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Last Update: November 18th, 2019
We all know how hard sometimes is to pick the best gifts for babies under two.
The offer is infinite, our time is not, and it’s tough to know and find the games and toys that are the best for this age.
To help you out, based on Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development, we researched a lot and curated a list of the best gifts for babies under two.
This list can be useful to help you find the right gift for a birthday, for a Christmas gift, or for any other special event for a kid under two.
The bottom line is: imagine you could have Piaget himself handpicking the best gifts for babies under two.
This was our goal and this is what the list below is all about!
According to Piaget, what should be the best gift for babies under two?
According to Piaget, the First Stage of Cognitive Development happens between birth and when the baby reaches two years old.
It’s what Piaget named “The Sensorimotor Stage”.And this is basically a discovery stage for the babies.
A discovery about the outside world, mostly through movement and sensations.
The ideal gift should help them learn more about the world around them, through basic actions and sensations such as grasping, sucking, listening or looking.
We shouldn’t overstimulate them.
It’s a stage where we should let them find stuff for themselves and be able to explore almost freely.
Saying this, we should look for games and toys that are safe and that wouldn’t need a lot of parenting “control”. You don’t want them to be playing with heavy or edgy toys that might hurt them, right?
Remember that most toys will end up in their mouths and will also be tossed around.
In our list below, we took everything into consideration to curate a great list of gifts for babies under two.
We hope you enjoy as much as your baby will.
Gift Ideas for Babies Under Two
(1) Manhattan Toy Winkel Rattle: a colorful maze of soft tubes specially designed as a baby teething toy and where your baby will be able to use both hands to play with it. The middle cube contains a pleasing rattle sound.
(2) Infantino Pat and Play Water Mat: this is such a great experience for babies. Water and fishes. If you get this one for a baby, let us add some usage instructions to assure you get the most out of this amazing toy.
Infantino Pat and Play Water Mat Usage Instructions (to avoid the fish stick together and the water to mold):
- Take all the little plastic fish out
- Pour some olive oil in your hands and rub each fish lightly and get them all a little oily
- Put all the fish back in, pour a tiny amount of vinegar in the whale then fill it with water
- None of my fish stick together and the water has not mucked up or molded at all
(3) Hohner Kids Mini Rainmaker: this is the sort of toy that kids will love and so will the older siblings and even parents. The constant movement and soothing sounds are fascinating for everyone.
(4) EverEarth Garden Activity Cube: This is such a great gift for your baby. With its 6 sides of activities, it’s perfect for when you might have more than one child playing with it at the same time.
(5) Little Tikes Activity Garden Baby Playset: The title says garden but you can honestly use it indoors. It could easily be the discovery corner for your kid at home. A great way for kids to explore their surroundings.
(6) Galt Toys Inc First Years Farm Playnest and Gym: this product has a shorten lifespan but it’s sooo useful. It’s ideal for when the baby is starting to seat, at around 4/5 months old.
(7) Deluxe Pounding Bench Wooden Toy with Mallet: we have to admit, there are apps that do this, but this is far better. In fact, it’s so great we do battles at home. The baby normally wins. Go figure, right?
(8) Mega Blocks First Builders: we can’t tell you how many hours our older son played with these. In fact, although he is already with 5, he still plays with it every now and then. We can’t wait to have him teaching his brother to build crazy things.
More options?
This is it.
Of course, there are a million more games and toys that could fit in this stage.
But the important thing is to be aware of the right stimulus our babies should have in this specific development stage, and pick the best gifts to promote their safe development.
We will try to update this list every now and then so it might be a good option to bookmark this page for future reference.
If you know a great gift that fits this stage please let us know in the comment box below and we will add it in here.
Our babies will thank us for the amazing gifts they’ll get!
If you want to check the gifts for other ages, follow the links below:
Best Gifts for Kids Age 2 to 7
Best Gifts for Kids Age 7 to 11
Just like we teach our kids to ask what they want, I’ll ask you to take a second to share “Best Gifts for Babies Under Two” with your audience. They respect great content.