When did you let your baby take a teddy/toy to bed?

[peedieworky]

My DS is 24 weeks old & this past week or so I have been trying to work on getting him to settle himself to sleep. He has been doing really well and now goes to his cot quite happily for naps just by cuddling this bear and giving it's hat a little suck. However, I was discussing this with another Mum who was horrified that I was letting him take a soft toy to bed and told me that it was really irresponsible of me.

I've taken it out of his bed since the discussion and don't want to over react but equally don't want to put him at risk. I would really welcome any thoughts/experiences. He is able to roll over but will cry when he does so until we flip him back. There have been 2 occasions since he learned to roll over when I have woken to find him in any position other than his back. Once he was on his side and the other he was on his stomach with his head to the side and I nearly puked with fear.

Perhaps I'm missing the point your friend made, but my ds has had a soft toy since birth. He still has it now at 2. I've never heard that they shouldn't (someone might come along with different ideas). As long as it's suitable from birth (no eyes etc that come off and pose a choking hazard) and it's not huge as to suffocate them, I fail to see the problem.

As for rolling over -that's perfectly normal too, especially at 6 months and I wouldn't be worrying to the point of making yourself sick over it. He'll soon learn to roll back again - and as you say he'd managed to get into a position where he could easily breathe so no harm done.

Hi - she said the risk was suffocation, especially now he's rolling. Relieved am not only one it didn't occur to!

Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought that once they rolled over the risk of suffocation diminished, since they could roll away from anything that affected their breathing...

My DD (nearly two now) has long taken all manner of junk to bed with her - pieces of paper with pictures of Postman Pat on them, bath toys, fridge magnets.... You can always sneak in and remove them once they're asleep!

Unfortunately he can only roll one way so tends to get stuck and cries... I still think he'd turn his head but now have the nagging doubt seed planted!

DS 8mo has had couple of teddies in cot since she was born! I am in fact desperately trying to get her attached to one of them so that she can use it to settle herself (unfortunately not successfully!).

Once they can roll they're fine to roll. They have the strength to get away from things/lift their heads.

The toy thing is a judgement call. Technically, the advice is not to have anything in the cot with them but realistically, I think most people don't heed it.

DS had a monkey since birth. I honestly think if soft toys, like, normal soft toys, not massive squishy child sized things, were suffocating small children, we would hear about it.

Both my little girls have taken a special comforter teddy to bed since they were 5m. Now age 6 & 4 they still adore these teddies and sleep with them every night. V sweet methinks!

I think that ds was about 6 or 7 months before he was actually taking his comforter to bed with him.

There was always a menagerie of animals at the bottom of his cot from about 6 months, but as he couldn't roll, he couldn't reach them.

As soon as he was rolling about and doing so in his sleep we always gave him his comforter to go to bed. Now, there's more cuddly things than sense so that if he moves about and loses one, he's got another one to snuggle to if he wants to...he's even snuggled up to a stray sock before now!! :)