Manhattan Toy Winkel

It is odd to rate the 'educational' value of this toy. It won't make your kid do calculus. But our baby started playing with this toy when he was about 12 weeks old. He was born 6 weeks premature, but because of his interest in this toy he developed two-handed play (an early developmental milestone) well ahead of time.

I could see that perhaps an older child might not find this engaging enough, but our son still enjoys playing with it and chewing on it now as a 7 month old.

PROS:

The slim flexible bands make this much easier for early grasping than many things sold as rattles, which are too fat for young, small, clumsy hands to grasp.

The rattle sound is not so loud as to be deafening or obnoxious

It can be refrigerated for teething. Again, the slim rings fit into his small mouth so much better than many of the large bulky teethers. He has a teether that he cant yet grasp and manipulate for himself because it is so bulky. Plus, the many loops mean that there are different things to chew on no matter which way he turns it, there isn't just one "right" way to hold it.

The loops also make it convenient to take with you. We hook one strap of our stroller brace through a loop and he can merrily play with it while we walk without fear that it will fall onto the ground. We receive lots of funny comments about how it looks like he is "driving" his stroller by grasping the ball like a steering wheel.

Fun, engaging and helpful for developing two-handed play. Probably most appropriate as a toy for babies 3-5 months and as a teether for older children.

We got this toy as a gift from our friends and our baby loves it. He is 3 months old and finds this toy really easy to grab. The rings are squishy and thin so there are many places to grab hold. He can put his entire hand through it and use his arm to get it to his mouth. It's also large enough for him to grab it with both hands easily. He'll also shake it. It's definitely his favorite toy and it keeps his attention.

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I was really excited to get this toy for my daughter, because all the reviews were so positive. The toy got dirty so I washed it in some soapy water, this is when it bled green dye all over the wash cloth. If it's bleeding dye from a little soap, who knows how much dye my little one could ingest when she's chewing on it... Needless to say I threw it out.

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I don't know about PVC or plastic coating or anything like that, but I CAN tell you that it is worth the price if you're planning on having more than one kid. We opened up our Winkel in Jan 2004 for our oldest son...our daughter used it throughout 05 and early 06...and our youngest son has had his hands and mouth on it for two months now. It hasn't cracked, faded, etc despite months...YEARS...of use! I get this toy for everyone having their first child as all three of mine have loved it.

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I found out about this toy on a parenting forum where some mom wrote "I melted my son's Winkel!" after a few chuckles about the obvious "what that *could* have been referring to" I went and looked at the product itself and after hearing other parent comments about how much their little person enjoyed this I decided I would get one for our little boy too.

First of all: I guess you probably shouldn't put this toy in a sanitizer (like you would use to sanitize baby bottles) that's how the forum mom melted her son's toy. So put that on the top of the "don't do this" list.

This is plastic and it is made in China but purports to be PVC and phaelate free. When it arrived it was very clean. I washed it off with a little soap and water to be safe but I am not too concerned about him sticking it in his mouth.

I gave this to our son when he was ten weeks old. He was able to grab it and hold it and eventually started passing it from one hand to the other and holding it up, sticking it in his mouth, playing with it with his feet. I think it makes a good first toy. It's light enough and soft/flexible enough he can't really hurt himself with it.

It's also really cute and reminds geek daddy a little bit of an atom or molecule.

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