Baby not interested in toys

[Anonymous]

My son is almost 5 months old and has absolutely no interest in toys — the only thing he seems to want to do is put his hands in his mouth. We dangle all kinds of toys in front of him and put him on his playmat with lots of toys above him, and he has absolutely no interest in him. He’ll definitely interact with us. He loves to play peekaboo and when we sing to him, but he has no interest in toys.

He was born 3.5 weeks early, so I’m wondering if that has anything to do with it. Or maybe is reflux is contributing in some way. I seem to remember reading somewhere that reflux babies like to put their hands in their mouths an inordinate amount of time. Any thoughts?

Jessica

[hellbennt]

does he reach out to things? does he follow objects with his eyes? does he follow you or family members with his eyes/head?

if he likes peek a boo- try playing it with a toy- cover your eyes with the toy, play a few rounds of peek a boo and then hand him the toy- sing the whole time, LOL, since he likes singing…

keep us posted

ps; instead of ‘toy’s try a teether- Ari loved (& still does) his butterfly teether- it has various textured surfaces & he can hold it easily- I tried to google it to show you but the one that keeps coming up is a bit different than the one he has- anyway, also try a cloth w/ teething corners- we even have them in our supermarket- like this: http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Munchkin_Munchkin_Teething_Blank et_with_Pacifier_Attachment_3545 3902

you can play peek a boo with it and then show him how to munch on the corners

oftentimes with Ari, I had to ‘initiate’ his playing/using toys but we did seem to start w/ teethers so I’d take his hand out of his mouth and put in the teether to show him- all the while making a big fun deal out of it-

I have songs for everything, so maybe since he loves songs, make up songs and include some toy action in the song?

hellbennt2007-5-4 10:52:43

[Anonymous]

He doesn’t reach out to things, but he will follow objects and people with his eyes (though not all the time).

Thanks for the suggestions — actually his teether is the one thing that he does seem just a bit interested in. I like the idea of making up a song with the teether.

[Anonymous]

Alex has only recently started playing with actual toys. Before that, she only wanted things that weren’t meant to be toys – shoeboxes, pieces of paper, Kaelyn’s wooden puzzle pieces (used as a teether), shoes, etc.

Kaelyn didn’t really like toys until she was almost 9 months old.

[Anonymous]

I used to, and still do actually, dangle toys in front of Ben while feeding him. Originally this was to distract him so that he would stay on the breast long enough to eat. Now that he isn’t in pain anymore while eating, he wants to look all over the place and doesnt’ want to sit still long enough to eat, so I still use the toys. I started this when he got really bad around 3 1/2 – 4months, and this is when he would start paying more attention to toys, reaching out for them, etc.

If you think that it won’t cause problems with his feedings, maybe it would help?

[Anonymous]

Technically he is a prem (37 weeks is full term) so you can look at milestones in terms of corrected age (take 3.5 weeks of). He might take a little longer to do some things. Alana was 5 weeks early and I noticed it took her a little longer for the first 6 months. Now she seems to have caught up (most children do by 2 years if they are prem).

Have you tried those little rattly things on feet or hands. This might get him into the idea of touching things.

I’m sure he will get it

[Author]

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