aibu to not buy a babygym and hang "interesting" things over him instead?

[honeytea]

Ds is a month old and so far we haven't bought a babygym.

We have so much baby stuff and we live in a flat so use of space is important.

I have started hanging bring scarves from the door handle whilst I have a shower and ds seems happy to look at them. We have toys hanging from his pram that he can reach for as he gets bigger.

Is a babygym an essential purchase? We can afford to buy one it is just I am reluctant to buy stuff that will get used for a couple of months and take up loads of space.

Am I stunting ds's development, should we go to Ikea this afternoon and by a babygym?

The pram sounds like a good alternative, or get a mobile for over the cot instead. You don't need a babygym, most babies are just as happy on a blanket on the floor.

YANBU

a baby gym is just hanging stuff anyway. You're already hanging stuff. Job done.

No don't bother, but definitely don't do what I did. I caught my cat having a good lick at my supposedly good idea of a homemade pasta mobile.

No they're not essential at all. IME babies just as much preferred stuff that doesn't belong to them. You can find all sorts of interesting but safe objects from around your house that he will like looking at and touching rather than buying something you haven't got room for.
Although, I bet if you look on freecycle or similar you will find one - they tend to fold flat enough to stick them behind the sofa when not in use so they don't really take up that much room, until baby is lying on it.

One month old babies like black and white pictures and patterns. They don't really play with baby gyms until they're about 3 months ime.

Have a look into treasure baskets then just hang that sort of stuff from the door handle. An emergency blanket is great too and folds up small.

They are definitely one of the smaller items of babykit (wait till/if you get a jumperoo!) Not sure if I'd like having ther baby lying under a doorknob. I like the gym partly as the hoop bits reminded me which part of the floor he was lying on. And there are usually crunchy bits on the mat for him to poke at when on his tummy.

My lb got one and didn't like it! He's now in a cupboard. He has a jumperoo which he loves though. Although he's 7 months.

They aren't essential, especially if you are creative with what you already have. Having said that we had one for our DD and then she had a few other little toys and books and that's basically all she had for her first 6 months. So I would use one again if I have another as I think they are a good bit of kit.

amanda I know he didn't like his baby gym but was that really a reason to put him in the cupboard?

Actually I found a baby gym useful in that it didn't take up much room. Well it did whilst in use but it folded completely flat in half and could be slid under the soda

Don't think it's essential though both mind would lay under it for shoos 40 minutes so I could Mn tidy up

I didn't realise they folded down, that makes a big difference.

40 mins to do essential things would be amazing! I might get the chance to get dressed!

I borrowed a baby swing off a friend for ds, now that was a good bit of kit!

I got a mat type one from a charity shop and then just took it back when not needed.

Absolutely not essential, and actually the fact that anyone even asks is rather a sad indictment of our times in a way- that we live in such a commercialised world that new parents can feel guilt tripped if they don't own certain bits of kit. A month old baby needs things to look at- black and white is good at that age, plus lots of soothing talking. A little older and they need things to pull, kick, make noises with etc. but you can do that with all sorts of things, you don't need to buy large pieces of brightly coloured plastic for it

Shop-bought baby gyms cannot be essential to development but probably many parents find them to be an ideal purpose-built item, designed to safety regulations etc. As you say, hanging toys can give a baby something to gaze at, then later reach out to swipe at, then grasp etc. However, there are many ways to provide this without a commercially produced baby gym, as you have demonstated. There are some common sense safety pointers that can be copied from commerical baby gyms, but there's no reason that parents can't get creative with their own ideas!

Here are some ideas:

A shiny foil blanket (emergency blankets, sometimes in pound shops). Babies can enjoy laying on these and might enjoy the cause and effect of their movement creating a crinkling sound.

Baby gyms avoid long strings because of the strangulation hazard and for the same reason, manufacturers advise never draping toys across a cot. However, for one-on-one constantly supervised play, many objects could be strung across two solid uprights and these could be changed to keep it interesting and returned to as your baby develops:

• A beach ball or small inflatable can be great to kick at.
• Different textured/colured fabric (scarves) or ribbons.
• Household objects. (A plastic spoon, one of those mesh sponge bath whatsits, kitchen roll cardboard tube, scrunched up paper, an oven glove...)

You can make things to hang too, such as drawing simple shapes with a black marker on white card. Babies like high contrast black/white/red and are drawn to face shapes.

Many of the toys babies have can be hung up too. You can buy packets of plastic loops for baby toys, but under direct supervision, string would work. Obviously you would remove the string before allowing your baby free play with the toy.

Not all these ideas would be safe without direct supervision and babies can get over stimulated too, but there are plenty of ideas to try without buying a baby gym.

I don't think a baby gym is a large piece of brightly coloured platic - they are fabric, no?
I think there are some great ideas on here for supervised play, but it does smack of trying too hard to think you always need to be doing this, and there is something wrong if you (or your relatives) fancy buying a nice soft mat with toys for your baby.
I wasn't joking about the visibility of the hoops either - if you have an older child it is very useful as a visual reminder (caught my older boy jumping over the baby when he was lying on a blanket once).

amandalf hope you've let him out of the cupboard now!

Just don't make one out of paintbrushes and gaffer tape.

Or if you do, don't take any photos. My eldest child got quite a painful stitch from laughing so much.

Well I personally found that a baby gym entertained both mine for ages and ages and I ebayed it when finished with it so not a huge cost overall. Even when dd was a baby and ds was 2, he though it was fun to lay under it with her. Both loved it and bashed the toys around for ages.

just realised what I wrote. My son isn't in the cupboard for not liking his baby gym!

So why is he in the cupbaord then, if not for not liking his gym?