Creature comfort

A friend, whose mothering skills I respect, persuaded her babies to cuddle with muslin nappies. Most families with babies own several of these, once know as 'Harringtons' and used as general nursery mop-ups. The absent-cuddly upset never arose in that household, and the muslins could be washed regularly.

I have tried this strategy with my latest baby. He flaps his muslin about, and generally turns to suck his fingers if I drape one over his face to help him settle at night. But then, he also snuggles with the fringe on his blanket, the telephone cord, his toothbrush, a wooden spoon, toast fingers - in fact practically anything of any texture if he feels like sucking his fingers.

Studies, most of which seeming rather unkind, involved taking cuddlies away or replacing them with a favourite 'hard toy'. Children who were left in a strange environment with their cuddly to hand were far more sociable, outgoing and confident than children who had been deprived of a comfort object.

Naturally, excessive dependence on cuddlies could indicate that something is wrong. But the expression 'security object' was not coined accidentally. Ultimately, they act as an inanimate prop for a small person's forays into the outside world. More portable and flexible than a mother, they help a child make the transition from his parents' arms, to nursery, to school and eventually into the outside world. And why not? It can be a big and scary place.