to think dummies are bloody marvellous?

[Picante]

Oh yes can of worms blah blah blah but I think they are fabulous when used properly!

A dummy helps dd to sleep, keeps her happy for 10 minutes if she's hungry but my dinner's ready, allows me to put ds to bed without a screaming baby...

I honestly don't know how people cope with a newborn without one. DS gave his up at 6 months and I plan to do yhe same with dd - I don't think they are great for babies over one. I make sure I'm using an orthodontic one (even my cranial osteopath says these ones are fine - and he's hard to please!).

They weren't invented donkey's years ago for nothing.

AIBU?

I just took it off her one night. Same with the daytime dummy at 9mo and bottles at 12mo. But then I am a horrible mean mummy

If it make you and your baby happy then there is nothing wrong with a dummy.

My little girl loves her thumb and gawd knows how I am going to break that habbit.

yanbu mine only used it from about 1 month til 3 months then gave it up himself as lost interest but in those couple of months i did find it very useful, and cos he gave it up quickly himself didnt have a problem of persude him to give it up later or anything. i wil use them again for ds2 and others, i dont understand why some people are so stuck up about dummies looking down on it so much

Right you Flamingodubec you must be some mum as i never could have managed without one for my sanity. I love the dummies they are so great if used properly, I hate older children with them and walking around with a dummy hanging out of their mouth . My dd is 2.6 as a lot of you probably know and as a newborn has bad bad colic, i could not console her any other way, the dummy was a lifesaver, though now it is hard trying to wean her off it. She only has it to sleep mind you, if she requests it any other time no no no unless she is tired and is going to bed. When her understanding and language gets better hopefully about 3 i will tell her about the dummy fairies and will give them to her and she will in turn have a present.

I'm going to sit on the fence and get splinters. I think dummies are a really useful tool for very young babies that like to suck constantly and are too small to be distracted from sucking in any other way. Mine both had one for 6 weeks. I think beyond about 3 months they start becoming a habit and can be difficult to wean from. I never experienced a dummy having a negative effect on breastfeeding and in fact my first only wanted a cherry type which I believe helped him open his mouth wider and made feeding easier (all the hcps would tell me off terribly for this)

Having a dummy beyond 3 months, I believe, is more negative than positive thing and beyond 6 months becomes almost only a negative thing - yes, it comforts but it has to go sometime for the sake of the teeth and language development so it is just delaying, and making harder, the inevitable separation.

There is a girl at ds's school (reception but still) who has a dummy on the bus ride home I am a bit about. There's nothing I hate more when it comes to dummies than a parent shoving a dummy into a talking child's mouth to shut them up but I have seen this quite often.

On the other side of things I can't see why it would be desirable to not have ever made use of them in the early weeks or months. Being smug about not having given a dummy ever makes me think you are mental rather than brilliant!

I am a big fan of dummies used sparingly during the early weeks etc when you KNOW they have had enough to eat but they can't be soothed. I have never had to wean my kids off them consciously - they just stop "needing" them. My 9 month old uses her old ones as toys - she doesn't know they are for sucking...I am glad of that though as I couldn't be bothered with the whole "hunt the dummy" thing at night and I truly hate seeing them with a baby over about 18 months.

For those pro-dummy Mums with babies who are dummy-resistant, I can recommend the Mam Silk (available Mothercare and Superdrug). Yet to find a bf baby who doesn't like 'em. Top tip from another MNer.

my dd2 didnt like the mam silk ones even when she was bf

but dd1 would only take mam dummies

I had a few desperate times in the early weeks when I wished DD would take one.
I think it's good, if like the OP, you can give it up within a year.

YANBU - my baby is comforted by sucking and I would much rather he had a dummy than cried or fed constantly.
Never thought I would be a mother that gave one to her babies but never realised just how distressing a baby crying could be.

Yep, dummies are like plastic toys, tv and sweeties - it is very easy to be sanctimonious about them in the abstract, when you are pg for the first time and imaging the blissful organic handcrafted wooden toy world you will inhabit together...I know I was!

I remember when I was pregnant with my first ds and as part of my leaving present from work someone had put in a couple of dummies .
I was a wee bit grumpy that they thought I was that type of mum
And I was proven right when my gorgeous boy was lovely and settled from very young .

Fast forward a couple of yrs and I searched the house one night looking for the bloody things for my second . He loved his dummy . But it has always been an in the house thing . I always felt a bit trashy out and about if he needed it

God I am pathetic sometimes .