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Experiences from breast to dummy

3 replies

Cbell · 16/06/2011 15:18

Must be quick baby is napping but I would love your advice/ experiences of doing this.

My DD is 5.5 months old. I had been feeding her to sleep but in an effort to break this habit I have given her a dummy. After a bit of perseverance she has accepted it and I can now pop her down for a nap in her cot and she goes to sleep. Great yes!?

Or not....

I realise I am just encouraging her to be dependent on another nipple, all be it this time synthetic. I don't know what to do. She has only had it for the last two weeks.

I am really lost. Advice please

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strawberrie · 16/06/2011 20:32

IMO, Great Smile

My DD has had a dummy since about 5 weeks, and very quickly associated it with sleep, so you would notice her getting tetchy and tired and give her the dummy, and she would instantly relax and let her eyes start to close. She has been self-settling with her dummy and snuggle blanket since she was a few months old, and now at 2.2 she is great at settling and sleeping through (she still has the dummy for sleeps though - I am happy to tackle this when she is able to comprehend the concept of the dummy fairy)

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strawberrie · 16/06/2011 20:33

Sorry I meant to say as well that it never caused us any problems with breastfeeding, she was always able to make it quite clear whether it was a feed she wanted or just the comfort of her dummy.

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RitaMorgan · 16/06/2011 20:39

I did the same - ds had a dummy from a few weeks and I would feed him to sleep then do a nipple/dummy switch, and later when I stopped feeding him to sleep just give him his dummy at bedtime.

It hasn't been without it's problems - he did go through a phase around 5-6 months of waking whenever his dummy fell out and we ditched it, but somehow it crept back in! By 9 months he could get it back in his mouth by himself, though the problem now is he often throws all his dummies out of his cot then calls for us to come and get them for him Hmm

To be honest, he has it quite a lot in the day as well as at night. I think by the time he's a year we'll limit it to bedtime though so it doesn't interfere with speech. I have no problem with him keeping it til he's 3ish though. It's caused no issues with breastfeeding.

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