Putting toys/books in the cot

[ellasmum]

Hi..

DD has been sleeping till 7.00am until last week shen she has started to wake at 6.00am. I have read on here that many people leave toys etc.. in the cot for their children to play with in the time before getting up.

We don't get DD up till as near as 6.45am as we can manage and I think it would be easier if she had something to play with. Will the toys stop her going back to sleep if she wanted to? Secondly at what age did you start putting the toys etc.. in.

Thanks

Ellasmum,
my ds is two now and we've left books and toys in his cot for over a year. I tuck the book between the mattress and the cot so the corners don't stick into him during the night. Some mornings I've woken to hear him reading to himself - cute
He's quite a truck/digger/big-moving-vehicles fan so I leave little cars on a table beside the cot that he can reach in the morning. He generally plays by himself for 30 mins - 1 hour until he get's bored, and we get a little more precious sleep! Although the dark mornings mean that he can't see what he's doing anymore and gets bored faster, do toddlers generally sleep with a night light of some sort?

Eefs - thanks for info. My DD is only 7 months which is why I was wondering if she was too young for toys in the cot.

Ellasmum you could try soft toys or those cloth books. My DS's first game was to throw them all out of the cot but he seemed to enjoy it and even five mintues extra is a bonus.

Ellasmum, we have always left a soft toy in dd's cot (now 6m) It is a little rabbit about 6 inches high and the arms are just the right size for her to hold onto. She used to go to sleep clutching it. Now it gets a good mauling and talking to if she wakes up early. If you leave stuff at the sides of the cot your dd should only be able to get to it by rolling or wiggling, and if she is awake enough to do that she is awake enough to play safely.

Hi Ellasmum, my dd has always had soft toys in her cot and they seem to keep her amused if she does wake up a bit earlier. If she is waking up she tends to fling them one by one out of the cot with a running commentary...."all gone" followed by a thud, this goes on about 6 times until they have all been ejected! (very amusing to listen to on the monitor). dd is 16 months old so a fair bit older than yours, but I seem to remember at about 6/7 months she used to "talk" to her toy. She used to be, and still is, big on "label twiddling", not sure what the attraction is but she loves to suck her fingers and twiddle the label on any of her toys!

Melly - I thought it was only my dd that was fixated with the labels. The other day I could have sworn she was comparing teh washing instructions on two of her teddies!

How funny - DD totally loves labels - will play with them and not the toy attached for ages. I think it must be the nice shiny material they are made from.

Thanks for tips - have started to put some soft books in, however it is really dark in her room so she is struggling to find them. I may need to get a light in there.