Weaning off dummy - 5.5 months

[AnnaMilkMaker]

Hello all,

Our 5.5 month old has had a dummy to go to sleep since 3 months. He only has it for naps and bedtime and once he is asleep I take it out of his mouth.

However, he wakes in the night (a lot at the moment which I am currently putting down to a combination of teething and growth spurt.) and will not settle without his dummy so I have to go in and wait with him while he falls asleep again. It's worth noting that we dropped the night feed a couple of weeks ago.

He often spits it out or pulls it out so have tried without several times and it never works!! He just gets upset. He is so used to sucking to get to sleep.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to how I can wean him off it? I would like to get to a position where he is self soothing so he won't look for it when he does wake in the night.

Be great to get some ideas.

Thanks

Anna x

[nervy555]

Bump. ..

[Sammie101]

Bumping as well because my 6mo is also a dummy lover which drives me crazy!

[stargirl1701]

We initially tied an Olly & Belle muslin to the dummy so it could be found more easily. After a month, we just used the muslin. We now have 3 muslins in the cot overnight.

She has a favourite though!

[Blankiefan]

Stargirl does she suck the muslins?

[stargirl1701]

She did suck the label for months - she had a thing about labels for ages! Weird child Now she holds it close to her chin. Interestingly, if she is co-sleeping with me she abandons it. It must represent some kind of security. I did 'wear' it initially so it smelled like me but I haven't done that in a year.

[MrsRedWhite214]

Will definitely try the muslin idea. I'm trying to wean my 10month old off the dummy before I go back to work.

[aussiemelbmama]

Hi all
First time mn poster. We had a similar issue with our DD and at 5 months decided to go cold turkey from the dummy after advice from her paediatrician for both naps and night sleeping. It was a tough decision as it was a self settling godsend for naps. However, we were replugging her dummy often hourly at night which was sending us troppo!

We started with her naps and replaced her dummy with swaddling and shush/patting. She fell asleep after about 20 minutes of carting and intermittent whining but we never left her side. Her night sleeps improved immediately. The third day was the worst when she cried on and off for about 1.5 hours and I gave her plenty of cuddles as well as swaddling, shush/pat and she has slept a lot better since. Now at 8 months she self settles for all sleeps just with her comforter and sleeping bag. Our DD was definitely too attached to her dummy which prevented her from entering a deep sleep so it was the best thing we could've done.

[SummerSevern]

My dd is a dummy monster and has been since we gave her one at 4wo. We tried weaning her several times because we were having to put it back in every 30mins or so through the night, but I always wimped out because I couldn't handle the crying.
Now at 6mo we've just bought a Sleepytot which has improved things dramatically. 9 times out of 10 she will find and reinsert her own dummy now.

[Gerty1002]

After a horrendous few nights we're going cold turkey with the dummy from today with almost 5 month old DS. Swaddling and white noise seem to be doing the trick for naps, wondering what bedtime will bring! Good luck OP.

[AnnaMilkMaker]

@aussiemelbmama: we have the same issue with having to replace dummy overnight. It's making me so run down and bless DH but he doesn't get up the night and wouldn't know how to settle him if he did.

Think I might go cold turkey only problem is that sometimes it takes us around30/40 mins to get him to sleep even with the dummy so I shudder to think how long it will take without.

Will give it a go

Thanks to all for replying.

Anna x

[Gerty1002]

We've done just that and though it's still early days and not perfect, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. His quality of sleep and length of naps has vastly improved, so I hope it works for you too :)