Best Infant Toy Brands

Hands down Fisher Price laugh and learn. My daugter also enjoyed the Leap Frog music activity table. I wish I had stock is Fisher Price - great quality, always a hit, takes a lickin' and keeps tickin' and educational!!!!

You are your babies best learning toy!

Congratulations!!
My daughter LOVED her Baby Whoozit, and I know several other people who had babies that loved it too. You can get it at babies-r-us I know. Here is a link to check it out and some of their other proucts: http://www.manhattantoy.com/products/206927/Whoozit?utm_s...

Also, I noticed at Target that Sassy has a line of toys now with lots of black & white on them, which is supposed to be great for babies! They like the contrast between the black and white.

I loved the Discovery Toys for my son and for my granddaughter. They are educational and they are good quality. Another line I like is the Little Tykes. They are long lasting toys and sturdy. Also, their products are life-time guaranteed. I had 2 of the bigger toys (kitchen and cozy coupe) that needed parts replaced and their wasn't a problem doing so. A phone call was all it took to get the products on their way to me.
Congratulations.

Hi A.,
Congrats! I know that www.BurbMom.net is going to be running a feature article next week called "Julies Favorite Things for New Moms" which has all sorts of stuff she loves and recommends. She is a mom of 6 year old twins that now has another baby.

I found that my boys didn't like toys as much as I thought they would in the first year. They were obsessed with pots & pans, the dog, exploring the house, etc. Once they were 18 months or so then the toy obsession began...and now I have thin layer of Legos over my entire house.

SO MUCH FUN.

Good luck!

A.,
One thing that I noticed no one mentioned (you did get a great list!) was an activity mat. My daughter is 4 months old and she loves hers. I have the Einstein Sea Creatures one. At first I thought she didn't like it, but it was just that she was too little and I was expecting too much, but by 2 months old she liked laying under the dangling octopus and practicing talking to it...SO CUTE! Now she reaches and pulls on the toys and kicks at them. My pediatrician recommended the overhead toys this early.

Have fun and congrats!

For brands: Fisher Price and Leap Frog fill our house, and some Melissa & Doug, Chicco, and Playskool here and there. And, we found that the best toys for the first year are not exactly 'interactive.' Some of the more traditional toys are still winners! Basic shape sorter (the yellow bucket with blue lid and 3 different shaped blocks), large wooden ABC blocks for stacking, stacking/nesting cups (I think our faves were the Chicco brand, but fisher price makes them too). The traditional stacking rings on post. There is the old fashioned circular rings that stack on a yellow post, but the one we had fun wth was star shapes that lit up and made sound. I think it was fisher price.
A big win for both of my kids was the Fisher Price Ocean Wonders aquarium. I think they enjoyed that for about 2 years each.
I have yet to be dissatisfied with Leap Frog products. A great one for the first year (and beyond... I caught my 4 yr old son playing with it just this week) is the Leap Frog Fridge Farm and Fridge Phonics. Even if your fridge isn't magnetic, it's a fun toy without being stuck to the fridge.
Also their Baby Tad was well loved and played with -- perfect for crawler/toddler quiet time in the crib or playpen.
Another big fave was the Tiny Love brand crib mobile called symphony in motion. Even after they were done with the mobile part, the musical base stayed attached to the crib and my son would push the buttons and play music. We even stuck it on his big boy bed.
and, last but certainly not least, the Fisher Price Little People are timeless classics :-). My idea of a good toy is one that appeals to multiple children, and is played with through various developmental stages. The Little People fit the bill. We have the farm, the house, Noah's Ark, and the school bus (a MUST for boys -- they love pushing it around the house!). There are various accessories and other Little People's we've bought along the way, but those are the main ones. They have been played with from birth to the present. Seriously -- I pull them out of storage when toddlers are visiting and my kids (age 4 and 6) will still play with them, long after our friends leave with their little tot :-). We ended up with 2 school buses and now they're used to transport polly pockets and Star Wars guys from room to room.

Congrats on your new little one and I hope you have tons of fun with him!

For the first year, if money were no object, all of our toys would be Haba. They are NOT electronic in any way, but have bright colors, creative designs, encourage imagination, and were always DD's favs. She still (at 2.5) plays with many of them. They are imported from Germany, and not cheap--I don't think we actually bought any ourselves, but were lucky to have generous family!

It's been so long since I had an infant that I don't remember much of what my son played with in the first year. I know I tried to get him a lot of board books with different textures that he could feel. A lot of babies seem to like jumparoos. My favorite toy brand is Melissa and Doug, but I don't know if they make toys for infants because I didn't discover this brand until my son was almost two. A list of gift ideas I keep for one year olds is: Nesting blocks, board books, toy to hold on to and walk with, Lego duplo blocks, Eric Carl books, Little People, balls, ball pit, laughing baby doll (Goldberger), fridge letters. Good luck!