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How to Choose and Buy Wooden Toys

What to Look for When Choosing a Wooden Toy

Wooden baby toys can provide baby with hours of fun. Most wooden toys are made from sustainable wood sources and are coloured using non-harmful paint. It's always best to double check the source of the paint though so that baby doesn't play with a wooden toy that isn't safe.

Wooden toys should be made from sustainable forests, generally rubberwood forests. Replenishable wood usually comes from rubber tree plantations where rubber trees are planted for latex production. When rubber trees stop producing rubber, they are replenished and the good timber is used for a range of products some of which are wooden baby toys. This means that the world's rainforests do not need to be touched.

What Types of Wooden Toy Can You Buy for Your Baby?

The most recognised wooden toys have to be the train sets from Heros and Brio or the wooden rocking horses from Marbel.

Galt also produces a range of shape sorter drums and houses to encourage baby's motor skill development. And East Coast produces a beautiful wooden cube for a toddler with lots of activities on five sides that is available from Mothercare.

Although wooden toys don't necessarily have the flashing lights and the loud disco music that the latest hi-tech offerings have, babies all over the world play with simple wooden toys that are beautifully made so please do think about including a few in your baby's toy selection.

Choosing a Wooden Toy – Other Tips

Wooden toys are designed for children of different ages so make sure when you select a toy that it is appropriate for your baby's age.

Some wooden building blocks will be too small for a young baby as they may place them in their mouth. Generally from around a year babies will be able to find a wooden toy that is great fun.

Wooden rattles can be used by babies that are much younger as long as they don't have bells or any material that is likely to come loose in baby's mouth.

You can find details of some of the most popular wooden toys that you can buy for your baby on our Types of Wooden Toy page.

To find out more about what to look out for when choosing and buying nursery toys visit our How to Choose and Buy a Baby Toy for Helping to Develop Different Skills section and How to Choose and Buy a Baby Toy for Different Ages section.

To find out more about the different online baby and nursery toy shops and stores visit our Top Sites section.

To see what different nursery toy manufacturers offer visit our Brands section.

You can also find out more in our How to Play with Baby section.