Unputdownable book for babies....! (First Cot Book - Ladybird)

Member Name: sambam000

Product:	First Cot Book - Ladybird
Date:	19/07/09 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Calms babies & stimulates their senses. Washable.

Disadvantages: Ties would have been useful.

Prior to my sons arrival, I had heard quite a bit about 'black & white' books/high contrast images for babies, so decided to buy the ladybird cot book & see if the hype was true...

Basically babies can, from a very young age, see & take note of high contrast images - such as black & white. Many of these visual products for babies also include colours such as yellow & red. Such patterns can often be found on toys, play mats, cot mobiles etc.

The Ladybird cot book is a concertina style book, which is made of padded fabric & unfolds to create a long panel of images. There are 5 panels/pages in total. Each panel features an image or pattern in black, white & yellow. One side has a train, wavy lines, a flower, & a checkerboard, while the other side features a snail, a house, a star, a car & a fish. All the images are very simplistic & bold. The fish which doubles as the front page of the 'book' also features a small round mirror (made of plastic of course!). The panels are all bordered by patterns such as stripes & stars.

I got the book out when my son was around 3 weeks old. I placed it around the edge of the moses basket, & although not expecting much of a reaction, he was immediately drawn to it, & spent a good 10 or 15 minutes just staring at the pictures. I was amazed that a baby could be so captivated at such a young age.

From then on, the book was frequently placed in the moses basket or the pram & was very useful for calming him down when crying. He still plays with the book occasionally now at 5 months old, but is less captivated now that he can see everything else clearly enough. The main aim of the book now is to see how much he can shovel in his mouth....!

This book is great for very small babies - never underestimate how early this book can be used. I highly recommend it to all new parents as a tool to calm baby down. The downside is that it is labelled as a cot book, but doesn't include any ties to attach it to a cot. This would have been a useful feature. Instead, I just tucked it along the edge of the mattress in the moses basket & pram. Also, the mirror adds interest to the book from our perspective, but in reality is too small for a baby to see much in.

The book can be hand washed to 40 degrees if needs be, which is another good feature.

The book is currently unavailable at Amazon, where I purchased mine, but I think I paid about £5.

Summary: Highly recommend!