Why do children get so attached to a comfort object?
Because it does a real psychological job: it gives the child something to control when the world is not controllable, and a way to carry a sense of security into places a parent cannot go.
The developmental picture. The psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott called these transitional objects, seeing them as occupying the space between the child and the outside world — not quite part of the self, not quite separate. Whatever one makes of the theory, the observation holds: attachment typically emerges in the second half of the first year, peaks in the toddler years, and fades gradually through the primary years.
What it does for the child:
Self-soothing. The object helps a child regulate without an adult — at bedtime, at nursery, in a car seat, at the doctor — which is the beginning of independent emotional regulation, not an obstacle to it.
Predictability. It smells the same and feels the same when everything else has changed, which is why attachment intensifies around moves, new siblings, starting childcare and illness.
Agency. It is the one thing entirely under the child's control.
What parents worry about, unnecessarily:
It is not a sign of insecurity. Research finds no consistent relationship between having a comfort object and poorer attachment; roughly half to two-thirds of children in Western cultures have one, and prevalence varies culturally with sleeping arrangements — children who co-sleep are less likely to.
It does not need weaning. Almost all children relinquish them on their own timetable, usually narrowing the object's use to bedtime before dropping it.
Practical management:
Buy a duplicate now, rotate them so they wear and smell alike, and be aware that many children detect the substitute anyway.
Wash it occasionally rather than never, and ideally alongside the child.
Photograph it, which helps enormously if it is lost.
Label it for nursery, and keep a designated place for it.
Allow it during hard times rather than using access as leverage, which turns a regulation tool into a punishment.
If a child has none, that is equally normal.