How do you encourage attachment (to a thing)

[littleEDfamily]

Our elder daughter has a favourite teddy, which always seemed a comfort at sleep time and also soothes her at other times. Our baby shows no interest to in anything particular. I think some attachment to an object may come in useful at various times, but how do I get her to take an interest and fall in love???

[Fuschia]

None of ours had been

Particularly interested until well onto toddlerhood

Being too dependent might be a bit of s two edged sword

But for a baby try a Muslin and make it smell of you/milk

[Pickle]

My son has a dog which he loves (bedtime only) - he sucks it's tail, so after 4.5 years you can imagine just how horrible it is! :-S Despite my best efforts I haven't been able to find a 2nd "Barney", and I fear it's on it's last legs.

With my daughter I was determined not to fall into the same trap, so I started leaving the muslin I'd been using for the day in her cot with her at night. 3 years on she loves her "wuzzy", and the best thing is I have 12 of them, so every week wuzzy gets replaced with "fresh wuzzy" and she doesn't seem to mind.

I think it's just a case of deciding what to use and sticking with it, I'd say she was about 1 year old before she started snuggling up to it at night (she has a very particular way that she likes it, all bunched up against her cheek).

[Moos]

After my elder son fell spontaneously in love with a bunny (a gift which turned out to be an incredibly expensive Steiff toy and therefore not duplicable!) we have made efforts to get Twosling attached to a soft cloth tiger. I gave it to him to hold while feeding him, and once we started putting him down in his own bed gave it to him to cuddle. It took a couple of months for him to get fond of it, but once he started rolling onto his side to sleep he started to grab it and slurp at it before settling. He's 6 months now, and it may be time for us to nip out and buy a sneaky second one in case of disaster.

[snowboarder]

As above my eldest started getting attached to a jojo's bunny comforter at about 12m. I used to feed him at night with bunny (kind of sleep training so thought a friend might help!) and then pop them in bed together. They are now totally inseparable, bunny comes everywhere, bit of a pain. Before he could talk he had his own made up special sign for bunny! We do have 3 hidden away though...so when bunny goes for a swim in the bath or explores the pavement he is miraculously dry/clean in seconds. I can't bear the thought of the wailing otherwise.

Warning - I do know of a child who lost his comforter teddy....he was so upset it almost ruined his childhood..he cried for years afterwards!

[sanity girl]

I just chuck a selection of soft things in baby E's cot - he'll usually end up snuggling whatever is closest to him but I suspect he'll start forming a preference once he is a bit older (8 months now) - he's happy with muslin, taggies blankie, jellycat bunny, jellycat soft blanky with bunny attached etc. My daughter on the other hand only wanted dummy when she was a baby and only since she was about 3 has formed a strong attachment to her soft toy dolphin (note to self - get a duplicate dolphin from the natural history museum soon before they stop selling them!)

[Moi23]

My son lost his favourite granny knitted blanket on some unknown train in the midlands. Luckily he was attached to a few other similar blankets, so he soon got over it. I however am still heart broken....

[littleEDfamily]

I'm hearing you on the double edged sword - we spend every other night before bedtime spending 10 fraught minutes saying 'Where is lamby, where did you put him, c'mon, think... that's why you shouldn't take him everywhere...'....hmm yes.

Great idea to introduce 'the chosen' one while feeding. Might stop her pinching me! I will try.....

[Carrie]

We once had to pay for a much loved and irreplaceable teddy to be fed-exed from a hotel in France where he had been left by (expensive) mistake. It gave my schoolgirl french a tough work out and we had to assure grieving daughter that the box would have airholes so teddy would not suffocate en route! Moral of the story - make sure you choose a cheap and easily replaceable object.

[madmum]

both mine have a fav toy both of which came from Ikea, Fisrt child feel in love with a rat known as Mr Rat who suffered many tragic deaths

1. feel out of our 1st floor flat window and the evil people downstairs refused to retrive it for him

2. MIA in sainsbury (this was a regular thing always guarenteed to raise a scream by un suspecting shoppers)

3. left in spain, we had to explain that he had family over there so felt like he needed to stay,we replaced him with Mr rats brother ratty...god the things we do

4. suffered a bad burn and had to be repaired at the animal hospital also known as my cupboard under the stairs, Ratty had to have 50 stiches and son received a lolly for his bravery

5. he finally went missing on north cross road never to be seen again (rat number 8 by this time) i explained that Ratty had decided that his job was done and like Mary Poppins he went when the wind changed to help someone else,,I was convience by this tale but mini mad son was not....ratty was replaced by ginny le pig (again from Ikea) he is now bed ridden due to his age and son now being 6. Second son felt a bound with an ikea ardvark!!!! he is sadly discontinued so am thinkning I may have to have him tagged!

These little creatures have proved viatl to us and our sons, strange how something so simple can make everything ok...Wish sometimes I still had mine(a small peice of flannette aaffectionatly known as my baby)

Good luck xxx

[prm]

Apparently if you tuck the item down your bra/ take it to bed with you one night it will catch your Mum scent and the baby will love it...My 8 month old hasnt taken a liking to any particular toys so far but personally Im thinking it may be best that way. She already has the dummy to help her sleep / calm down and Im afraid we may regret "introducing" a bunny / blanket / fav toy if such a unique & irreplaceable item goes missing one day!