Quiet toys for hospital stay

[ThaliaFailure]

DS and I have an upcoming hospital stay looming. He has global developmental delay and cognitively he is currently around 12mths in terms of what he enjoys. His fine motor skills aren't great and mostly he enjoys pressing big buttons and switches, musical instruments, mirrors into which he can croon for ages, click-clack cars and so on. Unfortunately, I think everything will be terribly noisy on the ward! He is only in for lots of testing so will not be feeling poorly enough to not want to play, and he isn't at a stage of wanting to watch TV.

Can anyone please suggest any ideas for quiet toys, maybe something with lights and a volume control?! We have plenty of books and some feely mats and textured toys already. Very grateful for any suggestions.

If he is going to be on a children's ward they usually have lots of toys and also an area set aside for play, craft etc, they also have a trained member of staff in this area.

There has been noisy toys, train sets cars etc loads of toys

When my DD was in hospital they came round and asked what they enjoyed playing with and if needed they bought toys, fidget items etc to their bed or they could go to the play area and play or join in with other children.

My DD has GDD amongst other disabilities and there has always been suitable items at the hospitals we have been in, I have always taken a few small favourite items though.

You could check the hospital website as there is sometimes details or even give the ward a ring to see what the set up is.

Will he be at a children's hospital? If so, he'll be on a ward with access to a play room which will be full of baby toys, they may also have some sensory toys too.

If you let them know about your sons needs, especially the play team, they will make sure they have things appropriate for your son. I'd just take a few of his favourite things from home.

@Kirbert2 @stopringingme thank you both for your replies. Stupidly, I had entirely forgotten about the possibility of play therapists and things being brought to the bed! I think this is because our local hospital, where we have had our longest stays, only had a couple of suitable items so we ran out of novelty value quite quickly. However, this time we are at GOSH so I imagine the set-up will be significantly better.

Thank you both: I can amend my packing list now to just include a few items.

My son wasn't at GOSH but a different children's hospital and they really do make things as nice as they possibly can for the children. My son had Halloween, his birthday, Christmas etc in hospital last year and they just go above and beyond for them.

You'll see such a huge difference.