advise needed on giving up dummy!!!

[mad4mybaby]

My 18 mnth ds is in love with his dummy. Ive been good and he only has it to sleep with so therefore doesnt leave his bed. I cant work out when to get him off it. HE asks for it sometimes but i dont give it to him (unless sleeping)

He really does adore it! He seems happier to see a dummy than me most of the time! He has most of his teeth, has a couple of dogs in his bed (one particular favourite) just dont know how to go about it?? Cant see any gradual way of taking off him as only sleeping with it.

Is it going to be a nightmare?! Not sure if i'll cope with him screaming in the night all over again...

Cold turkey. It's the only way. Have the dummy fairy come and put all his dummies in a basket and then in the morning they have all gone and the fairies have left him that super duper car he has been after.

Ditto NAB. Mine both got to choose somrthing from the Toy Shop that they could have after 2 nights without the dummy (which was ceremonially binned in our house - no fairies came here, but they have been successful with my friends),

Probably need to be a bit older to understand though. Mine were over 2

thats the approach i wanted to take but he wouldnt understand getting something else for giving up his dummy. Plan on nappy training 2ish (already showing good signs!) then it'll be out of cot, starting playschool in sep, and aiming for a bro or sis end of year so going to be a big year for him. Wanted to try to get it out of the way but just have no idea what to do. Weather to wait till nearer 2? Would it be too much giving it up and then trying to achieve something else thats major?

We weren't as disciplined as you and DS1 did have it during the day when he was tired or unwell.

He loved his dummy and he's quite a forceful child so i was dreading it.

Eventually we decided that he should keep his dummy until DS2 had come along (as this is a big change for them and potentially he would be woken in the night). We also waited until the sides of his cotbed came off and he felt secure. By that time he was 3. We started talking about the dummy fairy coming to take his baby dummy as they were all getting broken. TBH he would then mention it and say things like 'don't want dummy fairy to come mummy' EEEKKKK.

Anyway finally his last dummy split and that was it...I told him it was broken and that he needed to go to sleep without it and dream about what he wanted the fairy to bring to say well done. He went to sleep no problem....next day we took him to the toy shop and he chose a castle from the dummy fairy and that was it. He's never even put DS2's dummies in his mouth so he was ready. He has great teeth and they're not at all buckled.

i can agree with what you are saying about leaving it till after dc2 born but i hate dummys and really dont want him having one still at 3!

I felt like an evil mummy but all mine who had dummies had them taken away at 6 months. IME they give them up easier then. Doesn't help the OP but may help someone else.

When DS was about 14 months old, he bit through part of the nipple portion of the dummy. Scared us to death, as we thought he might at some point bite all the way through it and choke on it. He was only using it at night as well, but we the few we had went straight into the bin. He was cranky the first couple nights, but fine after that.

I agree with NAB - I went cold turkey at 6 mths and only had a couple of bad nights - after that, DS slept better than he ever did with that horrid thing in his mouth.
If you really are determined to get rid of it, then you have to be resolved to put up with his distress at losing it - but it really will be temporary - it's amazing how adaptable kids are! and replacing it with a blankie or something equally comforting will make it easier.
If you look through the Mumsnet archives on dummies - most people say getting rid of the dummy was the best thing they ever did - reading through the posts was what helped me when I was at your stage of thinking about it but unsure how to proceed.