A new baby is an exciting event in any family, particularly for parents and grandparents. While you might be eager to hand on some of toys that your children enjoyed as children, it's important to remember that safety standards have for toys changed and you might need to readjust your focus to get a safe toy:

Chewable friendly

When looking for a baby for newborns, be sure to check the recommended age on the tag. Some teddies are suitable only for children over three. This is because their hard plastic noses or button eyes can be chewed off and become choking hazards for children under three.

So if you are looking at teddies in the stores, teddies you have at home or patterns for knitting, makes sure no hard items can fall off. With some patterns you may be able to replace items such as button eyes with sewn on eyes and so forth, to make sure the teddy is perfectly safe. For this reason it's also good to keep the clothing optional at first, and introduce it later if the child seems interested in putting teddy in some special outfits.

Equally, you want any seams to be sturdy so that a curious mouth or fingers cannot dislodges and swallow the filling. Most modern manufactured toys for babies are sturdily constructed to prevent this issue.

Not for sleeping surfaces

While it can be cute to set up a crib and leave a teddy bear in there, it's important to remember that it's now recommended that babies up to seven months of age sleep without any soft items in their cribs due to the risk of SIDS. So whenever baby comes over for a sleepover, be sure to remove any extra toys or lovies from the crib so that the new mum has confidence her baby will be safe with you - and don't be offended if you see the toy you gave sitting on a shelf rather than in the crib.

Washable

Children, while beautiful, do tend make some mess. Make sure to choose something that can be washed or you may find out that the precious teddy you hoped they would hang out to becomes discarded if gets vomited or faces a leaky nappy. No one want to think of beautiful teddy being full of germs and bacteria that could make baby ill.

If you are looking to purchase a high quality, safe and long-lived teddy it makes sense to head to a soft toy distributor. They can show you a range of soft toys that will be suitable for a new baby. Contact a company such as Elka if you want to learn more.