How should I wean my 7mth old off his dummy?

[TinaFay]

Hi all, I'm sure this questions has been raised loads of times (if you could point me to any previous discussions on this topic that would great!) My 7 month old seems to be getting more and more dependent on his dummy at nightime - and recently he's started to wake up sometimes 4 or 5 times in the night and seems unable to settle himself back to sleep without one. My husband and I are getting increasingly frustrated (and tired out) with having to get up to put his dummy back in (when we do he'll instantly fall back to sleep). So tonight we have put him to bed without one... he's still crying and we put him down 15 mins ago, and I'm beginning to feel like a incredibly evil mum now. Any advice? Is going cold turkey best or should I try to ease him off it gently? Help please. Thanks. Tina

We clip our dd's dummy to her bedbag with a tether. Its very short, so there's no danger of of it strangling her.

She just finds it herself in the night and puts it back in.

imo if it comforts the baby then let them have it. I have 2 dc and they've both used a dummy. at first it was fairly often but as they got older(or as ds gets older since he's 16 months) I only let them have it for sleep times.

DS got into the habit of crying at night and us putting the dummy back in for him and then falling back to sleep, I totally sympathise as it's very annoying. But one night I was too tired to get up so left him to cry and literally within a few minutes he stopped crying for us and when back to sleep. I was probably lucky but since that night he hasn't bothered us for his dummy!

the need for you to find it for them doesn't last too long before they can get it themselves imo.
All my 3 dc had/have dummys and gave them up when older with little problem. Couldn't imagine taking away dd's now 6.5 mths without lot's of tears!

I wouldn't take it off him yet. My ds would never take a dummy and was very unsettled. We had to rock him for ages to get him to sleep and feed him to sleep at night. If it comforts hi mand he can go to sleep with it on his own then I'd leave it alone. There are dummy cords which are very short and are made of beads so there is no risk of it going round his neck. In a month or so he should be able to find it and pop it in himself. I don't see the problem with him having it just to sleep and saves a lot of tears. If he is struggling to sleep without it, you may make him more upset at night and more difficult to settle.

We did cold turkey for the dummy when we removed the night feeds when DD was 10 months. She never managed to find the dummy herself in the night and it drove us mad but we chose to do the two things together and she was about 10 months when she would wake for a feed but just suck a bit for comfort and drop straight off again, so we twigged that she didn't actually need the milk any more. It took 3 nights and she was sorted.

We got into the same dreadful cycle of running up the stairs every 45 mins to re-plug the dummy (with twins there was a lot of running).

Finally snapped and we went cold turkey at about 10 months. They cried for about 4 nights then forgot all about them, never bothered with them since. It was really hard (I remember sitting on the stairs crying along with them) but worth it, they have been fantastic sleepers ever since.