• Encourage a family's love of sports with thoughtful baby gifts.baby girl image by Xavier MARCHANT from Fotolia.com
  
  Children often grow up with a love of sports, and encouraging family members and friends help to foster this interest early on. Choose personalized sports gifts for a baby that are developmentally appropriate, seek to meet basic needs or will become treasured favorites for decades to come. Consider favorite family sports and teams when selecting gifts for the newest family addition.
  
  

Clothing Items

• Most major sports teams offer official onesies, pajamas, jerseys and outdoor wear. Choose the family's favorite football, baseball or basketball team, and purchase a few staples in a variety of sizes. Have the baby's name embroidered on to the clothing items at your local tailor. Or, upload a photo from a sporting event to a photo sharing site, and print the photo on to onesies. Personalize the clothing, and send to the new baby. Handmade clothing items include knit sweaters with a ball theme or shirts decorated with fabric paint in a sports theme.
  
  

Room Decor

• Room decor is an ideal place to incorporate a family's love of sports. Use stamps and fabric paints to decorate sheets with sports logos or balls, and then use a stencil to put the baby's name on to a sheet set. Get a ball, photograph or pillow autographed for the baby from a famous sports figure. Use wooden letters to spell the baby's name or the family's favorite team, and paint basketballs or baseballs on the letters. Display them above the baby's crib or on his door.
  
  

Sentimental Favorites

• Bring the baby to a sports game, and get her photo taken while standing next to some of the players. Frame the photo, and hang it on the wall. Alternately, plan to bring the baby to a sports event once per month for the first year of his life. Take photos at each game, and use them to make a special sports-themed scrapbook. Purchase a baseball glove, and write a note to the child on the inside of the glove using permanent marker. Give the baby your first baseball bat, basketball or hockey stick, if you still have it, writing her name on it and enclosing a letter that she can read and understand when she is older.