Dummies & Breastfed Babies

[notharryssally]

Sorry, posting here for traffic.

Baby is 6 months old, ebf. Co-sleeps in double bed with me and latches on as he pleases. This is fine.

However, daytime naps are the same, which means I have to lie down with him for his naps. I get no time to get anything done, which isn't such a big deal now but in a month, I will be starting work (from home, own business) again. I'd really like to use his nap time to work rather than evenings or weekends when DH is around.

I'm thinking of giving him a dummy for nap times only. Are there any downsides to this? Will it work in lieu of my boob? I think sometimes he's feeding but a lot of it is just comfort suckling I'm sure.

Any advice? Thx x

It seems I'm not the only one in this boat!

@Barrenfieldoffucks I'm glad it's worked out for you, this gives me hope!

Dummies are marvelous inventions! I imagine you’ve left it too late sadly but it’s definitely worth a try.

My two were BF but I gave dummies from the start so they’d depend on them to sleep and not me. It’s definitely been one of my best parenting moves. They only got them for sleep (and long car journeys) and they grew to really love them. DD1 would sit quietly on a two hour car journey once she had her dummy. If she wasn’t tired when she went to bed it didn’t matter because she would be happy to lie there relaxing with it until she eventually drifted off. When she’d wake in the morning she’d happily lie in bed chilling until I went into her.

She gave it up at 2.5 and although I was delighted it was so easy - I really missed it! No more lounging in bed and car journeys are much harder now. I never realised how easy I had it!

Give it a shot OP.

DC1 and DC3 had dummies (I wasn't a dummy fan before but DC1 was quite sucky) but DC2 wasn't interested. She sucked her thumb instead which was a much harder habit to break. All 3 were bf but not particularly inclined to feed to sleep. As they got older we left dummies in the cot so they were only used for sleeping. They traded them in between 2 and 3 years for a new toy (a football and a toy car respectively). DC1 and DC2 later had orthodontic work but due to genetics rather than dummy use (or thumb sucking).

6mths is late to introduce it but another vote for cherry dummies. BF babies who are used to a large nibble tend to turn their nose up at flat orthodontic dummies!

Both my BF babies mine took the tommee tippee ones.