Weaning off loveys/blankies

My kids have been using their sleep sacks as lovies since 4 months... pretty much sucking on them at night (yes, we find them asleep with them in their mouth still). They stopped wearing them 2 months ago but still need them to sleep. Now it's even worse and they keep taking them downstairs during the day.

I'm not really looking at weaning them now, but I'm wondering when is the right time? I remember using blankies until 6 and I really hope my kids are weaned by then! Mostly worried it will mess up their teeth...

 

i don't think you need to worry about it messing up their teeth, but i'd be curious what others' experiences have been. my girls are both thumb suckers and showing no signs at all of slowing down, so i'm pretty certain we'll be paying some big orthodontist bills some day down the road. ardon:

 

Ok, so mine will be 5 in a few weeks. They still have their lovies, but just this summer we switched it to where they have to leave them in their rooms. They are also thumb suckers and it seemed to help cut down on the thumb sucking during the day. Now they do it if they are tired or really chilling, but save it mostly for falling asleep. I think the blankie and thumb sucking have such a connection so that not having that with them all the time has helped. I don't see a problem with them having a lovie at night at all. I think at your kiddos ages, it's fine during the day too, but if you want you can have a rule where they leave them in their bed/crib.

 

I took my Raggedy Ann and Andy blankey to college with me - and it is now safely tucked away in my bra drawer. I don't plan on ever weaning them from their loveys. All 3 of my boys have a "lovey" of some sort - all 3 sleep with them - and all 3 leave them in their beds the rest of the day. I am thrilled that they have something that comforts them and I hope they will have that comfort for years to come! :wub:

 

My dd's both have/had blankets as lovies. My oldest just handed it to me one day and said, "here throw it away, I don't need it anymore." She was 5y 6m and had recently started kinder. She had recently had a new school friend come over and play and she hid it under pillow because she was embarrassed by it. She sucked her thumb only with her lovie and so this was HUGE! She never asked for it again.

My other dd is almost 5 and I have not even thought about weaning her from it. She also only sucks her thumb when she has it so she only uses in bed to go to sleep.

 

Yup .. what the others said. I wouldn't worry about it. Why put them and yourself through that ?? All my children had some sort of "lovie" and my 3 oldest are all grown up and are fine as can be. My oldest ds, Jeremy, who just turned 19, still has his blankie. He sleeps with it tucked under his pillow.

 

My Allison still has her "beautiful blanket" She sleeps with it every night and it has been with her since the day she came home from the hospital. I don't care if she takes it with her to college personally. I think it's great that she thinks something is so special that she has to have it every night and it comforts her, so I'm fine with her having it.

 

Mine both have lovey's. They both use to suck their thumbs when they had the lovey's. DS smashed his sucking thumb around 2 yrs. of age and that was the end of the thumb sucking for him. BUT...DD still sucks her thumb....only when she has her lovey and mainly when she is tired or going to sleep. The lovey's themselves do not bother me. I don't plan on weaning them from them. However, the thumb sucking does bother me a bit. I have talked to the pedi about it and he basically told me to chill...that she will stop on her own if we don't make a big deal about it. We have made a rule that the lovey's stay at home (unless we go on an overnight trip) in order to limit the use (mainly the thumbsucking). I've contemplated whether or not I should get stricter with DD and limit it only to the bed since hers still goes hand and hand with the thumb sucking...but I have just never enforced that yet.

 

Love it!!! I have a teddy bear that I got later, maybe at age 7? and I, uh took it to college too.... and still sleep with it most every night!

anyway, each of our twins has a few things they love to sleep with, and at one point - probably 6 mo. ago we had them keep the little blankets in their cribs... well, the past few months seems that they bring them out - UGH! ugh that you can never find them when they "need" them to go to bed, and ugh that they are thrown whereever in the house.

I need to get them to leave them in their room too... that would help a bit for us!

 

Mine is a blanket my grandmother crocheted for me. :wub: And it's in my underwear drawer!

I never plan on weaning my two. I'm sure they'll get to an age when they tuck them away or put them in a safe place, but I hope they never just decide to throw away their blankies!

 

I had a favorite blanket I would use. After about 5, my mother told me to give it to my gerbils. I watched them eat up my blanket. It was sad...very sad. I was ready for it since I agreed to it, but I won't do that sort of thing to my boys. DH thinks they should let go of their loveys at some point...maybe 3 or 4? I think they can have them as long as they want to, but as they get older, there will just be a limit to where they can take their loveys. To family and to sleep overs if they insist, but not to school. I think I'd rather they decide for themselves if and when they want to stop using their loveys.

 

I agree with everyone else, if it gives them comfort I wouldn't even try to wean them from it. I don't see lovies or blankies as being any kind of problem, even if they continue to sleep with them for a long time. My daughter (who is almost 15) still has a stuffed koala bear that she has slept with since she was really young & she still sleeps with it every night. As far as I am concerned, she can take it with her on her wedding night if she wants. :lol: If I were you, though, I might consider having a rule that they stay in the bedroom for naps & bedtime so that they are not dependent on them during the day.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who still sleeps with a lovey :FIFblush:

For my girls, we made a rule when they were around 2 that loveys stay in bed. I just can't deal with searching the house at bedtime for Meara's kittens or Ana's hankies.

 

My kids have them and I have no plans to rid them of them. I think my mom still has my blankey at her house.

 

My guys are six, each has one and then a couple that rotate in. For the most part they stay at the house. I think V took bunny to school in his back pack a couple of time last year. If they stay overnight at family (so far that has been it) they tend to take them.

CHipmunkeymon, that is just awful!

 

I still sleep with my "bear" (DH thinks this is nuts, but after being together 10 years, he's resigned to it) and I've told the kids they can take their loveys to college if they want to.

However, their "primary loveys" (a duck and a bunny) are not allowed out of the bedroom except in very special cases, like if someone is sick. And the other special loveys are not allowed out of the house.

Amy has a blankie, a collection of terrycloth drool bibs (her choice, not mine!) and a few other things she hauls out of her bedroom every morning and back in every night. We wind up searching for them at bedtime occasionally, but it's not a big deal. And Sarah isn't very attached to things other than her bunny, so that's just always in the bed.

They also have loveys at school, but I've started reminding them that they won't be allowed to take them to kindergarten next year.

The only problem we have is that Amy keeps getting pimples and rashes on her chin from sucking on the stupid velcro on the drool bibs. She only started really sucking/chewing on them several months ago -- not sure what that's about, but at least she's old enough to understand the cause & effect now. So if she doesn't want owies on her chin, she'll have to stop sucking on the velcro. :unknw:

 

My lovey was a full-sized blanket that finally completely fell apart when I was in high school. I still miss it.

My girls each have a lovey and we have a rule that they can only use them when sleeping. This is not because I don't want them to have them, but because we fear they will get lost if they are carrying them all the time.

 

Ok... how do you wash the thing? My kids both had a meltdown at bedtime because we put clean sleepsacks in their crib instead of the wet stinky ones...

 

There have been times that I've taken their blankies from them when they were sleeping and washed/dried them and put them back in bed before I went to bed. Sometimes, I'll throw it in the wash on the way out the door and then as soon as I get home, throw it in the dryer. If I dry just those 2 blankies, it takes maybe 15 mins. to dry. I've heard of some people having an exact same lovie and one is washed and ready to go at any time so that when the other has to be washed, they bring the clean one out and give it (most times kiddos don't know there are 2 of them). Mine have gotten to where they will allow me to wash it now and only occasionally complain, but again we've started restricting it to just in their rooms so they don't have it all day long and don't miss it like they used to when I needed to wash them.

 

Oooooh, I had a brilliant idea!

Turn the sleep sacks into something they can sleep with, a stuffed animal or a pillow. Just sew up the arms and stuff it. Put a face on it. Make it into an animal. That way it's not "a sleep sack" anymore and you might be more accepting of it.

And FWIW, I have three of the same blankets for A&R. One for daycare and two for home.