To introduce a dummy at a year old?

[Alysskea]

I know it sounds deranged - we’ve never used a dummy because we didn’t really need to, have always had a nice calm and settled baby.

Anyway since I went back to work she has been absolutely AWFUL at night. She will not settle and cries all night just wanted to be held and to have a bottle in her mouth when she can’t possibly be hungry.

How ridiculous would it be to try her on a dummy? As soon as bottle goes in her mouth she visibly relaxes and eyes start closing again.

When I say she’s bad I mean she can be awake and crying up to 5 hours at a time in the middle of the night.

We do all the things - bath, consistent bedtime, good nap routine, dark room, white noise, perfect temperature, comforting toy, £200 comfy mattress, anbesol, gripe water, infacol… I’ve tried it all!!

If you think it’ll help get you all some sleep then do it

Do it to help her sleep, but keep it for sleep time only.

Go for it. My 5mth old uses one when dh is putting her down.

I'd do it but also look into sleep training. Try Kimmys Little Stars on Facebook- we used her - complete magician it worked wonders (no crying it out!)

Thanks all. Might not help at all but might try it tonight!

sleep training just isn’t for me

Try it! I did in desperation. It didn't work for me but at least I had tried and could mentally cross it off the list.

Why? What 'isn't for you" about it? Sleep training is not letting your child cry.

How's the day sleep? Have you checked wake windows?

I'm pro dummies but I'm currently trying to get DS (almost 2.5) off his dummy... It's awful, he's so attached at this point it feels cruel to remove it but the gap in his teeth is getting worse and he only has it for sleep. I wouldn't introduce anything that you'll eventually have to remove if you can avoid it.

If sleep training isn't for you. Could you try sleeping next to her when she wakes in the night and gradually reducing physical contact overtime?

No I wouldn't. Everything is a phase, it won't last. Ride it out without leaving yourself with the new problem of how to remove the dummy. Also not good for teeth!

It's terrible for jaw development, awful, ask any orthodontist. Just don't.

Surely it is though? Not necessarily indefinitely but surely if she wakes up crying the sleep training part would be to not tend to those cries? I’m genuinely asking.

Nope. Which is why you should look into it and not just settle for a dummy (which I'll be honest probably won't solve your problem anyway)

12 month old babies still have the need to suckle. They have less bottles/suckle time, so a dummy is needed. It's normally a bit later that you'd stop night breastfeeding. However my babies and my grandchildren co-slept and didn't wake more than once a night (with dummies).

I'd say it's worth a try. I introduced a dummy at 12 months for my son (now 2 and a half). We were visiting friends with a younger baby and he picked up their baby's dummy and was very settled with it. He was in quite a whingy/generally unsettled phase at the time and not sleeping that well. He was offered a dummy as a small baby but never took to it. So he had a dummy from 12 months, it was strictly for nap time and bed time and he's now not used on for about 4 months so for us it was a huge success. No regrets.

I would try anything short term if normal sleeping routine isn't working. It is exhausting when you've just got used to them sleeping through and they suddenly stop

It is worth mentioning that I gave my ds a dummy around the same age at for teething. It always flared at night and took a few weeks of inflamed gums before I could see where it was coming from. He used to fall asleep chewing it while the calpol kicked in

Randomly have you tried without the white noise??
DS would only sleep with white noise as a baby and had a really good bedtime/sleep routine.

Until 1 night he just wouldn't settle and we had no clue why. As a last resort I said to my husband, I'll try turning the white noise off. Within seconds of turning it off he settled down as he normally did with the noise and that was it, never had white noise again. Very random episode that night but it was like all of a sudden it changed from white noise helping him sleep to being noise that kept him awake.

But otherwise, try a dummy, it won't harm her and if it helps, you're all better off for it.

honestly just do it. It might not work, but you need some sleep and it’s worth a try. My eldest had a dummy till she was four. She’d had medical problems, we moved house twice, I just didn’t want to take it away when anything else was particularly problematic. When the time came she wrote a letter to the dummy fairy, binned the dummys, got a lovely present left by the fairy, and after a couple of slightly tricky nights, that was that. Don’t make your life unnecessarily difficult because of some made up rule. You don’t see adults with dummies. Everyone gives them up eventually.

Yes go for it. Hope it helps.