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For any parent, or even for any concerned relative and family friend, the arrival of a baby is met with excited anticipation coupled with nervous concern. Everybody wants this new addition to the family to be the best person he or she can be.
This dream of personal greatness should start when the baby is just a few months old. Proper stimulation and plenty of tender loving care must be provided within a nurturing environment. One of the ways to provide appropriate stimulation is through unique baby gifts.
Giving Gifts Appropriate for Baby’s Age
Each child is unique and develops at his or her own pace. This development can be aided through age-appropriate toys and activities, which drastically change as your baby progresses from being a cute infant to an active toddler.
Keep this in mind as you search for those unique baby gifts that you intend to give your baby, or your favorite niece or nephew, or grandchild, or godchild. Gift-giving, especially to innocent children, needs to be carefully planned. You need to balance what is good for their physical and mental development, and what they will truly enjoy. They have very impressionable minds that need careful handling from adults.
Where to Find Unique Baby Gifts
You need not give expensive toys to consider them as unique baby gifts. You can even buy from thrift stores, garage sales, and consignment shops; just make sure that these are still in very good condition and are thoroughly washed before giving to the baby. If you buy off-the-shelf toys, you can still make them into unique baby gifts by as engraving the baby’s name on the wood or the molded plastic.
Just bear in mind that what makes a gift unique is the fact that you made it so. You thought it out, made an effort to put a personalized touch, can be actually used by the baby, and speaks about the baby’s uniqueness. Your efforts will be well rewarded with the baby’s and the parents’ smiles.
What are Age-Appropriate Toys?
Usually, the manufacturer will label the toy as being appropriate for a certain age bracket only. Choking hazards and other toy features might pose a threat to baby’s safety, which makes it very important to heed manufacturer warnings.
From birth to one year old, baby toys are designed for sensory stimulation mostly of the sight, sound, and touch. As such, these are colorful, highly textured, and produce various sounds. Buy toys made of molded plastic since these are more durable than flimsy plastic. Quality is important for a baby rather than quantity.
For toddlers who love to explore the world around them and engage in physical activities, actions toys like push and pull toys and riders, cause and effect toys like pop-ups and lock-key activity toys, and challenging toys like puzzles and building blocks are appropriate for them.
Ultimately, unique baby gifts are about appealing to the child’s physical senses and sense of imaginative play. As each child is unique, his or her toys need to cater to the specific phase of his development rather than forcing the child to become what he or she is not. Uniqueness is a gift in itself, which should be reason enough to accept the child as he or she is.