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The blanket: your baby’s first companion
Soothing contact, familiar scent … the blanket has an emotional value that helps the baby to cross the first stages of his life. It appears between 6 months and 1 year. As soon as he knows how to catch the objects around him, the toddler has his preferences. In his cradle, he sets his sights on a corner of fabric that he chews, a long tag that he passes under his nose, a rabbit’s ear that he rubs against his cheek, or the soft belly of a teddy bear in which he buries his face. Little by little, a “sensory protocol” is created which soothes him. Like a friend, the blanket reassures him, helps him fall asleep, to separate from the people he loves, to console himself. Indeed, a good blanket is a soft object, easy to handle, solid and washable. The child must have a good grip on him by the ends (ears, tail, tag, knot in the fabric, etc.) that he grips easily. And there is no point in wanting to choose for him: only the blanket chosen spontaneously by your child is invested with real power. If he lands on Mommy’s tired nightgown, there’s nothing to say.
The blanket, a transitional object for the child
Once elected by the toddler, the blanket acquires great symbolic power. This final choice is generally made around 9 months. The blanket then allows the child to imagine his mother when she is absent. Called “transitional object” by psychologists, the blanket actually creates a space of transition between the child and the mother. It represents the link that unites them and acts as a hyphen between them. He is the witness and the memory of all the good times spent together. This is why it is so useful during partings. However, whether he has a blanket or not, the baby can separate from his mother as long as he knows that she loves him and that she will come back. The blanket is just one more tool to help him cope better with separations. But he is not the only one who can symbolize the absence of the beings he loves. The child may prefer to take the little car with which he has just played with his dad, the last object around which he had an exchange with mum (handkerchief, scarf…), or nothing. He can also have an “integrated” blanket: a lock of hair that he fiddles with, a finger that he sucks, a way of rocking himself, his head to the side. The fact of being attached or not to a single object reflects the way in which the child manages his moments of worry. To each his own protocol. However, even with his favorite pillowcase, he will loudly proclaim his dismay during the first separations! On the other hand, when a baby appears little or not at all at the start as when his parents return and seems withdrawn, it is necessary to worry about it. It is only in this case that the absence of a blanket becomes the sign of a possible problem.
The blanket reassures and makes you autonomous
Infused with places and beings that are most familiar to your baby, the blanket has a unique and reassuring smell. With it, the child has developed a little manual: he has his own way of using it through repetitive gestures that have a soothing power even stronger than the blanket itself or its scent.
The blanket is a safety base from which the little one can conquer the world. He goes on an adventure more willingly if he knows that he can return to take refuge in his soft and fragrant lap at the slightest concern. The fact that the child has all power over him is not trivial: with the blanket, he manages his own reinsurance mode. Thus, it builds the foundations of its autonomy.