Attachment to toys

[Villarosa]

Anyone else’s toddler seriously attached to their toys? My daughter doesn’t have a specific toy that she’s attached to it’s all of them! As soon as I mention that it’s bedtime she instantly starts crying and grabs every toy she can carry and then wants us to take all of them upstairs. She doesn’t bother with them when they are in the room but just wants them near her. In the morning she does the same thing on waking starts crying and wants all the toys back downstairs. Even leaving the house is becoming a nightmare cause she wants to take bags and bags of toys with her!!!

Oh yes I remember that stage. My little one loved lining them all up on the stairs too. I did cart around bags of toys in the car as I just hadn't the will to deal with the meltdown of not having them. My daughter turned out to be on the autistic spectrum. She genuinely felt the her toys had feelings and would be lonely or sad if they were left alone. It caused her a lot of anxiety. She was very attached inanimate things in her environment.

Not quite so extreme but my DD (4) will take her current favourite four or so soft toys to bed and insists that they are covered by the duvet so that no one steals them in the night. If she can't fit them all in her own arms she'll assign a few to be cuddled by me and I'll be told off if I'm not cuddling them properly (I also have to cuddle DD with my other arm).

Your daughter's attachment does sound extreme - how long has it been going on for? They do go through funny phases sometimes

Singasongofsixpence24 Yes me too but the bed times are becoming a nightmare with the tantrums. What age was your little one diagnosed?

RatRatPig.
Ah they definitely do go through funny stages and as cute as it is it can be so frustrating. It’s been going on for about 6 months. It started with just wanting to take certain toys to crèche and in the car but the last 2 months the bedtime dramas have started.

Can you preempt the drama by saying let's get these up for bed?
Shall we gather up everyone to get cosy upstairs etc ?
Make it a given / and a game.

She was diagnosed as a teen but that was down to me having very little experience of children and her masking in school. I'm probably neurodivergent myself so some of her behaviours didn't stand out to me as unusual. There really wasn't as much awarness and information available at the time but knowing more now I can clearly see how she was often over stimulated and had regulation problems, anxiety and sensitivity issues with food/clothes.

LarkinAboot
Yes I have tried all that but she just wants to grab even more things then, things that are not even toys like her picture she drew in crèche and my glasses or hair bobbles. It sounds quite funny just don’t know what’s going on in her little head.

Singasongofsixpence24
Thanks for sharing! I’ll see how she goes the next few months and hopefully it will subside 🤞