Dummy nightmare!

[PDR]

We are on day 3 of cold turkey to get rid of dummies for DS - 2 yrs old.

He has not slept all day - tried nap after lunch and he screamed for about an hour so he came downstairs and we have had quiet time watching Mr Tumble for an hour. He is now sooo tired he can't function so I have put him in his cot screaming...

Feel so bad!

When I go in he gets worse and starts kicking his legs violently. He has been screaming for about 15 mins now and I have been up to check he's ok/restart the lullaby.

This is so much harder than I thought

DH is at the office until 8pm so I'm going to be stuck with an overtired little boy on my own.

Have not got any dummies in the house as we binned them all.

Any pearls of wisdom?

I did this when my DS was 8 months old as he was waking up all night when his dummy fell out of his mouth. Had a few nights of screaming all night, I remember taking turns with DH to sleep downstairs on the sofa as we were so tired. I think it took 2 or 3 nights. He is now 6 and has been a brilliant sleeper ever since, sleeping through every night! So, stick with it howeer awful it is as it will be worth it in the end.

Try a change to the routine for a few days eg a trip out in the car to get him to sleep.

My DD was an inveterate dummy sucker and we were really worried about getting rid of it! We did a phased withdrawl whereby at about 2 we said she could only have it at bed time/nap time and in the car then about 6 weeks later we took told her she could only have it for sleeping and then we waited for her to decide that she had had enough at sleep time - we kept telling her that the sleep fairy needed them for the little babies OR that she could give them to next door's dog for chewing to keep his teeth nice and healthy - she wa squite taken with that. When she was about 2.6 she told us she was a big girl now and and she didn't need dummies - we ceremoniously took them next door to present to the dog (I kept one bakc for emergencies!!)and from that nnight on she didn't use a dummy - I though she would break down after a couple of days but nope - she never asked for one again.

I thought the end of dummies was going to be a total nightmare but by letting DD take part in the decision making process she managed without any probs (believe me no-one was more surprised than me!!)

Couldn't you try something like that - maybe less stressful all round?

I know it's not very supportive of you but I'd go out and buy a dummy. He'll probably fall asleep in the pushchair so at least will get a bit of a nap. If he just has it for sleeping then I don't really see a problem with letting him keep it until he's ready.

He's at the table now having his tea.... still no sleep so have to wait until bedtime now - possibly bring it forward by 1/2 an hour?

MamaVoo the problem is he bites the teats off the dummy and we have been getting through 20-30 dummies a week . Also, he his having grommets put in for glue ear next week and his consultant has said sucking on the dummy really won't help matters and we should get rid of it asap.

I kind of phased it only to sleeptimes beagle as he was having it during the day but the problem is that because of his glue ear it is very difficult to communicate with DS. He knows a few words - mummy, daddy etc but doesn't speak very much at all and would not understand/be able to hear properly about giving the dummies away.

Dreading bedtime as he is now overtired. Considoring going out for a drive with him - thanks for that!!!!

Oh PDR - the glue ear makes all the difference - I totally see your point about needing to get rid of them PDQ . So difficult for you and for DS.

I think in this case I would defintiely second the going out for a drive with your DS - anthing to distract him from the dummy.

I dont know if this will help but a friend of mine tried this and it helped her DD - she bought on of this mesh net dummies (you use them for small squishy bits of fruit for babies so they can get the juice form the fruit without choking on the bits if IYSWIM) - she put little bits of crushed ice in the mesh bit and her DD sucked on that for a really short time until the ice melted and then spat out the dummy as just sucking a mouthful of mesh was pretty yuck I would assume!) - this way her DD had a few mintues of sort of 'dummy time' without actually having a dummy and then spat it - I don't knwo if your DS might like that?

No other ideas I am afraid but best of luck, hopefully something will work!

Oh yes, in that case forget what I said. Drive that boy until he is asleep. Good luck. Just try to remember that he will sleep eventually.

Right have been out in the car for 1/2 hour and he didn't actually drop off but looked quite sleepy so I've put him in his cot.

He is now making "baaaaa" and "mooooo" noises very loudly but I guess that's better than the screaming we had before!

Hopefully DH will be home in an hour or so!

You're right - he will fall asleep eventually and he MUST be soooo tired by now as he normally naps for 1-2hrs.

Slept through last night from about 8pm to 8am

Fingers crossed for tonight! It seems to be the afternoon nap that is harder...

Fantastic. Very jealous of 8am. Hope today is going well.

No nap today either - have kept us busy and DS had 15 mins in the car home.

Fingers crossed for night 4. Going to just do bath and bed and not make a fuss.

If you buy a very babyish looking newborn dummy -maybe pale pink or white with a pic on it and give it to him saying,'here you are ds-dummies are really for little babies but you can have this one and throw it away when you dont need it.'I give it 48 hours!

ooooh good news about the 12 hour kip - v jealous of 8am too!!

Maybe DS is just going to give up the daytime naps cold turkey too and go for the marathon sleep instead

Hope all goes well tonight!

Dam it he went down really quickly at 7pm - maybe 20 mins fussing but something now has woken him and he's screaming blue murder! Have been in to reassure him/put lulluby back on but he's going mental

Will go up in another 15 mins though it does seem to make things worse!