When it comes to stocking up on the essential products you’ll need before bringing home your new baby, make sure you add a play gym to your shower registry or must-have shopping list.
Childhood development experts generally agree that a play gym can be a critical tool in helping your baby develop important early hands-on skills, while also entertaining your child, encouraging them to explore the world around them, and providing them a safe space to play.
There are a host of benefits that babies receive through interacting with a play gym. A play gym encourages movement, stimulates a baby’s vision, hearing, tactile, and speech development, improves hand-eye coordination and motor skills, and boosts cognitive development.
If you’re in the market for a play gym for your little bundle of joy, here are some important factors to consider before making your purchase.
What is a Play Gym?
Sometimes called an activity center, play gyms are designed and constructed as a self-contained play space meant for kids ages newborn to around 1 year old. Their purpose is to promote a child’s growth and development through play.
A play gym usually consists of structural arches, generally made from wood, plastic, or fabric, set on a padded play mat that your baby can also use for tummy time in order to strengthen their neck, back, and core muscles. The arches can hold toys, which encourage baby to reach, grasp, grab, and manipulate the toys through play.
While play gyms provide a safe, self-contained area for your baby to play, you should NEVER under any circumstances, leave any infant or baby unattended in a play gym for any length of time. Only use a play gym with adult supervision!
Benefits of a Play Gym
There’s a reason many child development experts recommend a play gym—they work great!
Play gyms offer a host of important benefits when it comes to supporting baby’s early development. Depending on the various features and accessories, play gyms can help stimulate development of a baby’s hand-eye coordination and gross & fine motor skills; visual, auditory, and speech processing; sensory stimulation; and cognitive ability.
What to Look for in a Play Gym
Start by taking a look at the big picture, and consider several questions about your baby’s play gym at the outset before you even make a purchase.
Size
Is the play gym the appropriate size for the space you have at home? If you live in an apartment or don’t have a lot of extra square footage in your home, space concerns may come into play. Look for something that best fits in the space you have when it’s open and in use. If space is a concern, look for a play gym that can be easily broken down (i.e. doesn’t require pulling out a screwdriver or instruction manual) and stored when not in use.
Product Design
Does it have a user-friendly design? Look for a design that allows the play gym to not only be easily assembled but also easily fold up. That’s something that many new parents may want to consider, especially if they’re still physically recovering from the baby’s delivery—new moms definitely don’t need to be wrestling with complicated apparatus that’s difficult to open and close. This also comes into play when considering the arch design and placement—does it allow parents and caregivers easy access to their baby when it’s in use? Look for arches that have a wide opening to allow for easy access to your baby, both when placing baby under the arches, but also when sitting on the ground and interacting with baby.
Portability
For families who expect to constantly be on the go, you’ll definitely want to consider the convenience and portability factors when considering a play gym. Moms recovering from delivery need something light enough that won’t put any undue strain on their bodies. And if it takes several minutes and multiple steps to fold up the play gym for storage, that’s not convenient for anybody.
Safety
You definitely want a play gym from a trusted brand that has undergone all the safety and compliance testing and is using high-quality materials in its construction. As with any baby product, you can bet that everything in that play gym set—toys, mat, arch, accessories—WILL be going in your child’s mouth and touching their skin.
Aesthetics
You’ll also want to take into account the play gym’s overall aesthetic. If you spend time and effort curating your space at home, you want a play gym that’s going to mesh well with your home’s decor, especially since oftentimes a play gym will spend a good deal of time sitting open within this space.
Versatility
Consider how versatile your play gym is as play gyms tend to be larger ticket items, so for many, getting the most value possible is a high priority. You’ll want to look for one that grows with your child through various ages, stages, and milestones. Some models even offer helpful play guides to help you get the most out of your play gym set-up.
Care
Finally, look for a play gym that’s easy to care for. Between drool, spit up, diaper explosions, you name it - babies are messy! Look for a play gym that you can easily wipe clean and has a machine washable play mat.
All About the Toys
Your baby will definitely appreciate—and benefit from—having a variety of toys with specific features that encourage them to engage and explore:
• Toys should be DETACHABLE from the play gym, so babies can develop gross and fine motor skills while reaching, grabbing, and manipulating them. Whether they are hanging from the arches, moving to different positions on the arches, set on the play mat during tummy time, caregiver holding a toy to interact with baby, taking the toy on the go without the play gym, however you choose to play, having the ability to easily detach the toys is key.
• Toys should provide SENSORY elements—different textures, crinkly materials, chimes or squeakers, a mirror for baby to see their reflection, hard vs. soft play, black-and-white graphics for those early weeks when vision isn’t fully developed and bright colors for later. Sensory play helps babies explore their world. They gather so much information as they see, touch, and listen.
In Conclusion
Families expecting the joyful arrival of a new baby should definitely consider purchasing or adding a play gym to their registry for their little one. Childhood development experts generally agree that play gyms can be one of the best baby products you can buy for your newborn because of the wide variety of developmental benefits they provide through play. There are hundreds of play gyms available on the market, but knowing what to look for with this helpful guide will make your purchase that much easier, so you can give your little bundle of joy the developmental boost they need through play.
