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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

FSID now recommends that a dummy be offered when settling the baby to sleep from one month to 6 months of age

53 replies

gagarin · 13/04/2008 21:25

So - what do we all think about this - does safety outweigh not liking dummies or the idea of dummies?

You can read the research on

www.fsid.org.uk/editpics/612-1.pdf

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

BreeVanDerCampLGJ · 13/04/2008 21:28

I have never seen a child starting school with a dodie (soother) I have however seen children starting school sucking their thumb.

Thumbs do longer term damage IMO....

iloatheironing · 13/04/2008 21:36

I agree. I'm struggling to stop my 10 year old sucking her thumb. You can wean them off a dummy you can't chop off their thumbs!

fishie · 13/04/2008 21:38

i sucked my thumb and have survived. teeth are super and thumb jolly good too.

misdee · 13/04/2008 21:41

dd1 was utterly in love with her dummy. even past age 4 (rationed at that point), i think without it she would;ve been a thumb-sucker.

other two not so interestedm but had dumies until they were more or less six months, then wouldnt take them after that.

serant · 13/04/2008 21:43

Thankyou for this, my 6wk old is bf & will settle with a dummy.

I didn't want to start with a dummy, but it has been good for us both.

RustyBear · 13/04/2008 21:45

I was very anti dummy when my two were babies - they both sucked their thumbs -DS stopped at around 2.5, but DD is still sucking hers at 18 - I think I can safely say she wouldn't still be sucking a dummy.

onepieceoflollipop · 13/04/2008 21:46

Loads of people tell you that the baby will get "addicted" to a dummy and will wake up every hour (or whatever) needing it replaced.

My dd2 has loved her dummy since about 4 weeks of age. At 8 months she doesn't look for it in the day at all apart from naps. At night she generally settles herself without it (we hear her murmuring etc). Sometimes we need to get up to her once around 4 am to give it to her. It is handy as well if they are really poorly - I offer b/f initially and then the dummy.

jingleyjen · 13/04/2008 21:47

tried both boys with a dummy for that ocasional middle of the night panic but they just spat them out...

SoupDragon · 13/04/2008 21:48

All 3 SmallDragons spat dummies out in disgust.

VictorianSqualor · 13/04/2008 21:50

It actually says not to replace the dummy if it falls out so if people do say baby will need it replacing there's your answer.

BreeVanDerCampLGJ · 13/04/2008 21:50

Rusty...

I have always thought that soothers, had a place in keeping the airways open in very young children.

I spent a lovely afternoon with DS(7) looking at old photos on the PC, he still had a soother at rising three but only in bed time photos.

He looked at one particular photo...and said .............ahhhhhhhhhh my dodie,do we still have one ?

grumpybum · 13/04/2008 21:51

My dd never took a dummy - just spat it straight out, she was bottle fed. My ds (5months) loves his dummy and he was breast fed up until recently.
Friend of a friends daughter is 6 this year and still has a dummy!!! Looks ridiculous if you ask me and is a right baby who winges and cries all the time - hence why they give her a dummy to shut her up.

Jojay · 13/04/2008 21:53

DS loved his, and gave it up on his own accord at 11 months.

It was always a help, never a hindrance and I wouldn't hesitate to give my next baby one.

Saying that, DS didn't have one till 3 months, obviously not to SIDS guidelines but I wonder if that's why he wasn't too addicted to it.

kiskideesameanoldmother · 13/04/2008 22:11

Press Release from UNICEF - UK Baby Friendly Initiative on dummy use.

I think that FSIDS has muddied the waters here a bit.

no where on their site do they day that breastfeeding further reduces the incidence of SIDS which (they may say) is already reduced by half when combined with roomsharing and (and god forbid,) bedsharing - which they also fail to mention for some unexplained reason.

that dummies increase teh risk of dental maloccusion, and ear infections.

You may be aware already taht 10 pence of the sale of every MAM nightsoother or some such name, is donated to FSIDS. While I have no issue with the donations. I do have issue with only telling a part of the story to parents who are rightfully anxious about SIDS and may buy (expensive) dummies needlessly.

VictorianSqualor · 13/04/2008 22:14

Did you read the FSID pdf kiskidee?
I browsed it and it definitely mentions co-sleeping and breastfeeding, though to what extent I'm not sure.
It does say it now encourages use of a dummy from one month to be weaned off between 6-12 months.

kiskideesameanoldmother · 13/04/2008 22:14

the actual release from UK BFI

some interesting points made by people who have actually read the one piece of research which all this drum banging from FSIDS is based on.

it is not about who makes the most sense, it is about who makes the most noise.

BreeVanDerCampLGJ · 13/04/2008 22:17

I hate the word dummy, it suggests dumbing down of the child.

For some reason in our family it is a dodie, or .........................some of us call it a soother.

Dummy

kiskideesameanoldmother · 13/04/2008 22:20

VS, i did not read the pdf. I was addressing the dummy question which is what the OP's main drive was about.

glad to see that the bit about bfing and cosleeping is included in teh PDF, now that I have scanned it.

Now i will find more respect for FSIDS when they put a summary of the safety and appropriateness of cosleeping and bfing on their main pages, like they ought to rather than leave it hidden in a PDF where most parents won't find it. If they really want to address the interests of all parents they would bang that drum just as hard as the dummy one.

Staceym21AtLast · 13/04/2008 22:27

my 2 both had/have dummies great for night times and have never replaced once fallen out unless re-settling after a feed.

dd gave hers to the dummy fairy at 20 months, ds is 17 months and still has his for bed, but not during the day.

I took the dummy away during day time once they were crawling and could amuse themselves a bit more.

Seems to have worked well, they have no problems with their teeth and dds speech was never impaired. As far as i know ds's speech hasn't been impaired he just plain cant be @rsed.

TinkerbellesMum · 13/04/2008 22:27

It's a very biased study (and not new) sponsored by MAM. There is a lot of opposition to the study, but a quick glance over this thread would suggest that people have already pointed that out.

I personally hate dummies, I refused to give Tink one even though there is some suggestion that they are helpful to premature babies (I actually didn't have to have that conversation with the NNU, but I know people who did). She has never been a real thumb sucker, very rarely if she was tired or stressed, and is a very happy and contented baby. I believe that babies only need a dummy when they know what one is.

Hulababy · 13/04/2008 22:35

DD had a dummy from early on. It helped sooth her when she had colic. We never had to get up and replace it in the night. After the first few weeks he only had it for sleep times or if ill, and then eventually only at night. It was gone completely before she turned 3, a fiar bit before then actually - and it was very easy to get rid off - she gae them all to BIL's new kitten who was missing his mummy. DD asked for it that night, we had none left, she never asked again really and then became very anti dummy if she saw one, lol! She was never allowed to try to talk with one in - my pet hate. If she started trying to talk (even as a baby and just babbling) it was removed immediately.

llareggub · 13/04/2008 22:43

My son didn't have a soother. I tried him with one a few times after reading the advice but he always spat it out. He doesn't suck his thumb either but was always a big breastfeeding fan. He would feed for hours at a stretch!

VeniVidiVickiQV · 13/04/2008 23:34

looky here

Tapster · 14/04/2008 08:32

Everybody said that if I didn't let DD have a dummy she would suck her thumb. My DD now 17 months has never sucked her thumb. I hate dummies I do think there is very little evidence of dummy sucking and SIDS. I also think BFing to sleep must provide similar if any benefits.

twinkleymum · 14/04/2008 09:34

I didn't want to use a dummy but after 2 weeks of my DD wanting to be permenantly attached to my boob I gave in so that I could get some sleep. She wasn't feeding from me just using me as a pacifier.

At 5mo she still has it for naps but not at other times. If she doesn't have it in she sucks her thumb, I think some babies just like to suck, at least I'll be able to take the dummy away at some point...

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