Congratulations!
Whether you, a family member, or a friend is expecting, this is an exciting time in life. The joy and anticipation can often be paired with the feeling of being overwhelmed. Everywhere you turn there is a new baby product that you are told you need! Something to help the baby eat better, play better, and more. We’re here to make it easier for you!
As SLPs, baby registry recommendations are one of our most frequently asked questions. Whether you’re determining your own baby registry, or shopping for someone else, check out our SLP Approved Baby Registry below. This complimentary OWLS Therapy guide features recommendations on toys, home and kitchen items, and books based on our expert knowledge in speech, language, and feeding development. It is organized into a variety of categories, so there is something here for everyone!
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Play Items
Toys should encourage tummy time and social awareness, teach stacking, object permanence, special relations, and use of both sides of the brain, and promote overall speech, language and memory development. Toys can include mirrors for tummy time, crinkle and sensory toys to explore the world around them, and black and white images to stimulate the optic nerves. Here are some of our favorite toys for early development:
Tummy Time
Stacking Toys
Other Toys
Feeding and Kitchen Items
In general, we recommended skipping the hard spout sippy cups and the 360 cups. Below is a list of our favorite feeding and kitchen items:
Cups
Mats, Plates and Bowls
Silverware
Bibs
Highchair and accessories
Oral Play Items:
Oral play is so important for development. Below we’ve listed some of our favorite tools:
Teethers
Pacifiers certainly have a time and place! They help improve sucking and assist in regulation. While we don’t have any specific pacifier listed on our guide, we recommend avoiding the pacifiers with the plush animal attachments.
Hygiene Items:
Toothbrush:
Nose hygiene (important to keep passages open for nasal breathing!)
Baby Books
Early books should be simple and repetitive. These books should focus on early gestures (waving hi/bye, blowing kisses, shaking head yes/no, pointing) and functional language. At this age, we recommend skipping any sort of exposure to an iPad or Tablet. Focus on playing and shared book reading!
Here are some of our favorite baby books:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
Where’s Spot?
Touch and Feel Books
Where is Baby’s…
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Anything by Sandra Boynton
Ten Tiny Toes
Baby Signs
Soft Books
Dear Zoo
Parent Books:
Here are some of our favorite books for parents to learn more about child development:
Responsive Feeding: The Baby-First Guide to Stress-Free Weaning, Healthy Eating, and Mealtime Bonding Paperback by Melanie Potock MA CCC-SLP
Baby Sign Language: A Fun and Simple Guide to Early Communication Paperback by Mary Smith
My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child's Language Development Paperback by Kimberly Scanlon MA CCC-SLP
Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater: A Parent’s Handbook: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating by Nimali Fernando MD MPH and Melanie Potock MA CCC-SLP
Miscellaneous Items:
Skip any sort of sitting devices that contain the baby. These can hinder gross and fine motor development skills and place stress on developing bones and joints. Instead, opt for soft play mats, climbing sets and play gyms! See below for some of our favorites, along with other various household items:
There you have it- a list of baby items that have our SLP stamp of approval! We hope this guide was helpful when making these decisions. Please share this post with others so we can help spread the word on all of these fantastic products!
About the Author
Janene Besch
Director/Speech-Language Pathologist
Janene Besch, née Martin, holds a Master's degree in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences from San Diego State University and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of California at San Diego. Janene is a member of the American Academy of Private Practice in Speech Pathology
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Welcome back to our last post in the series “Milestones: Navigating the Numbers”! This series was inspired by the updated American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Developmental Milestones. Read more on the expected speech, language, social-pragmatic, and feeding milestones expected by age 1, age 2, age 3 and age 4.