Infant Visual Stimulation - make your own part 3

A tight fist. Anya’s left hand is often closed. How can she explore if she won’t open it up. Pablo improvised some garter wrapped in her palms to open up her hands. Encouraging her to feel different textures should open up her curiosity. Homework is to find rough textures like sand paper and bathroom spiked no-slip plastic mats.


Oma found plastic brush. Feels rough. Opened up Anya's hand. She pauses to feel it.


A cookie can makes loud clanking noise when she bangs on it. That's a sticker at the bottom part of the can. I thought it added more color and contrast.


It's also a good storage box for the La Maze magnetic stackable critters. Teehee.


Got this large powdered milk can from my sisinlaw. Anya liked it as a drum. Liked it even better when the magnetic critters started hanging on to it. Swipe away Anya!


Bottled water... fill it with silver glitters... add food coloring (or in this case, mouthwash and dishwashing soap)... shake, twist, twirl... see the lights reflect on the glitters...see her mesmerized by the sight. Got this idea from our Kindermusik teacher :)

Homemade visual and sound toys can be better for Anya. Tin cans, water bottles spoons and silverware offer more stimulation than manufactured toys. Improvise. Be creative.

Infant Visual Stimulation - make your own part 2

After reading Glenn Doman books, I decided that I could make my own black and white boards for Anya. I used black board paper to cut out shapes. That's my foot and my hand. I bought those giant photo albums that can be your scrap book too. And I didn't need glue, I just peeled off the clear plastic and the board was sticky enough. The plastic helps in preserving the black cut-outs too.


Eventually I found it easier to do some layouts in the computer. I had them printed on photo paper and stuck them in those albums too. I think I should use plain white board paper though. The light reflects against the plastic cover and the glare isn't helping her vision.


Some things you just can't do and have to buy. I found this irresistibly cute battery operated light decoration in Ikea. Ducks and eggs! And the light changes color! Anya likes it, but I think I like it more. I find it very relaxing to look at.

Infant Visual Stimulation - make your own part 1

Black and White

Red and White

High contrast colors and toys are great visual stimulation for babies. The vision is the last to develop in infants because inside the womb it was pitch black except for those times when we put the flashlight close to my tummy. We did that flashlight to get A to turn around when she was still in breech position.


We found this toy rattle and bought it for A for her 1st month birthday. We named this soft rattle Pupu. Not very creative but that's what A seemed to be doing all the time -- poopoo!

Inspired to find more infant visual stimulation toys I went around looking for a mobile with these colors. I couldn't find any locally so I ended up making my own blocks. The photos are the personalized touch. And of course, letters forming her name. These blocks were placed randomly beside her crib because before 1 month, she was looking mostly to her side. Eventually she was able to look up at the mobile.


Using the mobile given to us during a baby shower, I placed the blocks I made using red ribbons. I simply tied it to where the other mobile toys were. The mobile turns too! Manual though. And it lasts for 3 minutes so I have to wind it up again.

It was good visual stimulation for A, I think. Eventually she started looking up. Sometimes I would put a flashlight beside her and let the light point to the black and white images. She really looked up then.

The downside is these are just printed on photo paper and I assembled them so they're not very durable. But they're very light weight so if they did fall on A it wouldn't hurt. Plus, I couldn't but heavy weight blocks anyway.


This is A's daddy's crib when he was a baby. It's that old. A's grandma also used the same crib when she was a baby. It's really that old!!! Call it a family heirloom. We used it for a while but eventually we got a Graco Pack & Play when she was able to move around more.


A had the same color theme for her baptism. These chocolate cupcakes had white frosting with red sprinkles and mini-oreos. My sister in law helped me prepare these.

And even her cake was black white and red. We got a plain white cake and did the decorations ourselves. We used Hershey's chocolates chopped up, mini Oreos and red Gummy Bears!