Baby & Toddler

Choosing a toy for a baby or toddler

Under three, choose toys with large pieces and one clear action (stack, post, pound, pull) and play alongside your child. In the first year the hand's main work is grip and release, and a baby learns that a shake makes a sound; from one to three, children start sorting shapes and fitting things together. The age shown on every toy here is the age printed on its box, and toys marked 3+ can contain small parts.

By age

• Birth to 1: rattles and first stackers, like the Baby Rattle Set and the Rainbow Ring Stacking Column.
• 1 to 3: shape sorters such as Baby’s First Blocks and Matching Eggs, which match colour and shape at once, and the Wooden Magnetic Fishing Game for numbers 0 to 10.
• 2 to 3: the Textured Sensory Balls, for telling surfaces apart by touch alone.

Worth knowing

A pull-along toy like the Wooden Shape Sorter Truck gives a new walker a reason to keep going, and the A Day in a Child’s Life books turn everyday words into a game of pointing and naming.

Further reading

The best toys for 1- and 2-year-olds, and what each one teaches.

Read next: Baby toys by month; Child development stages, month by month.

For sore gums and teething safety, see baby teething symptoms and safe relief.