Great Gifts for a Baby’s First Birthday

Baby’s first birthday! It only feels like moments since you had a positive pregnancy test result and now that little line is celebrating their first trip around the sun!

Or, rather, you are… Your baby might enjoy all the fanfare and the friendly faces at their party, but they’re still a few years away from asking for gift cards and games consoles. The concept of their first birthday will almost certainly escape them, which is why some of your baby’s first birthday gifts are either for you or for your baby in the future.

Here’s some of our favourite - and eco-friendly - things to give to those all-important littlies when they turn one.

A set of sustainably-sourced wooden blocks

By the age of one, your baby should have mastered the art of the pincer grasp and might even be moving towards moving objects in and out of boxes. Add a bit of stacking into the mix and you’ll have yourself a regular architect in no time.

Wooden building blocks are a classic toy for babies and toddlers and they’re not just fun, they can help your child to develop cognitive skills and coordination (1).

A magazine subscription

Not the British Medical Journal just yet, we’re thinking more age-appropriate than that, probably with stickers and crafts involved. 

Reading isn’t just about decoding the symbols and numbers on the page, it’s about learning to turn pages and to share the experience with a caregiver. It’s also about doing some of the activities inside and looking at the pictures.

A weekly magazine is a great habit to get into, but it can be a bit expensive, so a year’s subscription to a children’s magazine is a nice touch for parents and baby.

Sustainably-sourced stacker toys

Wooden stacker toys aren’t just great for coordination and problem solving skills, they often look beautiful and can grace your child’s shelf for years. Your tiny baby can also hand their stacker toy down to their children when the time comes, so it’s a gift for the ages.

A wooden and metal xylophone

This is for slightly older babies - around 18 months or so - and while you might think the giver doesn’t like you, you can be assured that they’re thinking of your baby and their development.

Musical toys can help with your baby’s cognitive development and attention span (2) in later childhood and it’s never too soon to start playing an instrument (although 4.30am might feel like it…). 

Fancy bubble bath and sponges

Just as music can soothe the savage beast, so can a nice warm bubble bath. Parents have long used bubble baths to calm fussy babies and toddlers or to wind them down before bed.

A bottle or two of posh, preservative-free and skin-friendly bath foam, along with a cute sponge or flannel, will go a long way to coaxing even the dirtiest toddler into the bath for a soak.

A water painting kit

No mess, no waste and if your baby goes outside the lines, just wait for it to dry and give them another go! 

Water painting kits are a great way to encourage your baby’s creativity as they swoosh water over the hidden pictures and watch them appear in glorious colour. They’re great for traveling and for developing your baby’s pen-holding skills.

A Revolutionary Reusables bundle

It’s never too late to get the hang on reusable nappies and so a small bundle of our washable nappies might be just the thing for parents thinking of switching lanes to reusables. 

You could also bump up someone’s existing stash with a few extra single nappies to help them along - it’s definitely a case of the more the merrier with cloth nappies!

A wooden kitchen tower

Again, a gift for older babies, but these handy, supportive step-stools-in-a-frame will enable your toddler to reach up to the kitchen counter.

Being able to reach the countertop or table helps your toddler to “keep you company” while you prepare food and, later, to chop soft fruits and mix cakes themselves. 

A tower made from sustainable hardwood (3) will last for years and you can repurpose it as extra kitchen or bathroom storage, even when that little baby is towering over you!

Citations and References

(1) Johns Hopkins University. ‘How Legos and Blocks Help Make Your Child Smarter.’ 2016. Web. hub.jhu.edu/2016/03/07/lego-blocks-build-better-thinkers

(2) National Institutes of Health (NIH). National Library of Medicine. ‘How Musical Training Affects Cognitive Development: Rhythm, Reward and Other Modulating Variables.’ 2017. Web. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3957486

(3) Which? ‘How to Buy Sustainable Furniture.’ 2022. Web. www.which.co.uk/reviews/shopping-sustainably/article/how-to-buy-sustainable-furniture-a6fVE2z0JFu9