E started becoming attached to her burp rags (the cheap Gerber prefold diapers) around 3 months old. She likes to snuggle them and they comfort her so we use them as a lovey. Bonus for us since we have so many and she isn't particular about a certain one. I was hesitant to let her snuggle it at night, but have come around because it really helps her and she is pretty good about not having on her face when deeply asleep.
We did it around 6 months I believe. We just used one I had picked up that was carters brand. If I would to do it over again I would get one that has some tags on the sides. DD is still obsessed with tags. By one year old she was addicted to her lovely and still sleeps with it today.
Post by thebreakfastclub on Jul 16, 2014 13:51:16 GMT -5
We have 2 - a tiny one that came attached to a board book and a bigger hippo one that I bought at JC Penney randomly.
I think we gave them to him around 8 months? He falls asleep with both of them on his face. They do not leave the house, but he likes to take them downstairs now and play with them or carry them around.
We introduced it around 4 months old when he was in the hospital. He uses the Angel Dear Giraffe blankie, and now that he's older he has the full napping blanket.
DD has this giraffe lovey from babiesrus since 3 mo. Her name is Gia...lol. She needed to hold something while nursing because she would grab either her hair or our fingers for comfort.
ETA: She never sleeps with it or has it in the crib.
DD was more than a year (maybe 18 months even) when she became obsessed with a pacimal (like a wubanub) that she found in a drawer. She had refused it as an infant, but from the day she found it in the drawer, it was the only thing she would sleep with. She likes to flick the paci part and doesn't use it at all as a pacifier. We did try to introduce an Aden & Anais lovey when she was around 7 months, but she wanted nothing to do with it.
Post by cincodemayo on Jul 16, 2014 13:57:19 GMT -5
AT 10.5 months, my kid has no interest in a lovey, but we do give him a stuffed alligator thing and a A&A blanket in his crib now. He doesn't touch them.
I tried taggies and a brandless teddy bear mini blanket prior to this. He does not snuggle with anything.
Post by turtlegirl on Jul 16, 2014 14:01:02 GMT -5
DS1 never took to a lovey. We tried to give him a taggie lovey when he was about 4-5 months old, but he was a thumb sucker - so he just never really cared about anything else. We gave him a blanket around 8-9 months old and he got much more attached to that. But now at 3.5 he doesn't really care too much about it.
When DS2 was 4 months old we have him the same taggie lovey that DS1 rejected and he LOVES it.
He sucks on the hands as his "paci" and we have to wash it all the damn time. It stinks so much, LOL. And we bought a second one when he was about 18 months and he totally knows its "fake" and only likes the original one. He recently found the "fake" one and looked at it all funny and said to me "It's broken". No fooling that kid.
I think we threw it in the crib between 6-8 months. Can't remember.
We had a 3-pack of Angel Dear monkeys from early on, but it took a while for him to really care about it. He used to love textures, so I would sometimes hand him the lovey when we were in the car.
We now own 8 of them, and he always has one in his crib. Sometimes he wrangles it out of his crib through the slats. We have so many, because they usually end up on the dog's bed if they leave DS's bedroom. I also have one at the sitter's house along with a spare there.
Post by dragonfly08 on Jul 16, 2014 14:39:24 GMT -5
I never introduced one with either of my kids. My oldest became attached to a stuffed firefly named Freddy all on her own. She had a variety of toys and such but from about 3-4 months old always seemed to want that particular one. #2 didn't ever pick up a lovey. She's always been into stuffed animals and dolls, especially at bedtime, but never one in particular.
I think around 5m. Before we started sleep training. She wasn't attached to it until a couple months later though. She's very attached now and she grabs it as soon as she goes into the crib.
We have 2 angel dear loveys that are the dogs.
ETA: I slept with it in my bra for a couple nights before we gave it to her so it would smell like me.
All of my girls, we really didn't introduce until close to a year, before that nothing held their interest.
If you find one that he really really loves, get a back up, lol! We have two teddy's for both DD1 & DD2 that we rotate in and out because as the girls got older, the teddies go with them everywhere, get so dirty, and we've had a handful of times where we thought one was lost.
For DD1, she has used her lovey as a way to help her calm down. When she got upset at daycare, she'd pull it out of her cubby and sit with it to help her soothe herself. DD2, not so much, but she liked to have her lovey more at naps and night for sleeping.
DD1- 4 months, taggie lovey. she didn't care for it. she never took to a pacifier either. I tried so hard to get her to want something when I noticed she was pulling at her hair while nursing/bottles. she has never had an attachment to anything. now she twirls her hair when she wants comfort.
DD2- 4 months again, when I noticed her pulling on my shirt or the burp cloth while nursing. We use a small lovey with a teddy bear head on it. she also really likes the taggie her old sis refused. she likes the tags. she also really likes pacifiers which is nice (for the love of god, stop crying!)
we started around 6 months because I noticed that she liked to snuggle it against her cheek to fall asleep. I would sneak in and take it away after she fell asleep back then. By 7 months, I figured that she could roll, sit-up and generally control her movement enough that I wasn't worried about suffocation enough to take it away anymore. We have a little bear/blanket thing from Blankets and Beyond.
I tried to encourage DD to attach to something around 4-5 months and again at 6 months but it didn't take. Around 17 months or so, she chose her own lovey. It is a soft puppy that a lovely, grandmotherly lady that I taught with gave me early on in my pregnancy. It's a Bunnies by The Bay Silly Buddy and I really like it. It's small, the body is soft but still has a shape and the hands/feet/head are lightly stuffed. It also has a velcro spot on one hand to attach a pacifier if you like.
He isn't super attached yet. I noticed he like to hold/feel/suck on tags so I figured he'd like the silky edge of the security blanket. He doesn't cover his face with it, just holds on to the edge (silky part).
Post by imojoebunny on Jul 16, 2014 16:52:31 GMT -5
My DD, who is 8, hasn't gone a night without her Jelly cat polo neck giraffe, since she was 7 months old. Thankfully, we have 6 of them. My DH made fun of me for ordering so many when she was about 18 months old, but now he wishes we had ordered more. 3,000 days and nights, even split among 6 stuffies, is hard on them. He is kind of part of the family at this point. She takes him lots of places and only lost him for two hours once, at about 2. She knew exactly where he was and when I returned to the store, that said he wasn't there, made a beeline for him.
Kudos to Jelly cat for making stuffies that can hold up to an insane amount of love.
We introduced the Wubanub at 6 months when we sleep trained. It was at the suggestion of a friend. I laughed it off, but my kid loves the thing, and as a bonus sleeps great! It is my new go to gift for baby showers. We leave it in the crib and I think it gives him something to look forward to or enjoy about getting in his crib and something to play with when he wakes up.
I'm afraid of him suffocating with one in the crib though.
Use the Aden and Anais Issie blankets my dd is super attached still at 27m old. I love that she loves them (we have about 8 in the crib haha) I started giving it to her around 4m old, usually to hold while nursing. She holds them by her ear/head when she's tired and sleeps on top of them
I introduced around 8 mo, 5 adjusted for sleep training. I bought 2 yards of minky blanket material. I cut it into tiny strips for when she was little. They got bigger when she was older. If she loses it, I just cut another piece.
I figured E wasn’t unique with her love of burp cloths (and pretty much anything soft she can rub against her face), but I didn’t realize it was an EVERYbaby kind of thing. It’s so cute!
So, yeah, she has adopted the prefold diapers we use as burp cloths as her loveys. She received a purple hippo Angel Dear that she loves, too - mostly because it’s a glorified burp cloth. I’m partial to that one because it’s cute and I named it. She has another she received as a gift that has a bigger head and is second to the hippo but essentially the same thing.
We don’t let her have it overnight, but we will eventually. I do let her take it for naps because I check on her so frequently.
Dd took to an Angel Dear owl about a month or so ago. She doesn't sleep with it overnight, but she does nap with it sometimes if she's worked up. She does like to put it up to her face so it won't be with her when I'm out of sight for a long time.
We introduced one right around 3 months when I went back to work. C was a bottle refuser, so I slept with the Angel Dear monkey in my bra for a weekend and then sent it with him to daycare. He didn't really attach to it until a few months later, but now he LOVES it. We currently have two of them. One that stays in his crib and one that goes in his daycare bag.
I love that he has a comfort item, because it has really helped when someone watches him for us now that he's going through separation anxiety. My mom or SIL will come over to watch him, and he's ok with them so long as he can hold onto his monkey once he realizes we're gone.
I never did. In fact, I pretty much discouraged it. (He never showed a desire for anything, so it's not like he was upset about it.) I put random things in his crib or gave him stuffed animals and/or blankets to hold/snuggle when awake, but i rotated them often so he wouldn't get too attached to one certain thing. It really worked well for DS1 & looks promising for DS2. (Though I know it certainly doesn't work for all kids!) If he had gotten attached to something on his own, that would have been fine, but I certainly wasn't going to push it. I saw it as eventually causing more stress for me (always having to have a certain item, having replacements, etc.)
When I was a kid, my sister's lovey (a stuffed animal) was stolen. I'll never forget how devastated she was and how horrible and helpless I felt about it. I wanted to try and avoid that with my kids as much as humanly possible.