Removing dummy from my 4.5 month old daughter

[Llinosbengoch]

My 4.5 month old daughter has been a great sleeper until about a month ago, but suddenly started aking every hour after 1.00 am. She feeds well an has a dream feed, have even started her on solids this week as I felt she was hungry to na avail!! Have decided now that she can't settle herself bach to a deep sleep after losing her dummy. Any suggestions?My husband and I are both done in. Is cold turkey the only way with getting rid of the dummy?

agree with MyName - google 4 month sleep regression, loads of info out there

re: solids - of course, only you will know if your DD is sitting properly, has lost her tongue thrust etc. which are indicators of being ready for solids, but remember that for such a young baby, tiny amounts of purees (which will fill her up) will not have anything like the calorific and nutritional value of breastmilk/formula, so she may well be waking up hungry in the night.

give more milk if you think she is hungry - she is growing and developing at a tremendous rate and needs good nutrition. These developmental stages are frequent and can disturb sleep etc.

not much you can do

I removed DS's dummy at 5.5 months as he was waking up every 1.5 hours for it. It wasn't hunger, he just went straight back to sleep once his dummy was re-inserted!

We went cold turkey. We removed his dummy when we put him down for (night time) sleep on day 1 and he was slef settling and sleeping through by night 3 (which makes me think it wasn't regression/developmental).

We used a variation of PUPD (baby whisperer) - but instead of picking him up as soon as he cried, we left it for increasingly longer intervals - 30 secs, 1 min, 1 min 30 etc - before picking him up and calming him down. If you want the details then send me a PM.

Thankyou both. Will google sleep regression. Both of my other children didn't seem to have it. DD is still getting her full milk feeds have just added some fruit purees and a little baby rice to them. I think you're right and we'll just have to ride it out.:)

Am new to mumsnet. What's a PM and how do I send one?!

In the blue bar above each post (where your user name is), there is an option on the right hand side to 'message poster'...just give it a click! :)

Does your daughter have a dummy when she's awake or just when she's sleeping? Does she still have night feeds or a dream feed?

If you are sure that she is not waking-up through hunger (then being temporarily placated by the dummy, only to wake again) I would say that the method you used with your DS is a good one!

Ooops...

I would say that the method *IWillOnlyEatBeans used is a good one!

Am going to follow Iwillonlyeatbeans advice. Thanks (smile)

If you do go cold turkey on the dummy, consider replacing it with another comfort item like a muslin or an old t-shirt or special 'blanky'.