I at first as a new mother never thought of my child becoming to attached to toys I had in the cot with him. I had set up his cot set up with a few select stuff toys to keep him company when he was in there and thought nothing

more of it.... Very early days I noticed that when ever I went in to pick him up the biggest toy, a blue dog was always in his hands. I thought it was cute and seemed to make him more comfortable upon waking and I didn't have to go in strait away and pick him up.

My son became very attached to this big blue dog that was almost as big as him, the problem with this was at first I only had one.... Why was this a problem you ask, imagine this...

Your son uses his comforter to get to sleep, he kind of places it over his eyes and twirls its tail till he is asleep. One day it is really hot so you put him into bed with only his nappy on and un be known to you he wakes up, manages to get his nappy off which is loaded with poo and paints the cot, walls, and his fluppy puppy with poo..... This dog was big, hard to dry and took up alot of space in my gereral washing load.... Needless to say I couldn't get him to sleep again till I had his Fluppy back again...

I called my friend who gave me the comforter and asked her where she bought it and went and purched another one so I always had one spair.... That went reallly well until one night my son suffered a bad bout of the vomits and made quite the mess of his fluppy.... Wow isn't that a fun thing to go through with your child, I felt good about having bought a second fluppy for my son and congratulated my forward thinking.... That was of coarse till after thinking he had finished vomiting putting him back into bed and having him vomit all over the 2nd one too.... Lucky for me when I went back to the shop to buy more fluppy puppies they still had some and I bought the remaining 3 on the shelf....

These dogs took up so much room in my washing machine, as my son got older and teething he started sucking and chewing fluppies tail, and as you can well imagine fluffies little bottom became quite stinky from all the spit constantly around that area... I was constantly rotating fluffy so my son didn't end up getting what I would like to call fluffy bottom breath.... EWWWWW

When expecting my second child I went of the hunt for a small comforter, easy to wash and dry that would last the years. I bought 6 of these at the same time. My son of 5yrs still sleeps next to his fluppy so they really do need to stand up to the years.... When my daughter was born this is the only soft toy I put in her cot so that when she decided to get attached to something I was deciding what it was. I rotated them constantly so they all aged and smelt the same to her... Worked a charm she fell for it hook line and sinker. I like to call her the fluffy snob, fluffy is the name of her comforter... If fluffy is even only slightly on the nose or has a little dirt on him she requests a new one... Or now as she gets older tells me she can not find fluffy, so I get her a new one and then 5 minutes later she is sitting on the couch with 2, she is a very cute little fox...

There needs to be rules with the comforters so they do not rule your life or make your life difficult. Our rules are:

1. We have one car fluffy that is not allowed to leave the car and actually lives in the car unless he needs a bath

2. Fluffy is not allowed to leave the house unless he is going to daycare. Not even outside at our own house when we play.

3. Fluffy is not allowed to go shopping with us

4. Fluffy is not allowed to eat dinner with us

Sounds like having a comforter is to hard a job doesn't it.. You know, it isn't, they have helped my children go to sleep on their own easier because they always have a constant friend to be with... They help them when they are scared, and help them comunicate when you are not sure what is wrong with them... We are away a lot with my partner and his work and  they help the kids feel at home in new places. They really are a wonderful parenting tool...

Thanks for Reading my advise

Rusty