Tolkien and Tiny But Mature Children

[Child of the 7th Age]

The "child-like" quality of Hobbits is also reinforced by the fact that none of them have beards.

Saucepan Man,

Just a tiny comment. The one exception to this is the Stoors. According to Tolkien, they occasionally grew hair on their faces. This is in reference to those hobbits who lived in the Eastfarthing:

...But they were well known to be Stoors in a large part of their blood, as indeed was shown by the down that many grew on their chin.

However, I have never seen an artist depict a hobbit that way!

Another characteristic of hobbits that seems very childlike are the bare feet. I have an image of the earlier days of our own country when farm children went barefoot for most of the summer. (Again, the only exception here are the Stoors who sometimes wore dwarf-boots in muddy weather.)