What's the best option for a toy for baby to sleep with?

[rachelfran]

I would like something for my 8 1/2 month old to sleep with or cuddle with and was wondering what is recommended?

Thanks!

[benzmommyplus1]

Well, my now 6yo was a blankie boy, starting at about 6 months of age, he liked the type with the satin along the edges. They do make some stuffed toys that come with a blanket like this. And whatever you decide on, buy 2 of the item, identical, otherwise you may run into problems if the child loves it alot.

[egoldber]

As a gift, we received an item called a "Lovie". It is basically a stuffed animal head with a blanket attached (it's much cuter than I am describing it :-) ). Hers is shaped like a lamb, but there are other characters. My baby loves it. She sleeps with it in the crib. It is her "sleep signal". When I lay her down for a nap, she grabs the lamb, puts her thumb in her mouth, turns over and goes to sleep. It has the same effect when traveling. I love it too. :-)

You can see them here: http://www.applause.com/
Click on "Applause Gallery", then "Baby/Preschool", then "Lovie".

HTH,

[suzska]

My son's not too picky--thankfully! He'll snuggle with any stuffed animal, or even a cloth diaper (which we use to use as burpy clothes, so we have two dozen of them!). My cousin gave him a really cute Boyd's Bear that's soft and floppy, and machine washable.

--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01

[IansMom04]

My now 11month old loves his Bear blankie. It is made by Boyds Bears and has the head of a bear and the body of a blanket. He loves it.. they come in a bear, bunny or lamb and can be found online at Boyds Bears or in most specialty stores that sell Boyds Bears. He started sleeping with it at 6 months

Chantal

[docreeler]

This brings up a question to which I have yet to get a straight answer: Of course (to take an extreme), one should never put a comforter or quilt in a crib with a newborn, for fear of suffocation. At what age is it safe for children to have things such as light blankets (not used for swaddling) and toys in their crib?

Also, my DS, who is 5mo, is a very active sleeper. We added crib bumpers to keep him from hitting his head on the crib railings. I realize that we'll have to remove the bumpers pretty soon; does anyone have any suggestions what to do at that point to keep him from injuring himself in his sleep?

Thanks in advance!

- Lynn

[suzska]

I didn't remove the bumpers until my son started "stepping" and clumbing on toys on the floor (like climbing into his Fisher-Price Activity Table the one day mom half-closed her eyes on the couch for a few minutes--it was inside his Kidco Playden, up against the railing, and he's standing there with his back to the railing, holding on and "singing" away). Anyway, I digress. He never really showed an interest in stepping on the bumpers, but I took them out before he got the idea.

I don't know of anything else to do once you take the bumpers out. My son is also a rather "active" sleeper. Once he was rolling all over the place and pulling himself up in the crib, I guess I didn't worry as much about toys (teddy bears, etc.) in the crib. I'm not sure when that was, but probably only within the past 3-4 months or so. I make sure they're all soft toys, and there aren't too many of them. I don't even bother with blankets because he instantly kicks them off.

--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01

[MaryM]

I'm now at the same point of questioning what, if anything, is safe for baby to sleep with. So far, I've been particular to have absolutely nothing in the crib - not even a blanket now that she moves like an olympian; now at 5 1/2 months I can see she really likes having things to touch to fall asleep. Has there been any additional feedback on the original question about safety in the use of loveys, etc in a crib?

[egoldber]

No expert is going to say it is safe to have a toy in the crib. And I did wait until Sarah was rolling over on her own. I figured since she was rolling over to sleep on her tummy anyway it was safe enough to put a lovey in with her. And having her lovey has made bedtime such a breeze, everyone is so much happier.

But I also still use a bumper. When she started moving around, I removed it. But after the third night of her screaming bloody murder because she had her leg wedged tight in the crib slats up to her thigh, I put it back in. You need to use your best judgment.

[laura_winckler]

I gave my son very small blankets to sleep with when he was a few months old - rolling over, but not sitting up. They were too short to go around his neck and too lightweight to suffocate him. You can buy them for a ridiculously large sum of money (IMO), but I just made some out of flannel. Trust me, I can't sew, so it's not that hard. I just hemmed the edges. You could probably just pink them so that it won't unravel.

I gave him animals and bigger blankets when he put himself into a sitting position easily and pull to a stand. Be warned, though. Anything that goes into the bed may never come back out! My son kept adding animals to his bed and he now sleeps with 5 animals and a blanket. Any attempts to reduce the crowd have been met with loud resistance! I wish we had limited him to his Pooh bear and a blanket in the beginning, because when we travel we have to take the menagerie with us!

[kgdolan]

Our baby is 7 mons old and has just started playing with the boyds bear rabbit he has had in his crib since he was born. The boyds bears are really neat because of their long narrow arms and legs and in this case ears! Jack has no trouble getting his fat little fingers around some part of the rabbit. He likes to chew on it and talk to it in the morning!!

We still have bumpers in our crib and the mattress is still in the up position. He still has about 18 inches of crib railing above him. He just isn't pulling up yet. He wakes up in the morning and is on his belly, but just looks around. (and chew on his rabbit!) He usually doesn't have a blanket in there with him.

Just my 2 cents worth!!

Gail mom to Jack 1-16-02

[jbrig]

Gail,

If you don't mind my asking, which Boyd's Bear animal do y'all have? It sounds really cute!

[daisymommy]

Carters makes these too. You can find them at BRU or a Carters outlet (if you have one nearby). I bought a "blanket-buddy" as we're calling it, that's a little teddy bear head (almost suede-like it's so incredibly soft), with a fuzzy blanket attached, hemmed with 2" wide satin trim. It was $10 at the Carter's outlet. They also come in pink, yellow, or mint green, with lambs or bunny heads. I'm hoping this will do double duty as both a blanket and bear in the crib with DS (less to lose!)

[egoldber]

If your goal is to get your baby attached to this as a sleep object buy several! Heaven forbid you should lose this toy after baby is attached. Your baby will NOT be fooled by substitutes. I now have 3. One in the crib, one in the car and one as a back-up. If at all possible, pick a SMALL object, because you will be traveling with it.

A friend of mine's baby became attached to the "Dreft bunny" that was attached to bottles of Dreft for awhile as a promo. She was then desperate to find another but to no avail. Foruntately another mom in our mom's group volunteered hers to my friend as a back-up.