Dummy at 5am

[kellyjaymendoza]

Hi all

My 19 month old daughter has always gone down to bed at nighttime without a fuss and generally slept all night. We use a dummy for daytime naps and if she's poorly or particularly grumpy. She never has one when I put her down for bed and only gets one if she wakes in the night for a quick re-settle which, up until now, has been sporadically - not every night. For the last few weeks she has woken around 5am and cried until she has her dummy and has got herself into a bit of a pattern with it. She's not ready to get up as she'll (generally) lay still/fall back to sleep once she has it. My husband and I really want to break the habit but do 't know where to start. His suggestion is to turn the monitor off and ignore her... Problem is that if I go in or talk to her over the monitor then it actually makes it worse and she gets more upset. Any tips??

[poocatcherchampion]

If she can put it in herself then cana you just let her get on with it?

[RubyChewsDay]

Personally I would let her have one at that time of the morning as she is associating it with comfort, like the other times of the day.

Can you leave it where she can see it?

My DD (nearly 3) used one occasionaly & even now she will ask for it every few months. I let her have it for the whole few seconds that she wants it. I dont make an issue of it, else she would want it even more.

[kellyjaymendoza]

It's more that I want her to learn to settle herself without having to get out of bed at 5am everyday rather than an issue with her having a dummy per se. It's more about the habit she's got herself into

[poocatcherchampion]

But why do you need to get up? Just leave her to it?

[kellyjaymendoza]

Because she doesn't go to bed with one and if I out one next to her when I go to bed she'll just have it all night and I don't want her to get more used to one - I want to not use one ideally

[afternoonsun]

Personally I would just let her have it. It doesn't do any harm and just at night time is no bad thing. You're probably better off letting her have it and weaning her off it when she's more settled rather than trying to do it now while she's needing it.
We put three or four luminous dummies in for DD round her head, so when she used to wake in the night she could find one easily. After a few months of waking and finding one herself she stopped waking up altogether, and now we don't need to put any extra ones in