Dreading the dummy fairy's visit

[acatcalledbob]

DD2 has just turned 3 and still has her dummy for naps and sleeping and also when she has a tantrum. She has lots of tantrums .... often the only way she will calm down is by having a dummy. Her teeth are OK (dentist said that she must of course stop the dummy before her adult teeth start coming through) and I know I should have the fairy visit so that we can finally get rid of the blasted things but I am loathe to in case she a) never naps again or b) has a week-long tantrum and can't stop.

Please can someone talk some sense into reassure me? DD1 had her dummy fairy visit when she was 2 and was fine but DD2 is a very different kettle of highly strung fish. We have mentioned the dummy fairy a couple of time in the most positive light possible but it causes a tantrum

ime with dd now 8, she was around 2yrs when we banished the dummy by cutting the end off - didn't mention it, just did it and she went to have a suck and thought better of it and threw it in the bin. problem solved!

Don't do it then. As far as I am aware, there is no law that requires them to be dummy free as soon as possible. Leave her be.

i would say try it, but if it really doesn't seem to work or it's too much for you, be prepared to use the dummy again. My experience is that it's quite easy giving up these things when they're ready - for us it was dummies and milk bottles. We had a couple of attempts with each, but had to retreat. Then, one day it just seemed fine and DC didn't kick up a fuss. So we knew the time was right.

As a comparison, my dd sucked her forearm from 18 months to now (4.10) and we worried and worried about it, we talked to her nursery teacher, we asked the dentist, we told her to stop, we googled it etc. etc. all to no avail. Then suddenly a week after she started school (3 weeks ago) I noticed the blister on the arm was quite red and she said 'ouch' when I accidently touched it. I then asked her if she wanted a plaster because it was hurting and she said yes and suddenly the plaster was the thing that enabled her to stop completely.

It was there as a reminder and she never went back to sucking her arm. So something that we spent quite a lot of time worrying about and thinking up strategies for became a complete non-issue because she decided for herself it was time to give up. Not saying that you should wait till nearly 5 - with dummies it's probably easier to do it earlier. (You can't send an arm to the arm fairy ). But just sharing how surprised I was that the problem fixed itself when she was ready. I think children can unlearn habits quite easily when the time is right - it must be something to do with their brains being so adaptable??

Also, DS2 2.1 is still bf as a comfort habit and sometimes for naps! I think the boob-fairy needs to come! Good luck.