Changes

Piper the tiger cub and his Mummy are (anthropomorphically, I’m afraid) stuck in the same stage, though under the starry skies of the savannah lands of Africa rather than a duvet. Mummy handles the problem tactically, by praising Piper’s growing independence during the day. Building up the challenge in steps, just as you might with a small person, she eventually queries when she is out of eyesight:

''Piper thought, and waited, and sniffed the air.'' <br>

It was at this point that I fell in love with the story. Why, this is an animal world problem too – we do indeed see real animal mothers shushing their babies away. And maybe this is how tiger cubs learn the first lessons in tracking their prey by scent. The words pinpoint an obvious but overlooked truth: the infant uses all his sensory facilities in attaching to the parent. Coping with separation anxiety at bedtime involves the child using sensory clues that Mummy is still around, even when she can’t be seen – a useful staging post for under-3s still struggling to understand that out of sight doesn’t mean vanished for ever.