Dummy addiction - cold turkey or gentle withdrawal?

[tartetatin]

Any ideas? I'm trying to get my two year old off his habit.

[PuppyMonkey]

Needs to be left out for Santa at Xmas and then s/he gets lotsa prezzies instead...

[sammybeth]

Me too!!!!

I started taking my sons away (hes also 2) during the day and only giving it to him at sleep time which worked great but then he was poorly so i let him have his dummy all day and now we are back to square 1 again. So now ive got to start again taking it during the day, i do believe this is better than cold turkey at this age. When they are a bit older ive heard a lot of people who get their child to give it away to the dummy fairy and the fairy leaves them a present.

[Northumberlandlass]

We solved our dummy addiction with DS (2 at the time) by giving them away to the bin men (ok refuse collectors). DS was obsessed with following them around my parents estate. They would always toot their horn and wave. We collected all his dummies in a bag and we explained to him how it would work.
The bin men arrived and DS approached them with his Grandpa, DS handed over his dummies and watched them get crushed up in the lorry. Granny took pictures all the time and we eventually made a book from them. The same day we gave him a new tractor and pictures of his new tractor also went into the book.
DS NEVER asked for his dummy again ! When he mentioned it, we read him his dummy story. DS was reliant on his dummy at night and when he was drifting off to sleep.

Not sure if this helps, but it can be done !

xx

[willali]

Cold Turkey every time - I "forgot" to take any dummies with us when we went on holiday. If you have a dummy in the house believe me you will be sorely tempted to plug it in when the screaming gets too loud. Get rid of them and weather the storm...

[sweetie66]

We did cold turkey as well. DD only really used it at night or for naps so it needed to go. Told her the dummy fairy was going to come as the little babies needed them. Got her to put them in a tub and then she placed them in the middle of the bedroom floor. During the night the fairy came and gave her some new PJ's she had wanted. Made sure I did this on a Friday night as was expecting a few sleepless nights. To be fair she asked each night but did not cry and went to sleep without it ok. She wore the PJ's for about two weeks solidily as a constant reminder of what she had gained. Good luck!

[notnowbernard]

For a 2yr old?

Cold turkey, definitely

Did this with dd1 at just 3 - mind you, she was prepared to do it (until she realised what it actually meant!)

[SquiffyHock]

Cut a hole in it!!! We did this with DD and it was so pain free I couldn't believe it.

She used to have it clipped onto her Grobag so I just cut a little hole so it didn't 'work' any more. A few times I said 'oh, is it broken?'. After 3 days I just took it away.
Interestingly about 2 months later she found one in an old handbag of mine, tried to suck it but had already lost the ability.

[BlueTwo]

We did it the cold turkey way too - as soon as DS2 was 2 years old. He asked where his "dodie" was and I said it had been buried in the garden and was going to be taken away by the fairies. We had a couple of nights where he didn't settle too well, but I really don't think it owuld have worked if we have done it gently.

[ZoeC]

Cold Turkey - dd2 (admittedly, she was over 3 by this point) was convinced to put them in an envelope so I could post them to santa for the baby reindeer

Reminds me, they are still in the glove compartment of my car, must sort that before I get caught out!