Next to seeing mummy or daddy’s face peering over her cot to smile at her, her next favourite thing is a mobile for her cot. Here’s how to choose the best one for your baby:

Q: How Do I Choose A Good Mobile?

A good mobile can be fixed quite close to your baby so it’s more or less directly in front of her eyes when she is lying down. The outline of the figures that hang from the mobile should be quite chunky so that they can be seen in clear contrast to the ceiling when she looks up to it. It should also move around and make sounds or play music.

Q: Why Does It Need To Be Noisy?

Your baby’s ears will mature before her eyes and, although the fluid in the womb makes hearing muffled, babies hear more when in the womb than they can see. Even though some light can penetrate as far as the womb, she is unlikely to see anything except a red glow and because of this when she is born she hasn’t had much practice in seeing. During her first weeks she will find it much easier to locate where a sound is coming from than to find an object by looking for it.

Q: Why Does It Need To Be Close To Her?

At birth her eyes have a fixed focus of about 10-12 inches. Even though she can’t see very well, this is the best distance for her developing vision.

Q: Why does It Need To Be Directly Above Her?

She cannot turn her head to look around when she is a young baby so it needs to be directly above her for her to see it best. As her vision is fairly poor it is easier to see something against the uncluttered background of the ceiling than against a jumble of other objects so make it easy for her to enjoy the mobile by hanging it close to her.

Q: Why Does It Need To Move?

She will find it much easier to find and see something that is moving as the central part of her eye is still immature. The parts of her eye that see movement are better developed than the parts that see colour and detail.

Q: Why Do The Mobile’s Hanging Toys Need To Be Chunky

Again, as her vision is poor she finds it easier to see something with clear, bold outlines.