Have you ever wondered how soon can babies be exposed to books? Read on to find out more.

During the first few months of life, your child loves to hear your voice so you can read almost anything especially books with a sing-song or rhyming text or just talk to them and have little conversations with them.

As your baby becomes more interested in looking at things, choose books with simple pictures against solid backgrounds and gradually expose them to the vocabulary that matches the illustrations.

When your baby starts to grab, you can read vinyl or cloth books that have faces, bright colors, and shapes and as they start responding to what’s inside the books, make sure to add board books with familiar pictures of objects like toys or things around the house.

As your baby reaches more milestones and starts to do things like sit up in the bathtub or eat finger foods, find simple stories about daily routines like bedtime or bath time that they can relate to.

When your child starts talking, choose books that let babies repeat simple words or phrases that they can learn and read with together with you. Babies love nursery rhymes and songs!

Books with mirrors and different textures (crinkly, soft, scratchy) are also great for this age group so are pop-up books or ones with flaps that open up for a surprise.

Board books make page turning easier for infants, and cloth books are great as they can go literally everywhere, even in the bath tub!

One of the best ways to make sure that your little one grows up to be a reader is to have books around your house that they can easily access, make sure some books are mixed up amongst their toys so that when your baby is old enough to crawl over to the toy basket, a book will always be available for the them to choose.

Which was your baby’s favourite book? Write a book recommendation below for new mums!

Till next time…