Has anyone successfully replaced a soft toy...

[MBailey99]

Without their child noticing? My 4 year olds favourite toy has disappeared and I'm waiting for a new one in the post, but I have a feeling he's going to notice.... don't even have time to make it look old before I go away! Anyone else experienced the joy that is lost beloved toys? Also slightly nervous the other one is going to turn up and I will be rumbled!

They always notice. My son has Teddy and now "wrong teddy". He knew. But he also loves "wrong teddy".

It reminds me about my daughter and her small cuddle blanket thing. She has had it in hands in bed every single night for 16 years! It's manky, threadbare and generally disgusting in all ways.

A couple of years back I finally tracked a copy down. Brand new with tags (brand new condition despite it being around a decade and a half since it was made!) and I stealthily swapped it out one night. Needless to say, she noticed instantly and was horrified by it but it was a hell of a laugh in our house that night making her question her sanity for a bit. Totally worth the £20 for a useless item. Bright side is she has put it away and wants to give it to her first child.

Yes I've done it twice. First time I said I'd machine washed her and that's why she was more fluffy and new looking. 2nd time she didn't question it.

Look for a book called Tatty Ratty. It’s a lovely story about replacing a lost toy.
Only our eldest has a special toy- she’s 13 and still very attached!
We own about 4 or them and til she was about 4, 2 of them were interchangeable. Then one got lost. Now there is only one! Completely irreplaceable since.

Not tried to replace yet, but bought a second of her favourite just in case. Once I’d realised she had a favourite I thought it would be easy to buy a second, fucking discontinued Jellycat 😱 stalked them on eBay for months.

We have 4 of my DD’s favourite toy. One is a little fluffier than the others. DD(5) thinks that her toy sometimes goes to the really posh groomers and comes back all fluffy.

We took a spare on holiday last year just in case. DD found it (DP had one job!) and we had to come up with some convoluted story about her toy’s cousin coming to visit - which she still mentions now.

On her 18th birthday I plan to put all 4 on her bed.

@Sexnotgender - that’s how we ended up with 4. I managed to get a spare of the discontinued toy but lost one so then bought every single one I could find. We did have 5 but one went in the wash with a red sock and is now ‘sunburned’.

I told DS the postman had washed him with special soap that made him fluffy

Brilliant 😂 our one seems to be quite rare. Medium fletcher bear. Managed to get one for £20 but if one appears on eBay it’s usually £50-100😱

My 7 year olds soft toy dog she takes everywhere got mauled by our dog when she left it unattended for a millisecond. It was completely ruined and she saw it.

Together we looked up photos of what toy hospitals can do, really amazing before and afters where they toy ends up looking pretty much new. Then her dog went on a trip to the hospital. Except it didn't, we got a new one off ebay. She accepted it instantly and has never questioned it.

How old is your child? If you want the new one to be accepted then you need to use it alongside the original. It needs to age along with the other one or it’ll never work!

My SIL put some sort of tracking device inside Bunny . It means that he can use an app on his phone that finds it within quite a long range .

Yes! Butlins do this amazing service where lost teddy's go the spa for a wash and repair before being reunited with their families.

DS2 had a stuffed kitten (Sparkles) that he carried about by the neck such that it was a bit stretched. He lost it on holiday and it couldn't be found. I managed to get a lightly used replacement on ebay. In order to stretch the neck a bit DH had it strung up by the neck with a weight tied to it hidden in the garage. It looked like it had decided that life on earth had been a bit much...

Luckily DS didn't see it "hanging" and after a bit of roughing up we were able to convince him that it had managed to travel back from center parcs by itself.

He's away at uni now but Sparkles #2 still waits for him on his bed for when he comes home 😁

She’s 2.5, I have introduced the imposter.

We have a minimum of 3 of each of the DCs favourites after I had a traumatic experience taking my DN out and almost losing her favourite.
The favourites live in draw string bags hidden in the very top of the airing cupboard, one per child, and are all on rotation, washed the same day as duvet covers and swapped with one from the bag.
If the DC are off school, they are told manky toy is having a holiday wash and will need an hour in the airing cupboard after the tumble drying cycle to fluff up, allowing my swapping to take place!
I am a bit obsessive about it!