My t-shirt has become a lovie....but I'm afraid she'll suffocate!!

[Middle Dill]

I think I've gotten us into a little bit of a quandry.  My 8.5 mo was having trouble going down for her naps without me in the room...so I thought I'd try to give her my t-shirt that I wore to bed the night before just to see if it would work.  Well, it worked almost intstantly!  She takes one sniff of it and begins to fall asleep!  The only problem is...she smothers her face with it and I'm worried that she's going to suffocate herself.  So what I'll do is wait until she falls asleep then I take it out of the crib.  Does this traumatize her at all since this is supposed to be a comfort item?  I've tried sleeping on a smaller item, like a facecloth, and giving it to her ... but of course she only wants the big 'suffocating' t-shirt.  How do I switch lovies?

[meltown]

My lo has a blanket he sleeps with always.  sometimes they need something to rub their face in to calm them.  I would just check on her and move it if you feel it is to close.  Braxton has learned to move it off his face and he doesn't have a problem with it, but I was nervous liek you before and I would just go in and be sure it wasn't over his face when he was asleep.  Remember that your LO chooses their lovie, not you, so you ahve to be willing to try things that will help.  Also you may try getting a recieving blanket and sleeping with it for a week and then giving it to her or maybe get some t-shirt fabric from a fabric store and try that.  that way it wil feel like a t shrt but wouldn't be that.... I don't know if that helps because it is still cloth, but I would just move it if it makes you feel uncomfortable, I wouldn't take it out though because if she needs it and it isn't there then she will need you to get her back to a comfortable place to go to sleep.

[Bryony's mum]

Just wondering, could you cut the T-shirt in half (front & back) so that it's a bit thinner and a bit less fabric over your dd's face?  I'm presuming that now your dd has adopted it, you're not expecting to wear it again!    And then at least you'd have two loveys.

[Middle Dill]

Great ideas!  Thanks so much for your replies.  I also just had an idea of just tying the t-shirt into a knot.  We'll see how that works before I bring any scissors to it!