The Infantino 3 in 1 Sensory Discovery Car Walker is a brilliant toy that grows with your child, and is definitely one of baby N’s favourites at the moment (age 7 months). It’s really well designed and has lots of different features to keep her busy. We’ve been using it indoors and outdoors and she plays with it every day.
The car can be used as a sit down activity toy from 6 months, with toys to explore on either side that can easily be reached by a sitting baby. One side has a ball, which you drop into a track and it pops out of the side of the car (when you leave the little door open).
N loves balls, as I think most babies of this age do, so it makes her really happy to crawl around after the ball or pick it up once it pops out of the side of the car. From a practical level, I really like how when you close the door, the ball stays locked in the car. We lose so many of these balls, so that small thing is a big help in keeping it secure so that it’s always there when she wants to play.
(The blue ball in the picture comes with the car, the green is an extra one from another toy which also fits in the ball run so we sometimes add extras)
The other side of the car has a shape sorter with three chunky shapes that can be pulled out and placed back in their correct places.
After a while playing with the car, N realised she could pull these out so she tends to grab one and chew on it – the red square is her favourite! They are very chunky and easy to hold, especially with the handles in the middle, and are big enough that I don’t worry about her putting them in her mouth. Playing with these is a simple way to introduce colour and shapes vocabulary to her. They learn and absorb so much at this age, although they may not be able to tell you, so I feel there’s no harm in starting early with introducing these things!
The front of the car has eyes that roll from open to closed, and a big nose that lights up and makes beep beep sounds, and the walker plays 4 different melodies. The on/off switch is at the front near to the face, which has a volume control and is very simple. Next to it there are coloured and textured buttons which baby can press to activate the sounds.
The batteries already came included with this toy, which is always appreciated!
Once your baby is working on pulling up to stand, then the car is perfect for that too. You can lock the wheels (just turn the red part in the middle of the wheel) meaning it stays more stable, which is a really valuable feature especially when they’re first starting out with pulling up and standing. This is recommended from around 9 months, but each baby is different and N at the moment loves to stand, pull herself up and cruise around so using the discovery car at this stage has really worked with her current interests.
N started to crawl at 6 and a half months, and the next day once she had mastered that she became obsessed with pulling up and standing so all of a sudden I had to start looking for new toys to suit her development, as she quickly seemed to outgrow a lot of her old ones at that stage, and this walker really fit the bill for this new more active stage as she just loves being upright.
Once your baby is more confident and is ready to walk behind the car pushing it, you can unlock the wheels and change the handle position to transition this into a walker. It’s pretty quick and easy to change the handle position (and putting the toy together in the first place was very quick and easy, much to my husband’s happiness as I asked him to do it, and some of the other toys I’ve given him to put together recently have been much more long winded!)
We did try N on this setting to see how she got on, but she felt more confident in the middle stage with the push handle in the flat position, so that’s how we’ve kept it for now and I’ll probably adjust it again in a couple of months.
If they’re in between stages, you can actually just unlock the wheels but keep the handle down, and then they can push it along a bit but feel slightly more supported, and N has been doing that in the house. I really like how wide the base is with this car walker, so it really is very stable and sturdy if you have a young baby who’s wanting to walk along with support.
You can see N playing with the car walker and her first time pushing it along in this quick video.
The Infantino 3 in 1 Sensory Discovery Car is available from many retailers including Argos (currently on offer at 34.99 at the time of posting, which is a really good price!)
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
This looks brilliant X
Oh wow, it makes ME want to be a baby again, I really want that car!
wow this is amazing article & good work keep it up.