Doudou blanket or not?
Doudou, nin-nin … it may have many names. But what is certain is that your child will not let go, this teddy bear or the cloth. Psychologists for its name is far less poetic: it is called “transitional object”. A U.S. study may explain why some children can not part with it, while others do not feel the need.
About half of children has one. The blanket appeared at eight months and 6 years before disappearing. Its role is to reassure the child when it will separate from his parents to go to the nursery or to the nurse for example.
Hence the name of transitional object: it is the link between the family and the outside world. This is why children often abandoned as soon as he has made ”friends” at school. This blanket is also important to reassure the child when he falls asleep.
No sleep without blanket
If the role of comforter is well known, the fact that half the children do not need to have is still a mystery. Certainly, in some cases, a simple reason can be explained: a brother or sister already in the nursery for example. Dr. Gabriel Ybarra presented at the last meeting of the American Psychological Association, a study that could explain the need for a transitional object in the child. For him, the presence or absence of one parent when sleep is essential. According to the study of the parents of 279 children when the mother or the father is present at the time of sleep, the child is less likely to adopt a blanket. According to the author, this does by no means against the child “doudouphile” is more anxious than others.
Mom or blanket: you must choose!
Gabriel Ybarra was already the author of a previous study in which he compared the influence on the child’s mother or blanket at a consultation of Pediatrics *.
He had noticed that everyone had a calming effect but this effect does not stack when both mother and comforter were present. Worse, the child was sometimes less assured in the presence of both. This can be explained by the fact that the mother offers the child to take his blanket to go to the doctor, then it will be this: it is worried by the extra precautions!
As these two studies confirm the role of parents is crucial in the choice to have a transitional object and also the effects of it reassuring. But parents whose child has a blanket can rest assured that is unlikely to be positive or negative influence on his future life. You just wash it periodically and especially avoid losing!