved in just a few, well-chosen toys. And of course, a lot of that depends on your baby. From the baby shower to birthday parties and holidays, your baby is going to receive a lot of toys. They might not take to all of them, though—so give them some options, and let them choose which toys they most want. When it comes to how many toys your baby should have, it may be best to have them have their say. Just make sure that you use these guidelines to give them all the tools they need to develop their basic motor and cognitive functions as they grow during this period.

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About the Creator

Nicola P. Young

Lover of Books, Saxophone, Blogs, and Dogs. Not necessarily in that order. Book blogger at heartofinkandpaper.com.

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