Hi All.
My 8 month old ds (briefly) started to sleep through the night (7.30 - 6.00/6.30 and sometimes going back to sleep till 7.00/7.30 after a little feed and nappy change) at about 7 months - actually what happened was the clocks changed to summer time and a 5.00/5.30 am night waking became morning!
Encouraged I decided to try and "formalise" his daytime naps more. So I put him in his cot in a dark room in his grobag and gave him the dummy (which I used only sometimes at night when he wouldn't settle himself) thinking "this is what he will associate with daytime naps now" and he's been sleeping well in the daytime by his standards - admittedly he only does two naps of 45 mins (at 9.00/9.30 and either at 12.30 or 1.30 depending when he seems tired) and cannot re - settle himself back - although I've never really left him to grizzle a long time so he's never been "trained" to re - settle himself. He tends to have one other nap in the afternoon in the buggy when I am out and about somewhere.
But now of course he can't get to sleep anytime without the dummy (even in his car seat he grizzles for it)
Now he'll go to sleep at 7/7.30 with dummy (which I remove when he is asleep), wake up 45 minutes later grizzling. Maybe I should leave him to settle himself then but I'm getting tired and its about time for dinner so I give him the dummy again and he falls back to sleep. I take out the dummy again once he's asleep and then 10.30 he wakes again. Dummy once again but this time his sleep is so light we can't take it out and by 11 something he's awake again and we can't get him back to sleep without a bottle. He drains 4 ozs and would have more but I deliberately only give him a small bottle - I don't think he's hungry - its just comfort. After the bottle he is more or less asleep and so can go back in his cot - sometimes without his dummy. He will then sleep till 6.00 when I hear him babble( maybe even snooze again - I don't dare go and look!) until we get him (towards 7).
Before he got so dummy dependent he didn't have that unsettled period from 10.30 - midnight - although admittedly he was waking in the night usually about 4 or 5ish and I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and feeding him.
He doesn't have any teeth yet and doesn't seem to be in any obvious teething discomfort so I don't think its that.
Sorry for the long babble. My main question was to those of you with older babies still using dummies to get off to sleep. How do you manage to get them to sleep through the night without needing the dummy again? Or do you just leave them with it all night? I don't have a problem with him using the dummy to settle but I don't like it to be stuck in his mouth the whole night which is why I take it out when he is asleep (also hoping each time that he won't need it when he awakes!). I'd also read that you should limit dummy use in babies over 6 months to what I'm doing (just for settling and then remove)............any advice?
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#Can a baby over 6 months still using a dummy to go to sleep manage to resettle himself right through the night?
13 replies
makamsi · 21/04/2004 11:07
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Pook ·
22/04/2004 12:04
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kama ·
08/04/2005 00:15
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kama ·
08/04/2005 00:21
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