It's a very old tradition. Leading strings go back to at least the 16th century, you'll even find teenagers in portraits with symbolic ones to show they weren't available for marriage.
It went out of fashion in the mid 20th century because Dr Spock and others were against them, but came back in the 90s. Never seen them used for anything but 2-4 year olds in the "wander" phase here though.
It's a very old tradition. Leading strings go back to at least the 16th century, you'll even find teenagers in portraits with symbolic ones to show they weren't available for marriage.
It went out of fashion in the mid 20th century because Dr Spock and others were against them, but came back in the 90s. Never seen them used for anything but 2-4 year olds in the "wander" phase here though.