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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

blanket attachment at 4!

49 replies

blackmonday · 08/12/2009 16:50

hi, my dd2 (4 years) is really attached to a large blanket she's had since a baby. She walks round with the label permanently attached to her nose (sniffing the label gives some sort of security, it has to be this label tho, i've tried others!) It's getting beyond a joke now. She will not leave the house without it. it has to come everywhere with us and is mostly dirty looking. I do wash it on the rare occassions i can part her from it. She is due to start school next year and i obviously need to sort this problem before then. She needs it to sleep and as i said has it with her ALL the time. Please help!!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Stinkyfeet · 08/12/2009 22:18

By the time I started school, my mum had somehow managed to cut my blanket into smaller, handkerchief size pieces - much more subtle! Anyway, one of these pieces was sewn into my school skirt pocket, so I could always feel it there !

tassisssss · 08/12/2009 22:19

ds will be 7 in April and still likes his blankie to sleep. Thankfully it's a boy-ish blue affair (Gap cotton bought by the lovely MNer hannahsaunt when he was born!) with racing cars on one side! So fat he's only had sleepovers at v close family friends or family members so is happy to take it with him but I reckon he'll stop before long!

SexOnFire · 08/12/2009 22:20

I win this thread then I'm 36 on Sunday and have a special pillow. It's in it's fifth reincarnation now but I still like it every night, as it were.

-goes to namechange pronto-

stealthsquiggle · 08/12/2009 22:21

Blankies are fine. My blankie is fine and he's not going anywhere (I still sleep with it when ill/miserable ) although it is/was a cot quilt rather than a blanket as such, and because I used to trail it behind me everywhere it has had to be patched and eventually re-covered, with every patch requiring special approval - my poor DM

I think it would be wise to start laying the foundations of a 'blankie doesn't go to school - it waits for you at home in bed' rule, though.

frakkinaroundthechristmastree · 08/12/2009 22:22

Was sightly scared when you told me I had a 17yo DS! I know we're very similar but I swear it's biologically impossible...

I have to have a fleecy blankie to sleep with but it doesn't matter which one it is! I still have one with Disney princesses (that's quite old), a rainbow one (for when I was trying to be a cool teen) and a butterfly one for the butterfly obsession I acquired at the age of 20 after visiting a butterfly...reserve? sanctuary? Whatever it was!

seeker · 08/12/2009 22:22

I have never heard of a blanket causing breathing problems - sounds a bit odd to me!

Doctors can be bonkers, you know!

And what 'problems" did the doctor think it would cause?

stealthsquiggle · 08/12/2009 22:22

sexonfire - beat you - I'm 39

SexOnFire · 08/12/2009 22:24

Ah but stealthsquiggle do you also suck your thumb?

-Triumphant trophy wielding-

SexOnFire · 08/12/2009 22:25

And, yes I am in therapy atm

WomanwiththeYellowHat · 08/12/2009 22:31

I had a 'Sniffer' (old pillow case!) again with several incarnations until well into my 20s - i only REALLY stopped when I met my now husband - however 'Peter the Pillowcase' (christened by my sister who hated it!) had survived 3 previous long term relationships! Echo the no school rule - I think it is good to breed a sense of embarrassment about it or the child will have it up their nose constantly (or at least I would have done certainly!). These stories are making me laugh - think my Dad also thought it would be there on my wedding day

SexOnFire · 08/12/2009 22:32

Bloody hell, all these mn closet pillow sniffers!

WomanwiththeYellowHat · 08/12/2009 22:37

I have always suspected there was a lot of it about!

navyeyelasH · 08/12/2009 22:40

sorry hmmm sleep I got you confused with the OP!

For any children that put a label on their nose (seemingly smelling it and also stroke it - you could replace the object with double sided satin ribbon.

About 40% of my cousins (inc me!) have a thing for tags/labels. The others sniff objects so not as asy to change/make smaller.

How weird that so many people do it!

Doa ll the blanket lovers/tag lovers/teddy sniffers also thumb suck?

WomanwiththeYellowHat · 08/12/2009 22:42

Slealthsquiggle - we have so much in common - I also sucked my thumb (that was an essential part of the whole 'sniffing' experience!). Mumsnet - it is like confession but more weird

frakkinaroundthechristmastree · 08/12/2009 22:43

Nope. I never thumb sucked. My mother gave me the blanket because I wouldn't suck my thumb to calm myself! She thought I might suck a muslin or blanket instead. My sister sucked her fingers, my brother did thumb and silky bit. No correlation here!

VengefulKittyInTheManger · 08/12/2009 22:44

I thumb-sucked until I was about 14/15ish. I even had a callous on my thumb joint to show for it and my left (sucked) thumb is a lot thinner than my right!

It took about 6 years for the callous to go and the size difference is still very noticeable to me.

VengefulKittyInTheManger · 08/12/2009 22:45

And I feel better now that I know there are others and it is not just me especially as you are all older

navyeyelasH · 08/12/2009 22:51

I have a callous-y thing too! On my knuckle of my left thumb! God, what a weird bunch we are.

hmmSleep · 08/12/2009 22:56

I've talked about dcs, but when I was little, I didn't have a blanket, but I used to suck my thumb whilst stroking the eyelashes / arm hair / eyebrows of whichever poor person happened to be near, normally my pood sister, she hated it! I still mess with my eyebrows now.

seeker, ds has been wheezing badly at night, GP thinks his airway is collapsing which could be down to an allergic reaction, think she just wanted to eliminate cloth from enquiries as it were. He's going in for a scan next time it happens. She also felt that if he is struggling to breath then having a cloth shoved down his throat can't help, and then the overbite can also change the shape of your mouth causing more problems.

hmmSleep · 08/12/2009 22:57

poor sister, not pood, that would be wierd.

VengefulKittyInTheManger · 08/12/2009 23:46

I was wondering what a "pood sister" was!

Poohbearsmom · 09/12/2009 00:28

My ikle cousin (he's 23 now) adored his blankie and it went everywhere with him even the bathroom... When he was about 4 his mum started to cut it smaller, jus taking an inch or so off the length every few wks when it started to really look smaller to him (when it was like half the original size) she told him how big he had gotten and told him he was gettin so huge the blanket would be able to fit n his pocket some day!... (Q everyone goin wow what a big boy you r etc) by the time he want to school it was handkerchief size (sorry cant spell dono if i got that right ) anyways the blankie hankie went everywhere with him (but tucked away in his pocket or pencil case ) i thought it was a gr8 idea. So's the pretty new bag one

SexOnFire · 09/12/2009 08:00

I have a callous on my left thumb too But I'd rather that then never being able to suck my thumb again. Luckily DP doesn't have issues with it! The sucking, not the callous, I mean. Gosh, that sounds rude.

However, I have learnt that being able to self soothe internally is a very important part of development. As long as DCs are shown/taught how to do that then I wouldn't worry about any myriad of comforters. Does that make sense?

inthesticks · 10/12/2009 18:14

Here is what I did. I bought a new blanket as near as possible to the old one. I cut it up into 4 bits and sewed one bit on to the old blanky. After a while it became an acceptable substitute.
After aged four the rule was that blanky had to stay in the bedroom.
He's 11 now. Still has blanky.

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