Baby activity gyms, especially a Montessori-aligned baby gym, stimulate your baby’s interest and senses, safely promoting cognitive development, hand-eye coordination, and independence while providing hours of engagement and entertainment.
In addition, with mobile sensory accessories available within your baby’s reach, play gyms help strengthen your baby’s neck, back, arms, and shoulders for overall physical and mental progress and growth.
At the same time, however, conventional baby play gyms are often made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – a hard plastic that can contain synthetic and potentially toxic materials, or have harmful paints, glues, and dyes used in their construction. Harmful chemicals can include urea-formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and ethylene glycol.
So, the best baby play gyms to choose, to protect our babies and the earth, are the more sustainable, non-toxic play gyms made out of natural materials. Luckily, wooden baby play gyms are becoming more commonplace, with small businesses offering more and more adorable options to choose from.
Best Wooden Baby Play Gyms
Whether you’re shopping for your new baby, or to find the perfect gift for a friend, the following sustainable and eco-friendly baby play gyms are the best options on the market.
Lovevery Play Gym
This award-winning baby play gym by Lovevery supports your little one from birth to toddlerhood with stage-based accessories, activities, and a specialist-developed guide.
There are five developmental zones and space for four detachable baby toys.
Accessories include a cotton ball, teether, wooden batting ring and teething rings, four card sets, and a play space cover transforming the mat into an exciting toddler fort!
All materials are baby safe, including 100% organic cotton, silicon, and sustainably and ethically sourced Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood, all delivered via carbon-neutral shipping.
Itzy Ritzy Wooden Activity Gym with Toys
Discover this comfortable, cozy, engaging play space with its natural cotton quilted rainbow baby play mat.
Designed by Itzy Ritzy, it’s created for use from the newborn baby stage onwards, and will look great in your living room or nursery.
The simplistic frame comes with three charming and removable soft toys – a sweet koala, bunny, and panda. Each includes a graspable rattling, jingling, or teething toy to keep your little one intrigued, entertained, and stimulated.
And as with all the best baby gyms, the natural wooden frame is stable, safe, and non-toxic.
PlanToys Baby Gym
This charming wooden baby gym from eco-toy maker PlanToys offers two suspended, detachable activity toys – a rattle and a grasping toy.
The sturdy and simple design is safe and stable. The gym is made from sustainable rubberwood trees and thermally reprocessed excess sawdust chips. Then, the structure is completed with non-toxic water dyes and non-formaldehyde E0 glue.
PlanToys supports reforestation and traditional culture while helping to sustain local Thai communities, economies, and the environment.
Aden & Anais Baby Activity Gym
This delightful eco-friendly, machine washable baby gym from Aden & Anais incorporates five developmental skill-building play areas.
Its “starry safari” theme inspires and engages, encouraging imaginary play, learning, and growth through targeted gross and fine motor skills, and cognitive, sensory, and social-emotional interactions.
The gym is handcrafted using eco-friendly birchwood arches and non-toxic materials, including 100% cotton muslin, satin, and velboa (faux fur) accessories.
Poppyseed Play Wooden Baby Gym
A beautifully minimalist design adding practical elegance to any nursery theme, this wooden baby activity gym from Poppyseed Play will appeal to both parents and babies.
It features four dangling toys – two ropes, a hanging dowel, and two wooden knobs for hours of age-appropriate stimulation and entertainment.
Ideal for newborns to one-year-olds, the gym is made from unpainted pine wood, with natural and colored or black/white/natural painted shapes, beads, and a handy cotton storage bag.
Finn + Emma Play Gym
This eco-friendly, non-toxic play gym from Finn & Emma features a 100% lacquer and stain-free birch wood frame that’s adjustable as your baby grows.
The untreated wooden teethers are finished with vegetable seed wax, and delightful Peruvian and Indian-made GOTS-certified organic cotton knitted woodland toys are included.
All toys and teethers on this wood baby play gym are removable for individual play. And all Finn + Emma “stroller toys” are compatible with the activity gym’s frame for increased novelty and engagement.
Creative Games Designs Personalized Baby Gym
Handmade from organic alder wood and other luxurious eco-friendly materials, this high-quality handmade gym from CreativeGamesDesigns offers a fun space to move and explore with an enchanting mobile your little one will love.
Easy to set up, dismantle, and put away for easy storage – it’s ideal for those living in small spaces.
The simplistic design is appealing in any living space, and the sturdy frame includes three enchanting removable and interchangeable animal toys – a bear, a lion, and an elephant.
The baby gym can even be personalized with your child’s name or another bespoke engraving of your choice.
Sonosomno Baby Gym Wooden Arch
Your baby will enjoy this beautifully handcrafted solid oak hardwood baby gym frame from Sonosonmo , which can be customised with their favorite toys.
And you will love the stylish and minimalist, yet robust design with a natural, non-toxic oil finish.
It’s lightweight, safe, and sustainable, with adjustable wooden legs for stable use on any surface, with ample space for hanging or attaching toys, with or without clips. It’s also easily foldable for flat storage, even with one hand.
Liewood Wooden Baby Gym
This simple natural wooden baby gym from Liewood offers a chic, minimalist, Scandinavian look, ideal for every modern nursery or other living space, with three hanging space-themed accessories – an adorable planet, rocket, and spaceship.
The robust structure and toys are eco-friendly and safe for babies and the environment, providing hours of stimulating fun, learning, and exercise.
Made of sustainable beechwood, you can pick the theme to suit you and your child. Not into the space theme? Choose safari animals, dinosaurs or forest creatures instead!
Nobodinoz Wooden Activity Arch
Made from sustainably sourced beech and plywood, this activity arch from Nobodinoz relies on baby-safe materials, refined design, and three soft, safe, and pretty toys for a contemporary and convenient addition to your baby’s space and routine.
The frame offers two positions – low for use above a playmat and high – ideal for overhanging baby furniture such as bouncers. In addition, you can adjust the height and length of the activity toys as required.
Quax Teepee Activity Arch
One of these beautifully simple yet stylish birch and poplar wood play gyms is suitable for babies from birth and is an appealing addition to your nursery theme and color scheme.
The activity arch comes with five soft and delightful wildlife-themed toys, including an elephant, an antelope, and a lemur.
Your curious and growing baby will love this safe, eco-friendly, engaging gym with its robust and stable teepee design.
Aspen & Maple Activity Gym
This gorgeous handmade frame from non-treated, solid, FSC-certified wood features various enticing hanging toys for stimulating fun and learning.
Thoughtfully designed by Aspen & Maple, the engaging rings and balls are handcrafted, the star and bear hand crocheted and knitted from 100% cotton, and the beads are finished with baby-safe non-toxic paint.
The sturdy play gym is quick to set up and easily folds away for convenient storage and transport.
Why Choose a Sustainable Baby Gym?
Choosing a more sustainable wooden baby play gym provides a beautiful addition to a baby’s nursery, with materials yielding a soothing natural color that’s inviting yet not overstimulating.
In addition, wooden baby gyms are:
- Paint, glue, and toxin-free: An unpainted, natural wood baby activity gym is gorgeous and less harmful to your baby’s health.
- Gender neutral: Lovely woods and wood finishes offer a gender-neutral color profile to match any nursery color scheme and theme.
- Durability and value: In general, wooden play gyms are more robust than plastic options, allowing the gym’s use across multiple children and generations.
Relying on more sustainable, biodegradable, organic materials also means less plastic in the world, helping to protect and preserve our precious natural resources.
What to Look for in a Non-Toxic Baby Gym?
For a sustainable, non-toxic, and more eco-friendly baby gym, look for products made using:
- Unpainted (or water-based painted) wood and natural rubber from rubber trees.
- Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified organic wool or cotton cushion covering and stuffing.
- Solid hardwood or formaldehyde-free plywood and glue.
- Wood is sanded, has a smooth finish, and is unstained or finished with beeswax or organic food-grade oils.
The best non-toxic activity gym products will offer a safe, sustainable, and non-toxic alternative to plastics. Look for reputable brands that can provide certification or other proof that their gym is free from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and heavy metals.
Beyond offering baby valuable development aids and stimulation, eco-friendly baby gyms are designed and made with the least harm to the environment in mind, using sustainable materials such as wood, organic bamboo and cotton, recycled plastic, and recyclable or biodegradable zero-waste packaging,
They are also created with the least harm to your little one, avoiding toxic or harmful chemicals, including BPA, lead, and phthalates.
In addition, these products employ ethical sourcing and fair-trade practices, often supporting small and micro businesses and local economies and helping to preserve traditional crafts and culture.