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How to Choose and Buy a Cot Mobile

How Can Cot Mobiles Help Your Child's Development?

A newborn baby's early vision isn't that sharp but his hearing senses are very good so musical cot mobiles play an important role in stimulating baby's early senses into awakening and uncovering his new world.

A cot mobile is an object designed to appear in baby's field of vision to help baby relax particularly when approaching sleep or waking up. Many parents also use mobiles to help keep baby amused while they change nappies.

Mobiles do not always hang above baby. A new generation of cot soothers has appeared which attach to the side of the cot and provide baby with music and light shows.

Initially when lying down baby will look to the side of her cot or moses basket because her neck muscles are still quite weak, so she won't be watching the mobile above her in the first month. However she will hear the music playing.

By the fourth week your baby will be interested in objects that appear above her. Her eye muscles will still be quite weak so slow gentle movements like those of a cot mobile will encourage her to try and follow the movement of the objects above her. This will help to strengthen her eye muscles and encourage her to learn to focus.

Between three and six months baby will start developing an understanding of spatial awareness – most cot mobiles have creatures of some sort that dangle so baby will start to look closer to see what the objects are and where they are going.

Baby will also be interested in depth perception at this point – how near or far is the object from baby. You may see them reach out to try and touch the object.

At around the five month point, baby may be able to reach out and grab the mobile so make sure it is still a safe distance from baby's hands – otherwise it will need to be removed completely.

By sixth months baby will understand that objects don't just disappear so she will follow a particular path of one object and then observe the other objects in relation to it.

When you have decided which cot mobile you would like to buy we suggest that you visit the new look Mothercare website which has a tremendous choice of mobiles and offers great value for money.

Choosing a Cot Mobile for Your Baby

Some mobiles play music while others don't. Some mobiles are battery operated and others need to be wound up. Whichever cot mobile you select make sure it fits with your lifestyle and is good for your baby.

Cot mobiles in contrasting colours are thought to stimulate baby's senses – colours that are vibrant like black, white and red are thought to be of interest to the young baby. But baby will also be interested in strange hanging creatures that move above them in and out of their field of vision.

Musical mobiles tend to play either classical music or traditional baby lullabies. Some mobiles even have remote controls so you can keep a mobile playing for longer. Just remember that wind up mobiles need to be wound up to play, so you may have to keep going into baby's room to keep the music playing.

Once a baby is sitting up, they may be able to reach their cot mobile so at that point either move it to a safer area in the room or remove it completely.

You can find out more about some of the different cot mobiles that you can buy online on our Types of Cot Mobile page.

To find out more about what to look out for when choosing and buying nursery toys visit our How to Choose and Buy a Baby Toy for Helping to Develop Different Skills section and How to Choose and Buy a Baby Toy for Different Ages section.

To find out more about the different online baby and nursery toy shops and stores visit our Top Sites section.

To see what different nursery toy manufacturers offer visit our Brands section.

You can also find out more in our How to Play with Baby section.