Lovies and security blankets
The Baby Starters lovies, ranked
Six small squares of blanket with a head on one corner. Which one a three month old can lift, which one holds its shape after a wash, and which one is really a full size blanket wearing a lovey's name.
Best lovey overallUnicorn 14 inch Snuggle Buddy Plush Security Blanket with Satin
Best with a rattleBaby Plush Rattle Snuggle Blanket with Satin and Embroidery, My First Rudolph
Best licensed oneThe Very Hungry Caterpillar Snuggle Blanket with Rattle and Crinkle, Green with Colorful Dot, 10 inch Square
Most to doThe Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Interactive Blanket with 6 Multi-Sensory Features and Travel Clip, Count with Me Multicolored Print, 14 inch, Eric Carle
Best for a first HalloweenPlush Snuggle Buddy Blanket with Toy Rattle and My First Halloween Embroidery (Orange, Pumpkin) 13 inch
When you want a real blanketTextured Dot Blanket with Satin Trim, Pink 30″ x 40″A lovey is a square of blanket with a head sewn to one corner. That is the whole idea. It exists because a baby cannot safely sleep with a blanket and cannot carry a full sized one anyway, and because the thing a child settles on is almost never the expensive toy you chose for them.
This line has six of them worth covering, from a ten inch caterpillar to a thirty by forty inch blanket that keeps being sold as a lovey and is not one. They cost between $9.99 and $16.99, and the price tells you almost nothing about which will end up in the cot rota. Size and edge tell you most of it.
- a small square of blanket with a head on one corner
- light enough for a baby to lift at three months
- one edge in satin, which is the part small hands find first
- a body rather than a square, so there is more to hold
- the rattle sits inside the body, not on a stick
- usually the one a baby takes to after six months
What a lovey actually has to do
Three things, in this order. It has to be light enough for the child to lift without help, because a comfort object that an adult has to fetch is not doing the job. It has to have one part that feels different from the rest, and that is where the satin edge comes in. And it has to survive a wash, because it will be washed more than anything else a baby owns.
Everything else is decoration. A face helps an adult pick it out of a pile. A rattle helps at four months and gets ignored at ten. The crinkle layer outlasts both, and nobody knows why.
The six, ranked
Best lovey overall
Unicorn 14 inch Snuggle Buddy Plush Security Blanket with Satin
Fourteen inches of thin plush with a unicorn head, and the cheapest piece in the whole line. It is light enough for a baby to lift at three months, which is the single thing that decides whether a lovey becomes the favourite thing or stays in the basket.
- Size14 inches
- InsideNo rattle, no crinkle
- EdgeSatin trim
- Best fromAround 3 months
$9.99 at the last price check
4.8 out of 5 · 181 ratings on this family
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What works
- Light enough for small arms to lift on their own
- One satin edge, which is the part a thumb finds first
- Cheap enough to buy two and keep one clean
What to know
- No sound at all, so it does nothing for a baby who wants noise
- Thin plush shows wear at the ears before the body
Best with a rattle
Baby Plush Rattle Snuggle Blanket with Satin and Embroidery, My First Rudolph
Twelve inches, satin trim, embroidery instead of plastic eyes, and a rattle sewn into the body. The sound comes from the toy itself rather than from a stick, so there is nothing to drop under a car seat. The catch is the face: this is the Rudolph piece, and it is cut for one December.
- Size12 inches
- InsideRattle sewn into the body
- EdgeSatin trim
- Cut forFirst Christmas
$13.99 at the last price check
4.8 out of 5 · 99 ratings on this family
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What works
- The rattle answers an arm moving, which is how a baby learns it did something
- Embroidered face instead of moulded parts
- Small enough for a pram or a bag
What to know
- A Christmas face on a toy a child may keep for years
- Two inches smaller than the unicorn, which matters to a grabby six month old
Best licensed one
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Snuggle Blanket with Rattle and Crinkle, Green with Colorful Dot, 10 inch Square
The Very Hungry Caterpillar in ten inches, with a rattle and a crinkle layer. It is the smallest lovey here and the one adults recognise, so it turns up at baby showers constantly. The crinkle is the part babies come back to after the novelty of the face has gone.
- Size10 inches
- InsideRattle and crinkle
- EdgePlush, no satin stated
- Best fromAround 3 months
$14.99 at the last price check
5.0 out of 5 · 45 ratings on this family
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What works
- Crinkle and rattle in one piece at a low price
- The size a baby can hold in one hand
- A book to read alongside it, which older siblings like
What to know
- Ten inches is small for a toddler to hug
- No satin edge, and satin is what many babies settle on
Most to do
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Interactive Blanket with 6 Multi-Sensory Features and Travel Clip, Count with Me Multicolored Print, 14 inch, Eric Carle
Fourteen inches with six things happening on it: rattle, crinkle, teether, squeaker and a strap for a pram bar. This is the busy end of the shelf. A baby who is bored by a plain square will stay with this one, and a baby who is soothed by plain squares will not.
- Size14 inches
- InsideRattle, crinkle, squeaker
- TeetherAttached on a ribbon
- StrapFor a pram bar or car seat
$11.99 at the last price check
4.6 out of 5 · 20 ratings on this family
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What works
- The strap solves the toy that gets thrown from a pram
- A teether that hangs on a ribbon rather than rolling away
- Five different noises and textures in one piece
What to know
- Too busy to be a settling toy at night
- The lowest score of the six, at 4.6 across its family
Best for a first Halloween
Plush Snuggle Buddy Blanket with Toy Rattle and My First Halloween Embroidery (Orange, Pumpkin) 13 inch
Thirteen inches, rattle inside, satin trim and My First Halloween embroidered across it. Occasion pieces are a real part of this line, and this one is the best made of them. It is also useless for eleven months of the year, which is worth saying out loud.
- Size13 inches
- InsideRattle sewn in
- EdgeSatin trim
- Cut forFirst Halloween
$13.99 at the last price check
4.8 out of 5 · 99 ratings on this family
See This Gift on AmazonOpens the retail partner's page for this exact piece in a new tab.
What works
- The embroidery is stitched rather than printed, so it survives washing
- Satin edge and rattle in one piece
- Photographs well, which is most of why these are bought
What to know
- Dated by the embroidery after one season
- Sells out early and comes back late
When you want a real blanket
Textured Dot Blanket with Satin Trim, Pink 30″ x 40″
Thirty by forty inches of textured dot plush with a satin edge, and the most rated piece in the line by a wide margin. It is not a lovey. It is the blanket that goes over a pram or a car seat, and it is the one most people actually meant when they asked for a soft blanket.
- Size30 by 40 inches
- InsideNothing, this is a blanket
- EdgeSatin trim
- Score4.8 across 1,116 family ratings
$16.99 at the last price check
4.8 out of 5 · 1,116 ratings on this family
See This Gift on AmazonOpens the retail partner's page for this exact piece in a new tab.
What works
- Big enough to be useful past the first year
- Satin edge on all four sides
- The longest rating history of anything in the line
What to know
- Far too big to be a comfort object a baby carries
- A blanket this size does not belong in a sleep space
Every rattle lovey here is cut for a date
This is the odd thing about the shelf, and it is worth knowing before you shop. Of the loveys in this line with a rattle sewn inside, not one is a plain animal. They are a Rudolph, a Halloween pumpkin, a Thanksgiving turkey, a Santa and two caterpillars from a picture book. If you want sound, you are choosing a date or a licence at the same time.
The plain pieces, the unicorn and the chenille elephant and lamb, are silent. That is a real trade and nobody warns you about it where these are sold.
Size is the decision, not the character
Ten inches fits one hand and gets lost in a car. Fourteen inches is the size most parents settle on, because it can be held in an arm and still fits a nappy bag. Anything above twenty inches has stopped being a comfort object and started being bedding.
That matters more than which animal is on the corner. A baby does not pick the unicorn over the caterpillar for reasons anyone can predict. They pick the one that was there at the right moment, and then they hold that one for two years.
What to check when it arrives
Run a thumb along the seams and around the head before it goes anywhere near a child. Stuffed toys are covered by a mandatory standard in the United States, and the part of it that matters here is short.
Seams for such toys must not rip during testing.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Toy Safety Business Guidance (ASTM F963). Read 15 September 2026.
In plain terms: on a new piece the seams should not open, and a piece that arrives with stitching already giving is a piece to send back rather than to mend. The same standard is why a rattle sewn inside a plush body has its own rule, and why loose small parts are handled separately.
Place the article, without compressing it, into the cylinder. If the article fits entirely within the cylinder, in any orientation, it fails to comply with the test procedure.
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 16 CFR part 1501: small parts and the test cylinder. Read 15 September 2026.
That cylinder test is the reason the pieces here have embroidered faces instead of plastic eyes. It is also the reason to look twice at anything glued or tied on, including the ribbon tags that babies chew first.
Washing, which is where most of them die
A lovey gets washed weekly at the least. Cold water, a gentle cycle and a pillowcase knotted shut will keep a satin edge from catching in the drum. The thing that kills these pieces is heat, not water: a dryer flattens the pile and shrinks the plush away from the satin, and the edge is what gives first.
We have a full guide to that, including what the care label is required to tell you and why we keep telling you to hold on to it.
- 1. Cold, gentle, inside a bagA pillowcase knotted shut keeps a satin edge from catching on the drum.
- 2. Press, do not wringWringing is what opens the seam and flattens the stuffing.
- 3. Dry flat, away from heatFlat on a towel keeps the shape. A radiator or a dryer takes it out of the toy for good.
The one we would skip
The thirty by forty blanket is a good blanket and a bad lovey, and it is sold in the same place as the loveys. If you are buying for a baby shower and the word in your head is comfort object, buy the fourteen inch unicorn and put the blanket back.
And if you are buying an occasion piece, know what you are buying. A first Halloween square is a photograph rather than a toy, and it will read as last year the moment the year turns.
Questions we get
When can a baby actually use one?
In arms, from birth. On their own, from the moment they can lift it, which is usually somewhere around three to four months. In a sleep space, not at all in the first year, and that is a separate guide rather than a footnote.
Is the rattle worth it?
Between three and eight months, yes. After that most babies stop caring about the sound and keep holding the fabric. If you are buying one piece to last, the satin edge matters more than the rattle.
Should we buy two the same?
If a child settles on a lovey, a spare is the cheapest insurance in the house. Buy the second one early, while the same colour is still sold, and rotate them so they age at the same rate.
Where this came from
Sources we read for this piece
| Source | Published by | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Toy Safety Business Guidance (ASTM F963) | U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission | 15 September 2026 |
| 16 CFR part 1501: small parts and the test cylinder | Electronic Code of Federal Regulations | 15 September 2026 |