mollycoddle (oed)

verb {T} INFORMAL MAINLY DISAPPROVING

to give someone too much care or protection:

- You're not helping the children by mollycoddling them - they have to grow up sometime.

also

mollycoddle
1833, originally a noun, "one who coddles himself," from Molly (pet name formation from Mary), used contemptuously from 1754 for "a milksop, an effeminate man" + coddle (q.v.). The verb is 1870, from the noun.