A comfort item can hugely benefit your little one at bedtime or night. It can help your child relax and feel secure to have something soft to snuggle up with. How and when do you introduce your child to a lovey?
What Is a Lovey and What Are the Benefits?
A lovey is typically a small blanket, sometimes with a stuffed animal head attached, that your baby or toddler forms a special attachment to and uses for comfort. It can also be a small stuffed animal or blanket.
Allowing your child to form an attachment to this item can provide reassurance and comfort during separation anxiety or new experiences like travel, going to a new daycare, or a visit to the doctor.
Choosing a Lovey
There are a few things to consider when picking out a lovely. First of all, if your baby or toddler already likes a small comfort item, there’s your lovey. If you are trying to help your child form an attachment to a lovey, here’s what to check for:
Choose a small, soft item. Stay away from big stuffed animals or large blankets. They can be more of a disruption than anything.
Make sure the item does not have any buttons or anything that is sewn on that can come off. Those things can be a choking hazard.
The lovey needs to be washable, as it can get pretty dingy after being snuggled with all night, every night.
Get more than 1! When my son became obsessed with his lovey, I immediately went out and bought more so that we had one at daycare, one at grandma's, and two at home.
How and When to Introduce a Lovey
The AAP does not recommend having anything in the crib, including a lovey, stuffed animal, or blanket, until your baby is one year of age.
I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of babies under the age of one and I never suggest that parents put a lovey in their child’s crib. All your baby needs is their internal sleep skills to fall asleep independently. If your baby is not doing that currently, I can help. Book a free discovery call with me and we will chat about it.
If your baby is under the age of one, you can introduce them to a lovey, just don’t put it in the crib. By introducing the lovey to your baby now, you are allowing them to get comfortable with the item and even start to form an attachment or liking to it. I recommend having the lovey near your baby when nursing or taking a bottle. Then, once your baby celebrates their first birthday, you can incorporate it into the bedtime routine and put it in their crib when they are sleeping. Be patient, as your baby might take some time to form an attachment.
Extra tip: try keeping the lovey close to you (maybe under your shirt) so that it gets your scent. It will help baby love it even more.
I find that toddlers and preschoolers absolutely love having a comfort item to snuggle up with. Although it can be too early to introduce a lovey, if you’ve got a toddler or a preschooler, it’s certainly not too late either.
If you have questions about lovies, send them my way during my weekly Q&A on Instagram stories every Tuesday.