Anyone with experience weaning off dummy?

[annaritadc]

Hi, just wondering whether anyone can help with suggestions or comforting words! Have six month old daughter who really wants dummy but keeps spitting it out. We've tried taking it away from her when she was about three months cold turkey but she wouldn't self settle which is kind of important for us as we have a 2 year old boy too. We reintroduced a cherry one which she seemed to cope with better but same thing has started again. She was teething an had every cold and virus my sons had so we've tried to be patient but Im getting barely any sleep...I'm lucky if I get two hours straight. It gets to the point she's so fussy at night I need to get her in bed with me. I want to go cold turkey but worried about crying waking up my son and know I'll need to soothe her in another way that might create another bad habit.

So...any advice would be fantastically appreciated!

I put all my son's dummies in a gift bag and left it on the door handle for the dummy fairy to collect, along with a letter.

In return, she left a present (something he really wanted - can't remember what it was now!). I told him that the dummy fairy gives them to babies that need them. This really helped as he was nearly 3 and liked to think he was a big boy. It was a bit cold turkey for a couple of nights, but he accepted it and we were dummy-free for good pretty soon afterwards.

Not sure if this is helpful but she might be able to put her dummy in herself soon. Its loads easier then. I found a little night light and lots of dummys in the cot helped.

We have taken the decision to go cold turkey at bed/nap times but LO still has the dummy during the rest of the day but I hope to phase this out too although she is a crier so I find myself giving her the dummy to try and placate her! She cries for a bit at bed/nap times but am hoping that's going to decrease as she gets used to it!
Understand it must be difficult for you with another child though!

We stopped the dummy when DS was 14 months. I increased his sleep association with Panda for a month or so first, making sure he cuddled Panda for every single nap and bedtime. This seemed to help him soothe himself by cuddling Panda instead of using the dummy. Then we just took the dummy away and never gave it back, it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It took about 3 nights for bedtimes to be ok, and then another 5 or so for him to sleep in the day without it. So about 8 days in total.

Now he needs Panda but hardly ever wakes in the night and is much better at self settling.

Good luck!