to want to wean my 8 month old off the dummy?

[mama2b3]

my 8 month old son has had his dummy since birth and lately has become v dependant on it wanting it all the time! he cries if i try n take it away and wont settle without it. its driving me mad as he all but sleeps through the night apart from waking as his dummy has dropped out of his mouth!! sometimes 10 times a night i then have t get up find the dummy and put it back into his mouth b ut before i no it he has lost it again!! so i want to try and wean him off it but is this unreasonable as he loves it so much?! or am i just being silly? any ideas tips would be helpful thanks xx

Its the reason why I never gave DD2 a dummy!! Went through exactly the same with DD1....tbh you've started now you may as well let him have it. I weanted dd2 off when she was 2...

Are you sure it's no something else waking him up and the dummy is settling him off again? Only my 1st had a phase a bit like that and I blamed the dummy but actually when we kept the room a bit warmer the wakings stopped.

If it is the dummy then using a soother saver to clip it to him so it's easier to find, or leaving lots of dummies in the cot so he can find one easily should help.

agree wean off if possible

or you will be going in every night to pop it back

better to do now at 8mths then when they are 2yrs as then will be a hard battle

we had glow in the dark dummies so they could find it themselves when it fell out

I think you might find it difficult as he is so young, and you cannot reason with him, you will have to ride out the screaming for a bit, but he will eventually learn to self settle again.

I had glow in the dark dummies too, they are Avent ones which I got from Boots

I weaned my daughter off the dummy at 9 months after she was doing a similar thing to your DS and then she also got a cold and couldn't suck the dummy properly and it was distressing her more trying to use the dummy than anything else. It took a couple of nights, but we never looked back. However, my friend let her DD have a dummy at night until she was three and she slept like a dream and gave it up of her own accord. I think it is a swings and roundabouts thing.

At six months, my DS started waking up every hour when his dummy fell out - so I decided to "gina ford" him which included taking the dummy away. After two nights he had learned to "self - soothe" by sucking his own thumb and has slept 11 hours a night ever since. I'm sure he will find it difficult to kick the thumb sucking but I LOVE the peace it gives!

We did the same thing with dd who is now 4.

We just went cold turkey. Bit hard to begin with but worked eventually.

She now sucks her thumb

we weaned ds2 off his at about 1.5 for a similar reason - he went to sleep very easily but woke up more often than I'd have expected. It was suprisingly easy to do and he has slept better ever since.