Sensory play for 14 month old

[ScottishBeth]

I am looking for ideas for sensory play I can do at home for a 14 month old. We have done things like playing with a bowl of water, some lentils in a tray, but I'm sure there are others.

Also, how do you minimise mess when doing things like this? Put them in their high chair? A puddle suit? It's very confusing. LO is adopted so this is all new to us.

It doesn’t all have to be messy.
Baby-led weaning is a type of sensory play. Let your LO feed themselves and keep giving them a range of flavours, shapes, smells and textures.
Personally I don’t think it’s a good idea to put LO in their high chair for other types of sensory play as it sends them confusing messages about whether it’s dinner time or not! I made this mistake in the early days and dd would try to put stuff her mouth.
If it’s messy, either wait until it’s a nice day and do it outside, or play in the bath.
There are loads of other things which don’t involve mess:
Playing with a torch and fairy lights in a dark room
Banging on upturned saucepans
Scrunching up tissue paper, tin foil, bubble wrap etc…
Kinetic sand
Play foam

Some of the messier ones:
Make up some thick porridge (use water so you don’t waste milk) and add food colouring.
Shaving foam
Rainbow spaghetti

Paint in a ziplock bag is a good way for them to paint without it being too messy. I would put a piece of paper in and a few blobs of paint then close the bag and they can push it around

Fill a bowl with jelly, little toys throughout. Once its set let them treasure hunt for the toys then wash them in soapy water. Mine loved that.

I have to admit - we don't really do any of this type of play. You've got me wondering whether I should! We tend to do cleaner activities like books, baby puzzles, naming things, push along toys and role play games with teddies. We ask go out to the park a lot and on various trips out eg supermarket, garden centre. Congratulations on your adoption - how long has your child been with you?

Do you have a Tuff Tray? They are good at helping to contain the mess and there are loads of ideas if you Google Tuff Tray play, I steal loads of ideas from there.

Sensory bottles (potions) are fun for when things can't get too messy- like car journeys, lucozade bottles are the best for making them as they are smooth with a very solid lid (that you can tape or superglue shut if your LO is strong).
Fill them with things that are fun to watch move around but not so good to touch, like oil and water, especially with a bit of food colouring as it only combines with the water.
Water and glitter and beads
Water and jelly
Jellibaff and pebbles
Moon sand and water
Food coloured water with small toys
These are also fun to play with in the dark with torches to light up the colours.
Dry ones, or only half filled are fun for sounds as they make good shakers, buttons, pennies, dry pasta, beans. They are all more fun with more than one thing in- so I would always add glitter or one of their plastic toys.

Mine liked searching for stuff so I would get one of the really big lucozade bottles, 2/3rds water with a coloured food dye (not yellow),1/3rd vegetable oil and then something to get in the way like some scrunched up tin foil and then a lot of tiny toys like lego men, or playmobile people and accessories so a tiny suitcase, barbie shoes, a button, a plastic animal, 5p coins etc and then they would try and find all the things. When they got a bit bigger I would put a dab of washing up liquid in too- it makes the water all cloudy so you can only find things if they bump up on the edge.

My DC loved sensory play. You can make or buy boards with locks, zips etc that are brilliant. My son's favourite was a repurposed cardboard box. A square with the lid bit cut off. I threaded some different fabrics through, a ribbon, bit of bungee cord, wool etc. I knotted both ends and made it so that each bit of material was about twice the length of the box. He sat for hours pulling them from one side to the other.

Just Also I dyed rice different colours and put it in a tray. Then put in diggers, or play mobil people or different toys to bury and find. He played with that until 3 or 4 by which point I hid letters and numbers or different bits of puzzle for him to dig out and put together. Also good for around 14 months: orbeez in a plastic bag, an A4 page, a few blobs of paint, a layer of bubble wrap, tape securely (fun and we have several lovely pictures), a box of fabric scraps, sensory balls, a basket of random stuff like pastry brush, slotted spoon, measuring cups etc. Anything with texture that is safe works.

Hi @ScottishBeth Thanks for posting. We have an article on the best sensory toys for babies that you may find useful. There are ideas in there that are great for older babies and toddlers too. Many of the products were suggested by Mumsnet users. I hope you find it useful :0)

Cornflour and water.

Sand tray.

Shaving foam.

Paint in spray water bottles in the garden

Bath crayons.

But also things like swings and slides, big blocks, tunnels, gym balls etc are all sensory play.