The idea of having a mobile hanging above a crib, cot or child's bed has been around for a very long time, and there have been many different variations, from shiny silver or crystal affairs that reflect the light in beautiful rainbow patterns of light, to those that have a ring of cartoon characters or teddy bears prancing about in an unending circle chasing each other. Many parents have constructed their own, and there have been plenty of blue print suggestions in the past on how to do this, with a couple of coat hangers, some coloured paper and some tape.



However, today's babies and toddlers are extremely lucky, and are frequently delighted at the range of lullaby mobiles available on the market. These lullaby mobiles play music as they turn, and are either clockwork, being wound up beforehand, or battery operated. The clockwork ones tend to be preferable since the music is usually more natural sounding, with fine tones and a lovely 'tinkle' type tune. The battery operated mobile can sometimes have the sort of musical arrangement one might find in a Christmas or birthday card, and is fairly uninspiring and not likely to help the child drift into a beautiful sleep. If it was me, I'd rather drift off to the sound of a fairy-sized harpsichord than an electronic series of beeps at an octave so high I'd be in danger of finding myself surrounded by bats by morning.

Having said that, I refer mostly to the cheaper varieties, and there are, naturally, more expensive and therefore more worthwhile constructions which can play beautifully soothing music. In either case, these mobiles tend to rotate, which allows a very gentle and slow performance of characters spinning round to keep the child transfixed. Sometimes these mobiles can be hung from the ceiling, but in most cases a very simple chunky bracket allows them to be attached to the side of a cot and then the mobile hangs from a tall arch that holds the characters just out of arm reach.

These brackets are usually adjustable, because of course as your child grows he, or she, will eventually be able to reach these mobiles, and what you do not want is a child able to get their head up to mobile height and start exploring the mobile, because they could easily find themselves caught in its loop, and the consequences could be awful. These cot based mobiles are therefore more suited to a child who is under 18 months, after which ceiling based mobiles are more suited.

There are alternatives to these mobiles, and having a cheap compact disc player tucked away under the cot can provide more soothing sounds for the child, with a mobile hanging up higher that doesn't play music. The advantage here is that you'll have better sound quality, more choice of music, and you'll be able to adjust the volume. If you have a remote control, you can slowly decrease the volume and eventually stop the music once your little one drifts off the sleep.