how can I comfort my 'sucky' baby.

[bria]

My two month old is extremely 'sucky' but refuses a dummy - she tries to put her thumb in her mouth to comfort herself but is unable to, so gets frustrated and cries - I have to resort to giving her the breast. Can anyone tell me any alternatives?

My son was exactly as your daughter is, and I was in the same quandary when he was 2 months. Having found no alternative, I persisted with the dummy, actually holding it in his mouth while stroking his cheek. Eventually he ceased to catapult it across the room and actually got the hang of the dummy, which became a great source of comfort for him. But if you decide to go this way, do try to break her of the dummy habit by 3 or 4 months if you can. My son, now 2.5, is utterly dependent on his dummy, and in retrospect I should have taken it away from him a long time ago, or never introduced it to him at all. But he was an extremely 'sucky' baby and at the time I was willing to try anything, so I know how you feel.

thanks for the quick response ExpatKat, i'll persist with the dummy! It's nice to know i'm not alone, all my friends think this is weird as their babies took to the dummy quickly!

A US doctor suggests giving the baby a dummy then trying to gently pull it out of his/her mouth. Apparently babies will instinctively suck harder to retain it. If you keep doing this you can 'train' them to use it. I don't know what I would have done with my very sucky ds without a dummy. He's 10months old and still uses it a lot - though we don't give it to him now (except to say 'it's bedtime', he just puts it in himself). I do wonder when I'll want him to stop using it but am playing it by ear a bit - sometimes we take him out without it and he's fine, so I suppose the best thing to do will be to increase the dummy-free time.

Good luck.

Our dd refuses all dummies except the old-fashioned cherry-teat ones. Tommee Tippee make them and you can buy them in old-fashioned chemists.

Hi Bria

My dd refused the dummy when she was tiny, but at about 6 months (just about coincides with teething) she picked up a dummy and hasn't looked back since It certainly helps her now as she spends a lot of time chewing on it. My mum said that I had a dummy until I was a year old and then she simply took it away. I understand I cried for a few days but settled eventually. My ds - now 6½ years - never bothered with either a dummy or a thumb! Although at times I wished he had. My advice, is to go with it - and make sure you have plenty of dummies in the house. We keep finding them in all sorts of strange places.

My dd always refused a dummy - but in the early days was inconsolable and my Gp ( also a new mum) said she gave dd her little finger to suck on - not ideal as you can't do a great deal! - but at the time it was the only way to settle her. In time she learnt to suck her own - and still does at 18 months - but for now yours might be worth a try!