About 10 days ago DH and I decided that DS, who is 4, really needs to lose his dummy, as the dentist said that it was beginning to affect his teeth, causing an opebnbite. So we binned all the dummies in the house, and told DS that he couldn't have a dummy anymore. We also said that after a week without a dummy that he could have a toy of his choice.
A week has been and gone, and since then, it has been absolute hell. He's went from sleeping all the way through, to waking 3-4 times a night. His behaviour has taken a turn too. He's acting up and refusing to listen a lot more than before, this could be due to the broken sleep.
He's now began substituting sucking his thumb for when he would have had a dummy, except at bedtime. Wouldn't this cause the same problems as the dummy would?
So what I'm considering is letting DS have a dummy again but only for bedtime. I'm hoping that this will help our sleep situation, without making his teeth worse. Is this a good idea? I'm really desperate.