I'm interested in learning what others think about whether or not to have crib toys (music/light-up crib toy and some stuffed animals) in with a child while he/she sleeps. My son is 6 months and is now old enough to play more with the few things we have in his crib. I'm not sure if this helps soothe him and keep him calm in his crib longer before I go get him, or if they distract him from going back to sleep & getting a good nap!
I've always had toys and blankets in the crib with my daughter and she loves them. She will play for a little while (if she's not totally sleepy) before she rolls over and goes to sleep. Then when she wakes up again I usually hear music over the monitor before I hear her talking. :) It's cute and keeps her happy!
My first wouldn't always sleep really well, but was happy to play in his crib. I put toys that I wasn't worried about, like some teething rings or other items as he got older and when he woke up and wanted to play (like at 3am) but wasn't needing to get up, he would play for awhile and then go back to sleep. I was picky about which ones I put in there, but there are safe ones that are ok and it gave me much-needed sleep.
Sometimes it took him longer to go down, but he slept what he needed and then would wake up. The difference is he didn't get bored, which was great for us.
Good luck!
I had some toys that hung from the side of the crib at that age (nothing too overstimulating) and then I introduced a few stuffed animals to sit at the foot of his crib after age 1. I just made sure that they were stuffed animals w/ non-removable eyes or anything else (no button eyes, for example)
I have 2 boys (5 1/2 and 2 1/2) and I have always put toys in their cribs. With my boys it helped entertain them when they woke-up and gave them something to do until they fell asleep at night. I just make sure they are really safe toys --Little People worked for my younger son. Good Luck!
I had the crib aquarium in my child's crib. I actually had it turned off when my daughter was in a crib because I didn't want to hear it come over the monitor in the middle of the night. With my son I left it turned on and he used it to soothe himself to sleep for a long time. It is now not working because the water level is too low, but I plan to replace it with the rainforest on for my 6 weeks old.
I used the musical aquarium to get my son to go to sleep and keep him occupied after a feeding in the middle of the night until he fell back to sleep. In the morning I would turn on the musical piano that was much more stimulating and he would kick and play for awhile before I needed to go and get him. It was great. Figure out what works for you and use it...we need all the breaks we can get at that stage. I wouldn't recommend traditional stuffed animals at this stage, I believe they are a safety issue (SIDS and choking). My son did sleep with what you might call a stuffed animal, it was the little alligator toy for babies...he slept with that thing until he was 5 yrs old. It was basically his security blanket.
