Any tips for weaning off the dummy?

[MrsBumblebee]

DS (4.5 months) has used a dummy to get himself to sleep for the last couple of months. I'm keen to wean him off it at some point fairly soon, but don't really know how to go about it. Without the dummy he finds it impossible to calm down - he just kicks and wriggles and waves his hands in the air (as well as crying). Does anyone have any tips on how/when best to wean him off it, or is it just a case of going cold turkey?

Is there a particular reason for removing the dummy? Only asking because new FSID advice suggests that is better to consider removing gradually between 6months and a year (if you want to get rid of the dummy that is).
dd and ds both had/have dummies for sleeping and having been the biggest snob ever before dd was born I am now a massive convert.

Hi I wouldn't worry about it for a few months,he is still very little and it sounds like he needs the comfort.

I have recently ditched the dummy with DD,she is 10 months.After she had woken me up 7 times in 1 night I thought it was the right time.

It was almost painless with just 1 very grumpy afternoon nap on the first day.She shouted at me for her dummy for about 20 minutes and I went in and shushed her every few minuted until she gave up and went to sleep.

That was really it,by the next day she had forgotten all about it and slept through without waking at all.

Best tip make up your mind to do it and then cut the tops off the dummys and throw them in the bin,so that you won't be temped to give in.

Thanks for the advice. I'm really interested that the first two replies have sugggested not removing the dummy yet - wasn't what I expected!

Erm, no definite reasons for getting rid of it, really. A couple of things, I guess. One is that it's getting less effective as time goes on - he used to fall asleep with it instantly, but now it often takes some shushing and cuddling as well. Also, he now often pulls the dummy out while he's trying to get to sleep, because he wants to play with it, but can't put it back in again, so I keep having to replace it. Third reason is that he's just beginning to learn to settle himself back to sleep without it, in the night or during naps, so I thought maybe that was a sign he could do without it when he first goes down as well.

But from what you're saying, maybe I should't worry about it for now.

Oh, and Pooka - you imply that at least one of your LOs no longer has a dummy to sleep. Did you find the experience of giving up as easy as lillypie?

Weeeelll... We had a bit of a push into getting rid of it in the end, having talked about it as something that would happen at some point in the future.
dd had her dummy until just before she was 4, with a noukie. One evening she fell over, and cut the inside of her lip which needed to be glued together at A&E. We had previously broached the idea of a dummy fairy coming. I told her that the doctor had said that she had to keep her mouth as clean as possible, and that she couldn't have her dummy again until her mouth had healed (5 days).
She was fine. Absolutely fine. One slightly disturbed night, because her mouth hurt. So she spent the night with me in our bed. And then didn't mention it again really until about 4 days later. At which point I said wouldn't she really like the dummy fairy to come, and she said yes.
So she went to bed and when she woke up she had a new fairy dressing up costume. No more dummy, no more noukie and even more , no more afternoon naps!!!
Must emphasise that she only had a dummy for naps and bedtime by then.

If you feel that it's something that'd be beneficial for your ds (giving up I mean), then it's entirely up to you. I just wanted to say that they are not the work of satan and sometimes are a really good thing (hence the SIDS stuff). Your OP makes it sound like it's something he wants for comfort, although your later post suggests that maybe having a dummy is a problem rather than an opportunity IYSWIM.

My son is 2 1/2 and we've just got rid of his dummy. Health visitor told me at 6 months I shoudl take it away from him, but at that point he relied on it already for going to sleep so we kept it. We generally always gave it to him for a sleep, we never really wanted him to be playing with it in his mouth, so unless he was poorly he would just have it for his sleep. We now have a 5month old girl and she doesn't have a dummy. My son has on a few occasions fallen asleep in the buggy without his dummy so knew he could do it.He'd also begu waking in the nigth again so thought if we were going to take his dummy away may as well do it while he's still waking in the night so we did. After his daytime nap I just asked him if he wanted to throw them away and he said yes, put them in the bin himself. We didn't have a fight on our hands at all when it came to bed time. He did ask for his dummy, it obviously hadn't fully clicked they really had been thrown away!!He woke 4 times that night,but never askingfor his dummy,but just needed to get back to sleep without it.He's hardly mentioned it since!We felt that after he'd had it since newborn, it was then best to take it away when he wa sold enough to understand and we could talk to him about it and explain it.
However,we did have the same problem as you as in he couldn't put it back in so until he could we had quite a lot of sleepless nights as if he woke and it had fallen out we had to put it back in. On top of this my son was lazy so wouldn't even attempt to find it and put it back in, eventualy we had to leave him for 5 minutes just to give hi chance to find it himself.

i didn't get rid of my daughters dummy untill she was 2 1/2 but i took a tiny bit off the end of it and she had one bad night but within two days it was gone. and no fuss but if you want to get rid of the dummy it could be a solution.

All 3 of my children were weaned off dummy when weaning (food) worked a treat!!! luckily more variety of foods took away the need for dummy.

Good luck!