A Hard Habit to Break

Part Four

Baby Blanket Bingo

By April E. Clark

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Many parents also worry about the sociological or psychological disadvantages in their child using a blanket past a certain age. According to Dr. Lumeng, time is usually on the child's side in that respect.

"Generally, children who still are using a security blanket regularly and outside the home when entering preschool or kindergarten will start to feel some social pressure to stop using it sometime during these years," she says. "So many children will reduce their use of the security blanket in preschool simply by modeling other children in the classroom they admire."

As her daughter neared kindergarten age, Smith was pleasantly surprised to find how simple it was to wean her from the security blanket. "We started talking with her about two weeks before her 4th birthday," she says. "We explained to her that on her birthday, she needed to give it to us to put away for her. We talked about this a lot, and she agreed. I honestly didn't think she would be able to do it, but on her birthday morning, she brought us the blanket and said goodbye. We put it up and that was the end of it. I'm sure a lot of parents wish it was that easy for them – I think we just got lucky! I do think that talking to her about it like she was a big girl and associating giving it up with something positive (her birthday), it made it easier."

Obviously Linus and his blanket attachment is an entirely different story.

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