To go cold turkey on dummies

[duckrebellion]

DS is 5, DD is 3, and they both still have dummies. Not just at bedtime, but through the day too. As soon as DS gets in from school he finds one and puts it straight in his mouth. They don't have them out, but when they're at home or in the car they almost always have it. It drives me mad, I know they're way too old for them.

The dentist says it's having an effect on DS's teeth (there's a gap between his top and bottom front teeth when his mouth is closed) and we should get rid ASAP. DD's teeth are going the same way too.

I want to go cold turkey and just bin them all, but DH says I'm being mean. He thinks we should do it gently and get DS to agree to it, trouble is that hasn't worked so far. In the past we've tried the dummy fairy, reward charts, giving it to santa, bribes, and more, it always results in DS point blank refusing or throwing a massive tantrum causing one of us to give in. He also thinks we shouldn't get rid of DD's because she's still little, even though DS will just use her's if they're around.

I feel really guilty about it because it's a real comfort to both of them, but at this point I don't know what else to do. Would I be a terrible mummy to just bite the bullet and bin them?

Yes, have a prep talk first, ride it out for 48 hours. I put it off for too long with DD as I didn’t want to break her heart. Haha now, but back then. It took 48 hours , 2 nights, job done, she was 4.

I took my 2nd child one away as soon as he was on the spoon. 6 months. I wasn’t doing that again.

we tried cutting the dummies down to just bedtime, it worked some days and not others, so we went cold turkey.

my dd used to have 3 or 4 dummies for each bed time. She actually accepted it really well, we used a teddy as a comforter and she got to sleep with a little crying in under an hour which I was so surprised with . It took less than a week to be able to self settle .

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER My dd2 didn’t give hers up voluntarily until she was almost 6.

Voluntarily??
There are a great many things children don’t want to do voluntarily, it’s called parenting though.

If you can afford a nice fun weekend away and forget to bring the dummies. The night before you return tell them they’re gone.

How are you even asking this question?????

I'm actually gobsmacked, it 'drives you mad'? Who bought them? My God...parent your children!

They are likely to replace the dummies with thumbs or fingers and then get worms! Life is never simple.
If you do decide to stop it has to be all or nothing!

Jesus....6 what the fuck?

Eh no. Don't do this. Just parent.

My first ds I got rid cold turkey around 2 and a half . I thought he would go mad but he was fine . There were some mild protests . 2nd ds I’ve stopped using it and he is 1. 5 is way too old for a dummy .definitely just stop , it may not be as bad as you think

After about 3 it was only ever at home, and in private.

TBH the dummy was often something of a godsend - with that, and her bit of satin edged blanket* she’d happily go to sleep anywhere - travel cot in a strange room, you name it.

*eventually cut into 4, and the last bit ended up as just the satin edge!

TBH I didn’t have to do much ‘parenting’ - apart from the dummy she was the easiest child imaginable. Potty trained at just after 2, no problem, never had a tantrum.
Yes, I know I was lucky.

They do eventually stop on their own.

Your kid’s jaws are already misaligned, and you’re handwringing about being a mean mummy…
Why didn’t you stop this years ago?!

How old is she now?

46!!

Did you also do stuff like squash in bottles?

We went cold turkey when Dd was 3.5. We’d tried the dummy fairy and dd was not at all interested. So cold turkey was the way. We had a couple of bad nights with minimal sleep. I actually gave dd an old teddy of mine to “look after her” as a replacement comforter which really helped.

The damage it was doing to DDs teeth was awful and super noticeable, this was what made me decide that’s enough no more dummy. Fortunatly now like a year later her teeth have moved back a lot and look pretty normal and lovely. The dentist was very impressed at the huge improvement! I don’t know if that would happen with your 5 year old but it should really help your 3 year olds so please don’t let your Dh convince you she’s too little

We went cold turkey with the dummy when DS was 2.5. He screamed himself to sleep in the car (only had his ‘bubba’ for naps/bed by that point), and that was it, sorted. I hope today goes well - don’t give in!

So we took the plunge and did it.

Today while they were at school/nursery I searched the house for every dummy I could find (17 of them!) and I binned them all. I cut the teats off them too so we couldn't get them out of the bin.

When they got back I explained that the dummies were gone since they were a big boy/girl now, I also promised a trip to the toy shop at the weekend if they did well.

They throw a bit of a strop at first, but since then it hasn't been too bad. We've managed to distract DD pretty successfully so far, DS has moaned a bit but not anywhere near as bad as I expected. I think bedtime is going to be worse though as that's when they rely on them most, fingers crossed it goes well.

Well done!

I had my DDs dummy on the side of the bath at bath time, when it was time to unplug the bath I moved the dummy and when she looked for it afterwards I said it must of gone down the plug hole and is probably now in Australia…. I made sure every dummy in the house was gone and that was that, no more dummy

Dd1 had a dummy for all sleep - and she napped until 4! At three we said she needed to stop having them and she was really upset as she sucked one to sleep but also went to sleep holding a little collection in her hands. She really liked these small collectible toys so we bought a pack of them and for a week she went to bed after finding the right soft toy to hold and a reminder that two of the little toys would be hers to open up in the morning if she didn't have her dummy. And after five days she got this display stand toy foe them. It worked that she had a little treat each day and she was aiming for a bigger thing she really wanted.

How did it go @duckrebellion ?