This past week, we’ve looked at the many ways that baby blankets help young children develop, calm down, think, explore, play, and get on with their lives.

Let’s end this series by getting to a blanket truth: they are a must-have child development tool for parents.

Even the simplest blankies assist parents with one of the most important infant needs: Sleep. Make that peaceful sleep. To the parents of newborns, it feels like life will never normalize again — partly because a new baby’s sleep habits seem so erratic.

By the time your baby enters the settled period (between 12- 16 weeks) he will begin to recognize night from day.  He’ll also detect a difference in the vibe at playful times versus supposed-to-be-sleeping times (partly because you’re such a bore when he tries to giggle with you at you at 3:35 am).

If parents provide consistent bedtime signals (you’re right not to giggle back in the middle of the night, btw), the settling in can happen more smoothly.  The familiarity (smell, feel, pattern) of his favorite bedcover tells baby 1) it’s time to sleep, and 2) this is a good thing, remember?

A review:

• Your newborn baby’s blanket can serve his emotional development as his transitional object (see Part 1 from Monday).
• Until more motor control naturally develops, a lightweight, natural-fiber cloth or sheet can meet the newborn’s need for physical stability  – his hug away from hug (re-read Tuesday’s Part 2: “The Swaddle”).
• Social development gets a boost when an older, sturdier baby enjoys high-energy games with a loved one and a beloved blankie (see Part 3 from Wednesday: “Search Party”)
• Intellectual development (curiosity) will outpace his ability act on it.  As motor skills catch up with curiosity, your older infant will want to reach out and touch an interesting, multi-textured coverlet (refer to Thurday’s, Part 4: “Touchy Feely”).

A worthy blankie, like a good parent, is capable of wrapping around a young child’s heart, mind, body and soul.

Thick blankies will be today’s focus. The bumpy ones, the ones with fringes and mysteries stitched in.

While a versatile blanket will support your baby’s overall development, a blanket that offers interesting textures will specifically stimulate motor development, body self awareness, and intellectual development.

What an interesting blankie looks like.

Some of them are made of terry cloth.  Some double as bath towels.  Others look like a combination stuffed animal/soft blanket.  My favorites are safely constructed, boldly decorated, and have job descriptions.

One corner of the blankie might have a compelling (color-contrasting) appliqued animal or image (visual stimulation).  In another corner, perhaps there will be a soundmaker (rattle? squeaker?) embedded (auditory stimulation).  There might be corduroy patch or a fuzzy square sewn into the design so that when baby scoots around, his fingertips discover a new sensation as part of his reward for daring to explore (tactile stimulation). If the blanket is made of non-raveling felt, the edges might sport a fascinating fringe, perfect for fingering and flicking (self-soothing).  Like a good book, the blanket might offer (cloth) flaps for opening, tugging, crinkling, or closing. Again and again (object permanence stimulation).

More developmental benefits of a touchy feely baby blanket.

Settled babies (3-4 months) and older babies (6 months and up) are bringing together just the right combination of skills that help them make the most of a blanket that has stimulating features.

The following areas of development will grow as a result of tactile exploration:

• Intellectual – thinking skills first show up as curiosity.  New textures will spark new questions, finding out the answers will spark new brain connections.
• Gross motor (large muscles; arm, for example) – Each new day brings more practice at reaching out to grab items of interest.
• Fine motor (small muscles; hands/fingers, for example) – Each new grab brings an opportunity to touch, poke, squeeze the loot your baby hauls in.
• Emotional – your baby will develop his own preferences for textures.  Some children detest goopiness, some revel in it.

Tomorrow, in the finale of this series, we will see why sometimes a blankie is just a blanket.

to be continued…..

Twenty-one years ago, I discovered that my 5 month-old was ready to play hide and seek.

I didn’t mean to.  Really.

My teaching colleagues in Panama had gifted my new baby with an assortment of of hand-appliqued blankets (sheets, actually — this was a tropical birth).

Five months later, back in the US, and past her swaddling stage, my daughter used to enjoy looking at the brightly colored ducks and ginghams that bordered the sheets.  She also spent a lot of time on her tummy, reaching for and touching the embroidery stitches that illustrated the layette.

On a breezy morning, as my baby lay on the floor, kicking, making spit bubbles, and generally getting on with her day, I decided to offer her a covering.  As I spread it over her, I misjudged where it would land, and the blanket-sheet ended up covering Mariel’s face.  She gasped.  Loudly.

I quickly snatched the offending cloth away, while moving in close so that I could scoop up my first-born for a little reassurance or soothing, or whatever she might need after such a regrettable and shocking slip-up on my part.  But then she squealed.  Loudly.  Kicked, too.

I stared at her, confused.  She stared at me, bright-eyed.  Drooling.  So, I righted myself — back on my knees, at her feet, sheet in hands, like before.  Very carefully, and pretty slowly, I fanned the sheet in the air, and allowed it to drift again onto her face.  Another gasp, another snatch, and another squeal later, we had ourselves a game!   I wanted a turn!  I laid down on the floor beside my baby, and covered up — then whisked away own facial covering.  The gasping, squealing, and drooling carried on.  Baby seemed like she enjoyed it, too.

There is a more methodical, less risky way to introduce hide and seek or peekaboo games to your infant.

• Start by positioning yourself so that you and baby are making eye contact.
• Engage in a familiar activity like a simple conversation (with plenty of gentle tones and smiling).
• Then tell baby you are going to play peekaboo.
• Cover your eyes with your hands, then call baby’s name.
• When you think that baby has had enough time to notice what is different about your appearance, slowly open your hands and cheerily say, “I see you!”
• Take note of your baby’s reaction, then go with the flow.  If baby wants more, Yay!  If baby isn’t ready, try another time.

This game becomes mutually amusing when your baby enjoys hiding, then peeking at you.  Interacting this way (with words and body) is another great learning opportunity for social skills like turn-taking, knowing how to play a game, and learning that vocal intonations vary with meaning.

When you are certain that the game is all in good fun for your child, you can use a lightweight blanket to cover more and more of her body.  She’ll learn more words (arms, toes, feet, legs, face) when you make it fun to do so.

Thanks for walking (crawling?) down memory lane with me.  I loved those sheets, and used them every day.  They became burp cloths,  and even floor cloths on which Mariel practiced her rolling over skills. Then her rolling-back skills.  When I nursed her in public, they were my covers — for a moment, anyway.  Like I said, Mariel loved playing hide and seek, even when it gave others too much of a peek.

Some babies need constant hugs.

And sometimes Mommy just needs baby to sleep.  For a little longer then she did yesterday.  Please?

You and your baby want the same thing: contentment.  For baby, the ultimate contentment, the ultimate hug, was what she experienced when she lived in her own apartment, (aka “the womb”).  Since your newborn can’t go “home” again, her new neighbors (aka “family”) will just have to find ways to help her settle in until she learns how to comfort herself.

Swaddling a baby in a lightweight, preferably 100% natural-fiber blanket or sheet will help you both achieve your goals. Baby will feel safer and self-contained again.  Mom will be able to relax and trust the longer nap that baby drifts into.

As your baby adjusts to daily rhythms, relationships, and your cues (she’ll begin to react to the signals of meal time), she will also learn to associate comfort, then security, then a good sleep, with the very process of having you wrap her snugly.

Babies show up equipped with strategies and tools to help them survive.  Everything from way extra brain cells, to a willingness to suck the milk out a knuckle, to the Moro reflex, a mechanism that causes a new baby to flail her limbs (in search of balance? in an attempt to cling to a big person?) when startled by a feeling of falling or other sudden events.

Like I said, it’s a reflex — therefore, not entirely under your newborn’s control.  Babies have been known to wake themselves from an otherwise successful nap with twitches and involuntary movements.  Parents need to find that delicate balance between a snug swaddle and baby’s personal needs.  Some infants will find it tragically disruptive not to be able to access a hand or thumb for sucking (which is self-soothing, and should be encouraged).

The words “swaddle” and “swath” have the same Old English linguistic roots.  In agriculture, a swath is a strip of land that has been demarcated or cleared.  The ancients used strips of fabric to wrap around newborns, thereby binding babies’ arms to their torsos.  Modern updates of the swaddling method are obviously much safer than the possibilities of loosened fabrics strips and the potential dangers.

For an important list of how-to’s (AND how not-to’s) on swaddling, see the MommyGarten.com blogroll for a link to a site that is all about the swaddle.

to be continued…..

Even our baby’s blankets have to multitask these days.

In addition to providing warmth or comfort for baby, and a pink-blue gender clue for admiring strangers, a baby’s blanket ought to earn its keep.  It should make Mommy’s job easier, and baby’s life a little more interesting.

Like a good toy or book or nanny, a good blankie will meet more than just one of your baby’s developmental needs.

Job 1:  Transitional object

The first year of your child’s life brings rapid, sometimes startling changes.  First there’s that whole relocation thing. She liked her original home just fine, although things were getting a little cramped.  So, she moved out — got evicted, really.

Once unpacked, your newborn worked very hard to get accustomed to her new digs, and all those new faces peering at her.  Much to her dismay, baby discovered that big people like schedules, bright lights, sudden sounds, and removing diapers right after she gets ‘em get nice and warm.  Life-altering events awaited her — milestones like  finding her feet, finding out she could walk on them,  hearing the word “no” a lot, then realizing she could say it too, by golly.

Every transition takes your baby farther from … well, farther from you, Mommy.  A blanket or stuffed friend (or ritual, even) that she can hold onto, when she can’t be held by you, will help her to do some of her own consoling for herself.  An important life skill to learn.

The stability of the transitional object (I really mean “exclusivity” I suppose) is important.  Baby is no longer a part of Mommy, but her blankie or doll can be a part of her life that nobody else controls.  That is why you’ll see the sweetest of babies become lionesses when an unauthorized person (by that I mean anyone in the whole universe — you too, granny) touches, looks at too long, or threatens to wash her blankie.

A blankie with a good work ethic will be employed by your household for a long time, perhaps even longer than you think.  When my teenager recently had wisdom tooth surgery, her conscientious doctor sent her home with antibiotics.  I was particularly relieved to have germ-killers — not for the surgery or the stitches, but for the 16 year-old, too frail to machine-wash, see-through blankie waiting at home to companion her through a difficult day, just as it always had.

to be continued……