So, a stuffed animal may be sort of a good alternative to having someone else sleeping in your bed.” Even over the course of a life, it makes sense to need contact when you sleep, Lamar added.

On the TSA’s own website about what you can and can’t bring on a plane, it says stuffed animals are allowed. Jenna Lucky says her 6-year-old son Gabriel went everywhere with his stuffed dog Petey.

Her mother’s best friend gave her Ogen, a light brown stuffed bear puppet, as a seventh birthday gift. “It was love at first sight,” Ms. Tuttle, 47, said.