Toys for Four Month Old Babies

All babies grow and learn differently, but many four month old babies have developed similar skills, like being able to hold a toy. Babies of this age are also not ready to do some things like crawling. This means some toys are not suitable for a four month old. 

It is important for toys to match the age of a baby. This is not only for safety reasons. When the type of toy and the age of a baby is well matched it means the toy will help a baby learn more and will be more fun for them to play with. 

These toys all match the typical developmental stage of four month old babies and will be suitable until they are about six months. Some babies even grow to love a toy so much that they play with it far beyond the expected time. This is because playing with a favorite toy can give them a sense of security. 

Pictured: Musical Inchworm

An important new skill that starts to happen around four months of age is babies begin to grasp things with their hands. This opens up a whole new world of toys that they can play with and how they can play with them. They can explore a toy with their hands. See what it feels like. Take it to their mouth to chew on. They can squeeze it. They can shake it (and what an amazing thing for a baby if the toy makes a noise).

Being able to grasp things gives babies a whole new way to learn – so by giving your baby toys that match this new skill will help their development and show them what an interesting place the world is. 

Four month old babies also love (and learn from) repeating a playful activity on a toy, like shaking a rattle, that creates something he or she finds interesting in the world around them.

This is the first time a child realizes that they can do something to make an effect on the world they live in. By shaking a rattle they make a sound they enjoy. This new understanding brings a great deal of joy to a baby.

This means it is a good idea to buy toys that do something when your baby plays with them, so they can have this joy of finding that they can change what a toy does. It may be changing the shape of the toy, its sound or anything else that is ‘different’ from when the toy is not being played with. 

Pictured: Panda Rattle

Babies love to pop everything into their mouths, despite whether its something that is meant for chewing on or not. This is a normal part of development and is very common at four months of age. Being able to explore things with their mouth helps babies learn. It is also thought that this might be Mother Nature's way of making sure babies get a chance to learn about bacteria and viruses to help the development of the immune system. This does not mean you should let a baby put anything into their mouth. It needs to be safe and clean (yes even clean items have bacteria on them - but there shouldn't be anything too nasty). The best way to let baby learn by chewing is to buy teething toys (also called teether toys). 

Photo: Sophie the Giraffe courtesy of Amazon