Going Mobile

Erin and I agree that we want our daughter Olivia to develop to her full potential through positive stimulation. Intuitively we realize that stimulation is the catalyst for all manner of growth. We strive to provide an environment that will engage as many of Olivia's senses as possible in a rich and pleasant manner without overloading her.

Mobiles have long been the tool of choice to accomplish this objective when parents cannot personally provide their child with one-on-one stimulation. Data on the value of mobiles is very scarce. But our observations leave little doubt that Olivia finds them both entertaining and engaging.

We literally stumbled upon the "Soothing Serenade Developmental Mobile" one day when we were cruising "Babies R Us". This mobile from "Sassy" is designed to stimulate your newborn with familiar sounds from the womb, mixed with classical compositions of Brahms and Bach. Six celestial bodies hang from the mobile creating a soothing, yet colorful and texture rich, representation of the night sky. It creates a secure, welcoming atmosphere for your baby and develops infant cognition. Sassy's Soothing Serenade plays the selected sounds continuously for 15 minutes. At the end of the selection, the music gradually softens in volume until only the movement of the mobile remains and finally comes to rest, easing baby gently into sleep without the abrupt "stop" of most musical mobiles.

I could not find any information from the experts regarding the value of mobiles in promoting the development of infants. This was frustrating to me since I usually tell folks that I can find information on "anything" using web resources. Little did I know, at some point, I would become the web resource. So I will give you our observations.

This mobile pauses every few seconds to allow your baby to focus on one of it's hanging celestial bodies. Olivia definitely takes advantage of this pause to focus on one of colorful objects hanging from this mobile. I count that as a real positive. Sassy says this "pausing" action assists babies in developing "visual tracking" abilities. I do not know whether this pause helps Olivia refine her visual tracking skills, but I do know that the pausing action of this mobile is more engaging to her than continuous motion mobiles that lack this feature.

Erin and I agree that the high quality music, which fades to silence over time, and the pausing feature of this mobile make it our "best choice". This mobile's advertised features are more than a gimmick. Just be aware that this mobile is designed to be fastened between the vertical "bars" of a full size crib. If your baby sleeps in a bassinet or mesh equipped "pack and play", you will have to engineer an alternate method of mounting it.

Where can you get one? Try one of these retailers:

http://www.kidsstuff.com/n171mobile.html

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html?_encoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000BV66P6

http://www.amazon.com/Sassy-784-Soothing-saranade/dp/B000BV66P6

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BV66P6/yahoo-baby-20/ref=nosim

You will not regret purchasing this mobile. It gets two thumbs up from the Austin family.