Choosing a Baby Play Mat – Tips & Advice

It can be a daunting task trying to find the ideal play mat for your little princess or prince – there are so many fantastic products available that, at first glance, it’s difficult to know which one to buy.

But after a bit of research into the various types of mat available, it’s basically just a case of choosing one which ticks the most boxes for your needs.

Just because a play gym or mat looks visually appealing and exciting to a parent doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how their little one will see it – obviously parents wants a mat to be made of safe and durable materials and also have plenty of features to keep their child entertained – but it also makes sense for parents to try to imagine how a child will view the mat’s patterns, colours and little attached play things – will they create the magic you desire for your little one.

A bright and garish fabric sunflower, for example, might not be visually appealing to an adult – but it might look wonderful to a little baby whose eyes are just starting to master the skills of focusing and interpreting colour.

When picking a mat, it’s all about assessing the wants and needs or your little boy or girl and making an informed choice, based on their specific requirements. What may be the best baby play mat or gym for one family may not be the best for another family, if only with regard to the space available in your home.

We’re here to try to assist you in your quest to find a play mat or activity gym that ticks the right boxes when it comes to your needs. By pointing out some of the key points to consider, we hope we can help make it easier for you to chose a play mat.

Some parents opt to buy two play mats – one to keep permanently set up on the floor in their home and a smaller travel mat to keep in the car, ready for visits to friends and family.

It really pays to give careful consideration to which play will best fit your child’s needs – make the wrong choice and you will have the hassle of returning it to the seller, assuming you’ve not used if before realising you made a costly mistake.

Safety is a Key Factor when Buying a Play Mat

One of your main considerations should how well a mat fares with regard to safety and security. Most mats come with a safe age guide, information about materials, small parts and anything that could cause a choking risk to a child younger than the recommended age to use the mat.

It also makes sense to choose a play mat or play gym from a company that has an excellent record when it comes to baby products and safety. If you check out a few reviews from previous buyers you can establish quite quickly which mats are renowned for being great products, and safe ones for your child.

Next you need to consider which mat is best suited to your little one’s age. Play gyms are ideal for newborns and young babies – even infants – but they don’t make sense for infants and toddlers who are past the age of lying on their backs and reaching out to hanging toys – this age group is much more active and adventurous, so a standard floor play mat will be more suitable.

A small mat is ideal for infants and young toddlers – but when toddlers get a bit older they will be better served with a much larger mat which can become a mini playground, with plenty of room for mobile toys to push around and other creative play things for building structures, such as Lego.

Foam or quilted mats are a great choice for younger children as they are soft and spongy, making it a safe and comforting place to play – and even sleep when all the fun get too tiring!

Fabric mats and PVC are better suited to older toddlers – there are made of tougher material, similar to carpet, and don’t crumple up and move around the floor when being used by an active and adventurous child. Fabric mats are really robust and more than capable of standing up to the wear and tear they subjected to by lively boys and girls.

Double-sided silicone play mats are a fairly new concept and they are very robust, despite being rollable and flexible. They are also environmentally friendly and some even have soft protruding dots on the surface which allow Lego or Duplo pieces to be connected to the mat. This is a great idea for young kids who are at the stage of wanting to build things.

Prices vary for play mats, depending on quality, size, material and design. A cheap foam play mat with a basic design will cost around £10 but you can expect to pay around £20 to £40 for a deluxe play mat, complete with intricate design and touch and sound features.

Striking a Balance between Fun and Child Development

A play mat will most definitely be a great source of healthy fun – but, when your little one gets to the infant and toddler stage, these play things provide wonderful opportunities for personal mental development. Yes, a child should have plenty of fun on a play mat but mum and dad can take the opportunity to sit down beside their little one regularly to organise little play sessions that will nurture and assist creative, cognitive and physical development.

Baby gyms and mats come in all shapes and sizes, and they also have a variety of features so spend some time working out which features would be suitable for your little one – for example, would an alphabet and letters mat but a good choice? This is great for developing the learning skills of kids of a certain age – and would clearly not be a useful choice for a baby.

Maybe a mat with a farmyard scene or a town or village setting with streets and buildings would be a good choice? These are ideal for infants and toddlers who want to push vehicles around the roads.

Interlocking mats with ‘jigsaw’ tiles are another excellent idea and allow children to use the mat as a large play area or dismantle it into pieces which then be built into 3D play things such as cars, boats and trains. Many of these interlocking mats – sometimes called puzzle mats – are machine washable which is a useful feature if you have a particularly messy child in your home!

A Themed Mat Will Let Your Child’s Imagination Run Wild!

Some play mats will focus more on comfort while others are geared more towards entertainment and education through shapes, music and noises. A popular choice in the UK is the type of mat the features detachable plush toys – infants and older babies really love these as they can take their favourite detachable cuddly toy wherever they go in the house. Almost all of the best baby play mats and gyms now have detachable plush toys.

There are dozens of themed play mats to choose from so it’s not hard to find one that’s ideal for your child – popular themes include space travel, the farm yard, Disney characters, animals in the zoo or jungle, dinosaur world, and an underwater adventure land with fish and sea creatures.

Most mats are themed in lovely bright colours to capture your child’s attention and stimulate their visual senses – the main colours you’ll find on these eye-catching mats are blue, white, green, yellow, red, orange, purple and pink.

A play mat should not be used as excuse to take long breaks from your child’s company. Yes, a mat can give parents a hard-earned break after tending baby for a period of time, but a baby or infant will become bored if left for too long along alone on a mat. Babies need to interact with everything around them – and that includes mum and dad, and also sisters and brothers.

The place for a baby mat or gym is always on the floor – so don’t consider for a second putting one anywhere else such as on a table or top of a bed. The safety risks of doing so don’t bear thinking about.

It almost goes without saying, but you should never leave a baby or infant alone on a play mat – they need to be supervised at all times. It’s fine for mum or dad to get on with a few simple chores or other activities in close range of their baby, but your baby should be in your sight at all times.

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for – so it’s probably wise to buy the best mat you can afford – after all, these mats are more than just play things … they are also great for encouraging the mental and physical development of your little son or daughter.