19 Baby Coloring Pages (Free Printable PDFs)

Three kinds of baby pages

Human babies. On the crib page, a little one has just pulled up to stand under a mobile with a moon and stars. Letter blocks, a ball and a teddy bear sit on the floor. The baby with a teddy sits on a round rug and hugs a soft bear, with big padded pajama feet pointing right at you. Both have round faces and few tiny parts.

Baby animals. These make up most of the set. Around the farm and yard, there is a chick still wearing its eggshell as a hat, a duckling holding a giant leaf in the rain and a bunny gripping a dandelion. Wild babies include an elephant calf at a water hole, a giraffe with a tiny bird on its back and a fluffy penguin chick on the ice. The baby animals page packs nine babies into one farm scene, and our animal coloring pages have the grown ups.

Storybook babies. A few babies come straight from make believe. A baby dragon sits beside its broken shell, a baby unicorn rests in a meadow, and a tiny baby mermaid waves from an open seashell.

Baby shower pages. The shower page is a party scene. A banner spells out Baby Shower, a rubber duck sits on a two tier cake, and a striped carriage holds a little bear. Gifts with big bows wait on the floor.

Which baby coloring pages suit your child

These pages are made for older kids and party guests, not for the baby in the house. Here is a quick guide by age.

• Ages 2 to 4: Try the chick or the baby dinosaur. Each one has one huge shape and thick lines.
• Ages 3 to 6: Most of the animals fit here. The baby fox and the baby bear sit still and fill the sheet.
• Ages 5 to 9: The baby animals page has nine small friends to tell apart, so it takes longer.
• Ages 5 and up: The shower page is rated medium. Teens and grown ups at a party can take their time on the cake and the carriage.

Soft colors for little ones

Baby pages look best with a light hand. Press gently and let some paper show, and even a plain crayon starts to look soft. Pale pink, mint green, butter yellow and sky blue all suit pajamas, blankets and rugs. Nobody needs to follow the old pink and blue rule, so ask your child what the baby would like to wear.

Round shapes look chubby when you add a little shade. Color a bear cub tan, then go over the outer edge with a darker brown and leave the middle light. The lion cub has soft spots on its back, so pick a color only one step darker than its coat. For the panda, fill in the black patches last, since black can smear onto white. Use the side of a gray crayon on the penguin chick to get a fuzzy look.

Almost every baby here has big shiny eyes with small white spots in them. Color around those spots and the face will look awake. Human babies can match your own family. Choose a skin tone first, then add a touch of pink to the cheeks.

Printing one page or a big stack

Press PDF on a card when you want one drawing, then print as many copies as you need. Press Download all at the top of this page to get the whole set in one file, with each drawing on its own sheet. The pages fit US Letter paper. On A4, pick Fit to page. For a waiting room or a car ride, press Color and let your child fill in a picture on a tablet or phone.

Ideas for a baby shower

Set up a small table with crayons and a stack of pages. Each guest colors one drawing and writes a short wish on the back. After the party, punch holes in the sheets and tie them with ribbon. The new parents now have a small book of wishes from everyone who came.

Kids at a shower can get bored fast, and baby animals give them a quiet job. Let them vote on the silliest cake colors. If the shower has a theme, pick pages to match. Ducks work well, since the shower page has two rubber ducks and the duckling can sit beside it.

Small extras hiding in each drawing

Most of these babies have a little friend or a small surprise close by. A butterfly flutters over the lion cub as it walks through golden grass. A tiny bird rides on the back of the giraffe calf. The bear cub holds up a paw full of blueberries with its tongue poking out, so you can ask your child how the berries taste. On the fox pup page, look for the mushrooms near the den.

Make it a search game before the crayons come out. Name one thing, let your child point to it, then ask them to color that part first. Very young kids often do better with this than with a big blank page and no idea where to start.

Match each baby to its home

These drawings show a lot of different places, which makes them handy for a simple talk about where animals live. The elephant calf stands in a water hole on the savanna, and the penguin chick waits on the ice with two adults and tall icebergs behind it. The panda cub flops over a branch with bamboo and snowy peaks in the back, while the duckling stands on a lily pad in the rain.

Print a few and ask your child to color the ground before anything else. Gold grass, white ice and blue water each set a very different mood. Older kids can write the name of each home along the bottom: savanna, ice, forest or pond.

Keepsakes for the nursery

A colored page makes a sweet, low cost gift for a new baby's room. Ask a big sister, a cousin or a family friend to color the crib page, then put it in a simple frame. The moon and star mobile looks lovely in pale yellow and soft blue. Add the date and the name of the child who made it to the back, so the family can find it years later. Hang it on the wall well out of reach, away from the crib itself.

When a new baby is on the way

A coloring page is an easy way to talk with a big brother or sister about what is coming. Color the crib page together and ask what the baby might wear. Then tape it near the real crib as a gift from the older child. The baby kitten has a rattle and a bottle on its quilt, so it can start a chat about what babies use each day.

In class, baby animals make a good word game. Teach the names as you color: a bear has a cub, an elephant has a calf, and a penguin has a chick. Then ask students to draw the parent next to the baby.

You may use these at home, in class or at a family party for free, and our free use license spells out the rules. Cute drawings of every kind live on our cute coloring pages.

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