Spring rain and covid has us all staying inside. If your baby is like mine she throws everything around and puts everything into her mouth.

Here are 4 activities that are safe for babies who like to eat everything:

Dry Pasta Sensory Bin

We use large pasta like fusilli so it’s less of a choking hazard. I can usually catch her in the motion of putting the pasta into her mouth. Any shallow bin or tray will do. In our case we re-use Maya’s newborn bath tub. I place this over our laminate floors so it’s easier to clean. I dump the pasta – only two cups worth – and give her a cup. 

Box of Old Clothes

Maya loves to empty anything. And she is fascinated by clothes. I typically put the clothes that she has outgrown into an empty diaper box until it’s full to donate. One afternoon I had a good ten minutes of quiet time and found her emptying the box. This proved to be a great weekly activity! If your baby is more interested in toys or even packaging you could put empty cracker boxes or plastic bottles in this box instead.

Flour Finger Paint

Using equal parts flour and water mix with food colouring to create your ‘paint’ – I found one cup to be a lot so I used 1/4 cup of each. I only made one colour though so if you wanted to make a few shades then use one cup measurements. For this activity I used a large white poster paper over our laminate floor for easy clean up.

Ball Toss

This is the simplest activity of all. Fortunately Maya likes to throw and catch balls. Some babies might not have their motor skills as developed yet so the ball size and type really varies here. Maya likes to toss a small 3” foam ball or a 10” light bouncy ball. We kept going back and forth for a whopping 20 minutes! This activity requires your participation though – not just supervision.

I’m sure there are more activities out there but these are the ones that Maya has taken a liking to! They are easy to set up and require almost no extra materials.