Activity Gyms

The concept of a baby play gym is really to best stimulate your baby in line with their development stage from birth to approximately 5 months. At this point baby is still understanding use of their hands and feet so having toys that tempt baby to reach out to grab and bat is a great way to test and improve their co-ordination skills. It’s worth seriously considering what toys come with the gym and how they reward baby e.g. with music, sounds and lights and whether they have valued used outside of the gym. In addition, kick pads are equally great for baby’s feet and legs such as the one that comes with the Fisher-Price Discover and Grow Kick Gym.

As baby is unable to support themselves at this time and lying on their back for a considerable amount of time a gym provides great visual stimulation (as opposed to the ceiling!) and some brands such as Lamaze even ensure that the underside of their toys are in great bold black and white geometric prints to help baby focus when they are very little. Some activity gyms even have mobiles attached to the centre of them such as the Fisher-Price ‘Luv U Zoo’ and the Fisher-Price ‘Rainforest’ gyms which play music and have coloured dancing lights!

Another feature to consider is trying to encourage baby onto their tummy for a little time. Many gyms come with great big toys such as the whale in the Brights Starts Baby Neptune Ocean gym which doubles up as a tummy time support pillow. This can be used to help prop baby up and encourage development of neck muscles and reduce pressure on the skull. Similarly having nice bright colours, peek a boo features and different textures on the mat will all help exploration and movement ultimately leading to crawling. Mirrors often come with play gyms too as babies find faces absolutely fascinating including their own and as such can help them develop facial expressions.