A Question For You Regarding Baby Blankets

This is Laylah's beloved baby blanket. It was made by her Grandma Collette with love, and has slept with her nearly every night since she was born. It used to be beautiful and bright, but through so many washings, it has since been left faded, old, worn, ragged, and full of holes. That doesn't in any way diminish Laylah's adoration for it, however. It will be 9 years old come May.

Andy has set a rule that it is not to leave her bedroom (and this is not just a rule for Laylah, but all of our children). He and I have differing opinions on this matter, because I myself had a "lovie" as a kid. I would take it around the house, play with it, wrap up in it to watch TV, and so on. I loved my baby blanket.

I don't mind if the kids have them out and are using them, but I don't want them left out, and I expect them to be put away when the kids are finished using them or playing with them. However, we had a little incident a few weeks ago that has me wondering if Andy has been right all along...

It all started while I was cleaning the kitchen one Saturday afternoon. I heard Magnus upstairs coughing and gagging. I ran up there as fast as I could where I saw Laylah patting him on the back. I did a quick finger sweep of his mouth and came up with nothing. He seemed to be fine, so I went back to what I was doing. All throughout the rest of the day, M would randomly start crying and gag or cough and then seem to be okay. It was really strange.

Later that evening, we were eating dinner and M would continue his strange behavior of eating a few bites and then gag a bit, or cough. I kept checking his mouth but I could never find anything. It was starting to unnerve me and I wondered what could possibly be wrong with him. He finished his dinner and went upstairs to play with the girls. I was still in the kitchen when I heard him gag yet again and then Laylah called down the stairs, "Magnus threw-up on the floor!" Andy was up there, so I waited for him to take care of it (tee hee). A little while later, he came down with a towel and showed me what was inside. It was part of Magnus' dinner (completely undigested, like it had looked on his plate) along with a piece of Laylah's baby blanket!!

It has been slowly falling apart for years, and sometimes thin strips of material will just peel off of the blanket and I will find them around the house on the floor. Apparently, Magnus found a piece too. And he ate it. It must have been lodged in his throat for most of the day, blocking food, or anything else for that matter, from going down. And he finally got it out. Yuck. But at the same time, Phew.

After Andy told his mom about it, she volunteered to make Laylah a new blanket. Andy told her that we'd probably throw her old one away, which made her incredibly sad. She is very attached, and like I said, sleeps with it every night. It made me sad too! I have a lot of memories associated with that old thing and I would hate to see it go. It's still up for debate in our house. Which is where you come in...

Should the blanket be allowed to stay? Or should we get rid of it? Any other ideas on what could be done with it?

Do any of your children have blankets or other lovies they are attached to? How do you handle it? (ie. going out in public with it, making them keep them it in their bed, only allowed to have them around the house, etc)