Indian Parenting and Child Care – Good Safe Toys for 6 to 24 month old kids

Yes, this is really a useful question asked by Pankaj this time.

Before answering this hub request, I would ask a few questions:

1. How many of us take care of the brand of toys that we give to our little ones?
2. Do we look at age safety?
3. Do we look at choking hazard warnings?
4. Are we biased towards/against "Made in China" toys?

For me, I am too much concerned on that and always read the points carefully before buying. I am quite biased against Chinese toys, especially the very cheap ones. Actually, I have learnt from experience, most of such toys, which I bought or were gifted to my kid, broke too soon, the batteries leaked to my abs horror, some of them stopped working as soon as we got them home.

From now on, I am going to be much more careful. Experience has taught me a few things that I follow when I buy toys for my kids. I go for toys, which are usually one or two piece. They are usually big in size and do not cost that much. More the pieces more the expense and more the chances of it breaking before you reach home.

How to select good toys for 6- to 24-month-old kids?

1. Avoid remote-controlled cars, etc. as much as you can. They are meant for a little older kids, not for your 1 or 2 year old. It's fun for a few hours. After that, they loose patience and try to break the whole thing apart!
2. Do not go for wooden bats if your kid is into cricket or baseball. Even a mini wooden bat can be dangerous. When kids play, they often get rowdy and try to hit it around others, so go for a plastic bat and ball.
3. Fisher price learning toys and games are expensive but at the same time very, very good. If you can, just go for these toys whenever possible. My daughter still plays with the Fischer-price toys I bought for her a few months back and they are intact.
4. Just get your kids toys, which make simple sounds, which the baby can imitate, as they love to imitate. Do not worry too much about speech at this stage. My daughter is 16 months old and she just utters mumma and papa, ba (for bye), da (for dada). She does speak a lot in her baby language. I no longer talk to her in baby language. I talk to her as I would talk to any elder and she understands and responds. I know it's just a matter of time when she will start speaking.
5. If your kid is fond of imitating, look for some cassettes or toys which makes animal sounds. You could try asking 'Planet M' or any such music store in your city. Most times, you can tell them what you are looking for and they can arrange it if is possible. Also keep looking up such places, as they keep adding new stuff from time to time. You can also record a few sounds yourself.....I know its sounds bizarre, but you know it might work and also a fun thing to do. We usually do all that when telling a story to our kids, so why not record it and play this for them. What do you say?