Why a baby gym is important for your baby’s development and other important information 🙂
In this article we are going to learn something more about baby gyms. In particular, what are the main benefits of a baby gym for your newborn and when is suggested to start using it, where is the perfect space in your home for it and who should consider buying this toy. If you want to learn a bit more about why I am talking about baby gyms, read more here!
Are you ready? let’s start with #1, what is a baby gym?
#1 – What is a baby gym?
A baby gym is a wooden or plastic arch where babies can play with the small toys suspended overhead. Usually it comes with a play mat or a rug.
The daggle toys come in different colors and shapes to stimulate and engage the baby during the different playing sessions.
Based on Montessori philosophy, during the development phase of the newborn it is essential to offer to the baby the right amount of stimulus: not too much, not too few. What is crucial is to feed curiosity without overstimulating the baby.
Baby gyms are introduced in this phase of the long path of newborn development.
#2 – When is it recommended to start using a baby gym?
There is not a unique way to reply to this question, like it said my professor at university: it depends. It depends on the baby’s development but you can literally use it from day one!
You have to know that in the first two months, newborns have a visual field of around 20-30cm (8-12in), their eyesight is not well developed yet and what they can see are bright, high contrast objects (e.g. black & white). In this period they also like to see faces of people around them.
After this period everything becomes more defined, starting to see objects more clearly and, from the fourth month, newborns perfectly perceive the colours, reliefs and the distance between themselves and objects.
When babies start to have better control of their arms and grab objects, they enter a new sensitive period of discoveries and they can not only observe but also interact with the baby gym.
Saying so, baby gym can be used from day one as a visual stimulus even before they are able to touch and grab objects.
Now you will ask, until when do I need to use it? Again, it depends! 🙂
As baby gym will help your baby to explore and discover their new abilities, there is not even a perfect time to stop using it! Each baby has a different development speed and the use of a baby gym depends on this.
When your child seems bored with the baby gym, you can try to hide it for a couple of days and propose it again later. Another alternative is to change or add hanging toys to refresh the baby’s interest.
#3 – Why is a baby gym important for your baby’s development?
As said before, a baby gym has multiple benefits in the early stage of your baby’s life. Here we are going to list some of them:
- Stimulate visual perception and concentration development
As we already know, babies’ view develops in the first four months. Encouraging your baby to use the baby gym regularly, improves his sense of vision. Toddlers need uninterrupted time to look at the hanging toys, as this might not happen immediately, be patient and try to resist interfering with this process.
The swinging toys are positioned in the babies’ range of view, in this way they are encouraged to focus on and to follow moving objects with their eyes.
- Improve coordination and tactile stimulation
The pendants on the arch stimulate your baby to reach out and to grab them. This new ability will give babies a sense of control of their body and helps them to realise the cause-effect logic.
- Improve motor skills
A continuous use of Baby gym helps your baby to develop muscles: arms, legs, tummy, back and neck. Putting the arch and toys in various positions, for example placing over the middle of the body or at its end, babies are encouraged to move, roll and do tummy time, crucial for strengthening baby’s neck, back and abdominal muscles needed for crawling.
So if you are asking why to have a baby gym, that’s because it is a full element for engaging your baby in her development!
#4 – Where should you keep your baby gym?
Baby’s nursery room? Your old living room, now transformed into a well organized playroom? The only truth is: close to you!
This is important not only for security reasons, that is to ensure adequate surveillance at all times while using the gym but also to spend time playing together, to appreciate your baby’s improvements, talk and tell stories to stimulate cognitive skills.
Choosing a foldable or easy-to-move baby gym is a good solution when you have to move it from one place to the other.
#5 – Who should consider buying a baby gym?
Now that I have (hopefully) convinced you about the importance of a baby gym for your baby, let’s touch on this point 🙂
A baby gym can be a gift that you buy for yourself choosing the one that can be more in line with your baby or it is also a perfect present for a newborn that a friend or an uncle and aunt can gift to the new mum and dad.
Cherieswood baby gyms are designed not only to stimulate the babies in their physical and motor development but also to be very personal and studied on parents passions. Are you an adventurer? or a lover of foliage and the coziness of autumn?
These baby gyms are designed to teach something about yourself to your little one day by day one since the first time you “met”.
Ciao, Elisa!
