The Best Toys for Babies at Three Months

If your infant is still a newborn, she might not be playing with much but her own hands at this point. Even if your 3-month-old baby seems only intermittently interested in objects, the colorful, mostly soft toys available for young babies provide visual, oral, tactile and auditory stimulation. Provide the best toys for your baby's development for this brief, important stage.

  1. Teething Toys

    • Your baby probably doesn't have much by the way of teeth yet, but they'll soon make their appearance. Provide a variety of teething toys for your baby to ease into the experience and soothe the pain once the teeth start breaking through her gums. Even if you can't see the tell-tale white lumps beneath the gums that signal emerging teeth, your baby will enjoy orally exploring mouth-safe teething toys. Teething toys include refrigerated liquid teething rings, linking plastic rings and natural rubber shape toys.

    Travel Toys

    • While some babies are automatically lulled to sleep by the vibration of a moving car, stroller or shopping cart, other babies may be overwhelmed by the experience of being in the unfamiliar, possibly uncomfortable outside. Pacify your infant with travel-related toys. Attach a plastic safety mirror to a spot in the backseat where your infant can catch his face in its reflection from his rear-facing car seat. Attach small, hanging plush toys from his stroller or car seat's handle.

    Noise Toys

    • Help your baby's auditory development with noise-making toys. While this toy category probably doesn't sound like music to your ears, to a 3-month-old baby a rubber toy's loud squeak is nothing short of captivating. Rattles are another popular noise toy for 3-month-old babies. Incorporate music into general noise-making playtime for an additional auditory boost.

    Tummy Time Toys

    • Your 3-month-old's biggest recent or upcoming physical milestone is rolling over from her stomach to her back. Since she has to sleep on her back exclusively, the only time she can prep for or perfect this skill is by playing on her stomach; most infant books refer to this as "tummy time." Buy a large, soft-bottomed infant gym for tummy time sessions. Choose high contrast, colorful gyms with an array of add-on toys such as a bar from which you can hang toys, flexible plastic mirrors, attached rattles and differently textured areas.

    Stuffed Animals and Dolls

    • Stuffed animals and dolls fascinate young babies mostly because they provide an interesting tactile experience and because babies enjoy looking at faces. The soft, hard-edge free construction of plush toys also makes them among the safest toy choices for young babies, with one exception: you should never put soft, stuffed toys into your baby's crib or other sleeping area. Soft materials in the sleep environment raise your baby's risk of suffocation or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

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