The 10 Best Car Seat Toys for Canadian Babies

As many of us know, children can get a bit bored or anxious during long car rides. While the driver has to keep their full attention on the road, their young passengers often need something to make the time go by faster and keep their attention focused on something other than you and your task at hand.

If you want to keep your baby entertained and satisfied during the ride, car seat toys are the ideal solution. The right toy can not only keep your kid occupied but also contribute to their development by teaching them different animals, shapes, and colours, as well as boosting their motor skills.

But if you’ve already started looking for such toys, you’ve probably noticed something somewhat frustrating: most toys look pretty much the same. Of course, under those circumstances, choosing the best option could be a headache.

Let’s go over the crucial considerations when choosing car seat toys and discover the best products on offer to Canadian parents.

Determining Which Car Seat Toys Are Safe

There are numerous car seat rule in Canada pertaining to safety. While those rules don’t cover the use of car seat toys, certain practices can prove quite helpful.

When exploring car seat toys, you want to ensure that any object you leave available to your child during car rides is absolutely safe. In fact, regular toys should never be attached to the car seat unless they’ve been tested for that specific use. And in most cases, toy manufacturers don’t perform crash testing on their products.

A good car seat toy should, first and foremost, be soft. In the event of a collision, any loose object in the car can act as a projectile, so a toy should have no hard surfaces on it whatsoever. Luckily, you don’t need a certificate to check whether the chosen toy is soft enough – all you’ll need to do is feel it yourself. If you can tap yourself on the head with it and not feel irritation or pain, it should be soft enough.

The last sentence isn’t a joke. It’s a quick and easy technique sometimes referred to as the “ouch” test. A toy that looks completely soft may have something hard inside. You can test whether the toy really is as soft as it looks by hitting yourself lightly with it. If the hit makes you say “Ouch,” the toy isn’t suitable for car rides.

The second safety tip has to do with the toy’s composition. Namely, the toy should consist of as few parts as possible. Plus, if there are different parts to the toy, those should be attached to one another firmly. Small toy parts can present a choking hazard and, if they detach, may become a distraction for the driver.

The Best Car Seat Toys to Buy in Canada

Now that you understand what makes a car seat toy safe let’s look at the top 10 products available to you on Amazon Canada.

1. Itzy Ritzy Bitzy Bespoke Jingle Travel Toy – $40.08

The Bitzy Bespoke Jingle travel toy is made almost entirely of cotton, which makes it ideal for infants. The baby can grasp the hexagonal rings on the toy, which, when shaken, produce a gentle jingling. The toy features mild, pastel colours combined to make the Bitzy interesting visually. This compelling trinket will keep your baby engaged yet relatively calm.

2. Kakiblin Hanging Rattles – $67.59

Kakiblin Hanging Rattles are colourful, soft, and made of carefully selected materials. They feature built-in squeakers and represent an enticing distraction both in terms of look and sound. Several shapes are available, including a ball, pyramid, and die. By engaging with these toys, your little one will keep on developing motor skills as well as senses while having plenty of fun.

3. Blppldyci Baby Rattles – $25.99

The Blppldyci Baby Rattles are lively and appealing toys with multiple uses. The set contains four toys in the shape of either a lion, monkey, elephant, and cat. Each vibrant piece enhances colour perception and invites the child to keep playing. The toys have soft chimes that activate whenever a piece is shaken. Additionally, each animal is attached to a teether, giving your kid something to chew on.

4. Saotaeng Spiral Activity Toy – $57.49

The Saotaeng Spiral Activity Toy is, as the name suggests, spiral in shape. This shape allows it to wrap around the handle, leaving the attached parts to dangle above the baby. These additional parts are in the form of a hot air balloon, clouds, an elephant, and spinning balls. Each toy can help develop different skills, including hand-eye coordination and response to auditory stimulation.

5. Hape Garden Friends – $33.81

The multicoloured Hape Garden Friends toy includes a central piece and several hanging, soft pieces in the shape of a sunflower, leaf, bee, and apple. Of course, these will be helpful in visual stimulation, giving the baby a sense of the natural world and getting them used to seeing different colours and shapes. In addition, kids will benefit from engaging multiple senses with this toy.

6. Taggies Mary Meyer Crinkle Me Toy Fox – $10.99

Suitable for kids of all ages, including newborns, the Taggies Mary Meyer Fox is a crinkly toy that will bring tons of joy to the little ones. The toy has a simple design – it’s a square with a fox picture in the front, two ribbons on each side, and a flexible clip. The crinkly sound is especially amusing for kids, keeping them happy and engaged. Another advantage of this toy is that it’s suitable for machine washing.

7. Lurrose Spiral Plush Toys – $45.85

This plush toy set by Lurrose fits easily onto car seats, cribs, and strollers. It’s a great toy for solo play, but it allows parents to participate, too. Made of cotton, the toy is soft and completely safe. It consists of a spiral centrepiece and additional frog, bee, and circle plushy toys. Each piece produces a different sound: the frog contains a metal BB, the bee is a rattle, and the circle has crinkly paper. The sounds combine with the colours and the soft feel of the toy for an exciting multi-sensory experience.

8. Taf Toys Garden Spiral – $51.89

Another spiral-shaped toy, the Taf Toys Garden Spiral, shares similar traits with other toys of this type. For instance, the toy is very handy when it comes to setting it up on the car seat or other baby carriers. The soft toys attached to the central spiral – a bird, rabbit, and strawberry in this case – provide plenty of stimulation with their rich textures and vivid colours. The strawberry has an alternative purpose, too: it doubles as a pacifier holder.

9. SJYIH Multifunctional Elephant Music Toy – $25.99

The SJYIH Elephant Music Toy features three differently coloured buttons that activate different audio recordings, including funny noises, nature sounds, and songs. The toy also includes teething accessories. Full of lively colours, the Elephant Music Toy encourages play, but the toy can also have a pacifying effect. Best of all, this toy doesn’t have to be for the baby to play with alone – parents can participate, too, making for some quality baby-parent time.

10. BabyBibi Crinkly Shapes – $27.99

The BabyBibi Crinkly Shapes are deceivingly simple toys. They feature six shapes (triangle, circle, star, two squares, and pentagon), with each shape in a different colour. In addition, every toy has the name of the colour written on it, as well as images of plants and animals that roughly match the colour. These soft toys also crinkle when squeezed, making the baby learn through play.

Make Sure the Car Seat Is Safe Before Getting Car Seat Toys

If you’ve found just the perfect car toy for your kid, you’re probably eager to give it a try. However, it would be best to keep safety in mind before everything else. To that end, inspect the car seat itself before moving forward.

The first thing to check here is the durability and safety of your car seat. If you’ve chosen one of the best car seats in Canada, you’ve got nothing to worry about. However, if you have a used seat, make sure it has usage instructions and model numbers. Also, check whether the seat has previously been in an accident or otherwise damaged.

After you get the best seat, take care to place it properly in your car. Ideally, place the seat away from airbags, in the centre of the back seat. Also, check the instructions when installing the seat to learn how to secure it correctly.

Lastly, don’t move from one type of seat to the next too soon. There’s no reason to rush here, even if your child has passed the stated age range – keep them in the same seat type for as long as they can fit in comfortably.

Keep Your Little Ones Entertained

You’ve determined that your child’s car seat is perfectly safe and picked the best toys to keep your kid busy on the road.  When it’s time to get all your child’s car accessories from the travel bag, you’ll know that you’ve got a safe and happy journey ahead.

And if you’ve picked some of the toys on our list, chances are your baby – and, by extension, the rest of the family – will have a great time.