My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

Learn to use dummie

7 replies

iamroddo · 12/12/2010 10:51

Our one-month old often gets one we think is over-stimulated in the evenings. We have found that a handy way to calm him down is to our pinkie into his mouth. He has a strong desire to suck and seems ready to suck a pinkie any time. We figured that if we could substitute a dummie for a finger we'd get a bit more peace and quiet.

The trouble is that he seems to have issues with working out what to do with it when we put one in his mouth. He opens it quite wide as if he's feeding from a breast or a bottle rather than closing his lips as he does when sucking on a finger. Inevitably the dummie pops out almost immediately. Usually he get upset after a couple of attempts and we give up on it and produce a finger.

We have been persisting in trying as we thought that he just needs to learn what to do with it. Does anyone have any tips on this? Is our assumption that he can learn to use it correct or is it that he simply doesn't like it? How is it that he can learn to suck a finger so easily, without confusing the technique with that for breastfeeding (he's fine feeder) but not be able to deal with a dummie?

OP posts:
Report
Simic · 12/12/2010 13:04

A friend of mine tried different shape dummies until her baby accepted one. We tried one dummy, didn´t get along with it and so just gave up. But both my husband and ds (now 2) enjoyed sucking on their sleeve or a corner of a hanky!

Report
thisisyesterday · 12/12/2010 13:15

have you tried one with a cherry teat? i found they kept that in easier than the "flat" ones

Report
SummerRain · 12/12/2010 13:19

my son had the same trouble and didn't manage a dummy til he was 8 months Shock

but he has a whole host of oral problems... he couldn't even swallow his own saliva until 6 months and was an appalling feeder so i wouldn't class him as the norm Grin

What did help was gently holding the dummy in his mouth so that he couldn't push it out in that initial surge of enthusiasm and had a better chance of latching on to it.

Report
MoonUnitAlpha · 12/12/2010 13:23

Took a while for my ds to work it out too. We started off using the flat, silicone, orthodontic ones but he didn't like them - much prefers the cherry latex ones. Also had to hold it on for him at first. It probably took a couple of weeks of trying for him to get it - he's 4 months old now and I still have to hold it for him at first til he starts sucking properly.

Report
wannabeglam · 12/12/2010 13:23

Mine was 12 weeks when she took a dummy - Avent.

Report
Bobby99 · 12/12/2010 19:43

My DD loved her dummy from the start, but will only have Mothercare ones - anything else gets spat out in disgust.

Report
Galena · 12/12/2010 20:57

DD took a while to get there too - however, do you think that he is hungry? DD used to cluster feed big time in the evenings - used to be attached to me from 4 or 5 till 8 or 9 pretty much constantly.

Maybe he's not impressed with the dummy as there's nothing coming from it!

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.