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Baby starts to grab, cuddle and play with a specific soft toy from 5 or 6 months then to develop a attachment link with this one around 8 months. The fact of losing blanket can quickly become a tragedy for your little one, triggering impressive crying. How? ‘Or’ What avoid losing blanket, find it or fill the gap with another if necessary: our advice.
Anticipate: how not to lose a blanket
Basic advice for parents who have been confronted with the loss of their child’s blanket: buy several ! This makes it possible to avoid the disaster if a blanket is lost and to skilfully rotate them while washing one … without baby noticing it.
Attention, if baby loves his blanket so much, it is not only for its shape, its love face or its size, it is also for its smell, characteristic of its environment (since he drags him everywhere), that of his parents and his! We must therefore take care that each blanket spends as much time with baby and has the same smell if we have several and that we relay them.
If you don’t have several identical soft toys, wash it regularly should allow our child to get used to his temporary absence, and not to reject a blanket that smells of laundry. A good method of ensuring that baby will not push back a new blanket if it is lost!
Thinking about making a label
As soon as our child starts to leave the house, whether for walks, the nursery, or to visit family and friends, we hang a label on your blanket ! If the one with the washing instructions has not been cut, we write our name and phone number in indelible marker, and if not, we can sew one with these instructions, to be sure that a good soul can return us blanket in case of loss.
We also think of take a photo of the blanket of our child to put it up in our street, our building and on social networks in case of loss.
Alert: my daughter or my son has lost his blanket!
The dreaded moment has arrived despite all our precautions: blanket is lost and it is the big crisis of tears. We manage as best as possible in an emergency: we reassure our child without lying to him, by explaining to him that the blanket is lost, that we are looking for it and that we hope to find it, but that we may not succeed.
His crying can be heartbreaking in the face of this loss and disconcert us, but a very small child develops a very strong attachment to objects and particularly to this transitional object. Doudou is indeed at this age more than an accessory: it is his best friend and his protector. It is therefore very important to reassure our child.
How do I find my child’s favorite stuffed animal?
Once the tears have subsided, we set up a real strategy to find blanket ! You launch a wanted notice in your street, your building or on social networks (think of the pages Facebook from your city or Wanted Community which have already proven their effectiveness in these situations!), we retrace the route traveled if the blanket was lost during an outing, and we can even contact the services of specialized sites such as Inspector Doudou, SOS Doudou, Doudou Malin ou Doudou and Company !
Soft toy not found: how to replace it?
We tried everything but nothing to do: blanket cannot be found. We can then either buy the same blanket if we find it, or buy a new blanket together if the baby is old enough, or help him to accept that he no longer wants a blanket: this accident can indeed be the occasion to cut the link with its transitional object.
Find the same blanket
If possible, we can buy the same blanket (and possibly take several). Baby maybe gonna reject because of its new smell, but he will gradually get used to it and give his plush back the smell he loves so much.
Buy a new blanket together
If our child is old enough, we can go on an adventure to find a new blanket ! It’s a double-edged sword: our child can either love this freedom in choosing his new blanket, or not find what he is looking for. In the latter case, this futile search can be the trigger to no longer want and need a blanket. A decision that you will then greet with dignity, explaining to him that he is now “a big one”, and that he can be proud of it!