Toys for 3-5 Month Olds

Prior to my twins being 6 months old, I found it difficult to know what to play with them. What toys should I get? What would they like? I started asking friends and seeing what their babies played with. What I found was that for this age group, they didn't need a lot of toys. There were a few choice toys that I found though that were must haves.



Playmats: Black, Red, and White mats and toys are best to start with as color vision develops. They really like the contrast when they are really little and we had these from the start. I change out the hanging toys often to give variety. I also learned that putting them on the mat diagonally and having them kick the bars was great fun. This action would rattle all of the toys.



Skwish: This toy is great when the babies are first learning about their hands. They accidentally put their hands in this toy and pick it up. They don't need a lot of fine motor skills to play with this toy. The little beaded ends are great for chewing. After they gain more fine motor skills, this toy is great for squishing and holding.

Oball: Another great toy for easy pick up. It has various sized holes and is extremely light weight.



Sophie's friends: Chan Pie Gnon Soft Chew Toys: Chan Pie Gnon is the play on words for mushroom in French. These toys are shaped like mushrooms. We have both "Chan", the blue toy and "Pie", the pink toy. Chan is the favorite for both of my twins. It's quite easy for them to hold and shove the head into their mouths. I think they like Chan because it's more bottle shaped than the others. Pie has two ears to chew on that are smaller. While they would play with Pie, they clearly preferred Chan. I don't know about the yellow one "Gnon" as I only bought the other two.



Sophie the Giraffe: This toy is an all natural rubber teether toy. Once your babies can start to hold things and shove them in their mouths, this toy is great. For some reason, our babies love to chew on her legs. All my friends seem to have this toy too and I always see their kids chewing on Sophie's legs. I saw one review where someone thought it was a glorified dog chew toy and too expensive. Yes, Sophie is expensive, but so worth the money for all the enjoyment my babies get from her. And I don't have to worry about the materials they are chewing on. I got ours at a local store and the shop keeper said they have a lot of trouble keeping Sophie in stock. She is quite popular!



Playskool Kick Start Gym: This toy is incredible. My little girl especially loved to kick, and this toy mesmerized her for hours. I was completely skeptical when it was given to me by a friend. Being a first time mom, it just didn't resonate with me. However, when we noticed our babies kicking a lot, we got it out and low and behold, it was an instant favorite.



The unfortunate thing about this toy is that it is no longer made. When I searched for it, the replacement toy is a flimsy kick toy that others reported fell on their babies. So, I definitely wouldn't get the one that folds up. But, there's usually a couple for sale on eBay and sometimes Craigslist. I bought a second one for our twins off of eBay because they liked it so much.



More Play Ideas?

Gymboree's "Baby Play" book is great for giving lots of ideas of how to play with babies. The sections are broken down by age, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months and 9-12 months. The ideas it gives are simple and fun. They also don't require you buying a lot of stuff. In the early stages, this book made me realize what "play" meant to different age groups and it was different from what I had in mind.