Teddy/luvvie/comforter/pacifier

[CremeDeSudo]

DS (23mo) uses his comforter (a M&P Once Upon a Time bear) almost like a dummy and sucks on the corners as well as cuddling it. We try to limit it to sleep times, but inevitably it comes out more than we'd like. I'm not too bothered about it yet, but DH hates it when he wants it at non-sleep times.

There's lots of advice out there about stopping the dummy, but what about suckable comforters? Should I even worry about it? Any advice/tips/stories you can share?

TIA!

What is your dh's problem? It isn't that big a deal if your child needs comfort? Does he comfort your DC in other ways instead?

3 of mine have had a comforter (not for sucking though) and it seems to follow a pattern of increasing dependancy when under 3 and then they are left around the house unless tired or hurt til about 5. Then they seemed happy enough for them to be left in bed.
ds 5.5 has it at bed time but doesn't cuddle it.
ds 7 has in bed and rubs against his face to sleep.
ds9 has at the bottom of the bed and ignores it but I can't move it (hasn't used for about 2 years but thinks of it affectionately)

What's his problem with it? I can't see that having a comforter would be an issue.

Think what I'm trying to say is that they are all deeply attached to them and they see them as a friend so to restrict that 'relationship' would be quite cruel...attachment fades naturally over time.

It sounds similar to something that my dd does. She has a teddy with a blanket attached (those that you get from Asda) and she sucks the corners. We did try to limit it to bedtime because it gets very manky and smelly (although she has 3 on rotation so has a clean one every day) but it offers her comfort and we didn't want to take that away. We have noticed that, as she gets older, she uses it less and is happy to leave it in her bag when she goes and plays in the park or at the toddler group so we're just going to leave her with it until she gives it up for herself. Ds did the same with his little lion: he used to take it everywhere and now it's somewhere at the bottom of the toybox and he doesn't bother with it anymore.

I'd say the same as pp: leave your ds with it and let him use it as much as he needs and you'll find that, in about a year's time, he'll start to rely on it less and be happy to leave it lying about the house. If you're worried about the germs (the Dr. more or less told me to throw dd's away last week because it was 'dirty' and would lead to infection ) then see if you can get another, if your ds will accept it, and rotate them.

Thanks all

mumofboyo how old are your DC's?

Perhaps saying 'DH hates it' was a bit strong! He doesn't like it when DS insists on running around with it hanging out of his mouth (which he'll do given half the chance) and worries that we'll struggle to get it off him in the future.

I haven't worried about germs so much as we also have three that get rotated regularly with no problem whatsoever. I did wonder if it might impact his speech like they say with dummies, but seeing as it doesn't have the same teat shape then I don't think it'll be an issue?

I was thinking he'd start being less reliant in the future too so it's encouraging to hear experiences with comforters!

my dd is 2.8 and ds has just turned 4

sorry I pressed the wrong key!
Dd runs around with her teddy hanging out of her mouth and pretty much every photo I have of her is with it too but it doesn't seem to have affected her teeth or speech at all; in fact nursery and the hv told us that her speech is as good as, if not better than that of other children her age.

We've also been told DS's speech is better than his peers so definitely won't worry about that aspect!

Thanks everyone! I'll leave him to it then