Dummy vs thumb sucking dilemma

[chicaguapa]

DS is just over 5 months. Following the Baby Whisperer's advice (in her book!) we gave him a dummy when he was about 4 weeks old and he goes to sleep like a dream. He only has it to sleep. He's sleeping through from 7pm to 5.30am but (the same old story) we are up a couple of times a night to put his dummy back in.

A few times when I've been on my own he's not woken me up in the night and I've found him in the morning still asleep and sucking his thumb. It seems to me that he might have woken up, I've not heard him and he's sucked his thumb to go back to sleep.

The Baby Whisperer talks about taking the dummy away at 5 months. How do you get them to sleep without it then? Also is it better to take it away and have him suck his thumb or stick with the dummy and take it away when he's 2 or 3 (or doesn't want it anymore)?

Well you have to do what you feel is right. Ds1 is now 5 and had a dummy from birth I am ashamed to say he was a child who had it hanging lazily from his mouth and appeared in most pictures with it in his hand or mouth . When he was 3 I told him that if he lost that dummy mummy wasn't going to buy him anymore, he lost it I stopped buying. We had a few nights where he asked for it and suffered withdrawal (irritability e.t.c.) but after about 2 days he had forgotten all about it. Ds2 is 13 months and only has his at sleep time but will try the same with him when he is about 3. But that is me and my friend took the dummies away from her 3 boys when they were 4 months old, it took about a week of controlled crying to settle them without it but we always laugh when we get together because their ages are 5, 2.5 and 13 months and they ALL suck their thumb. She is now moaning because the older one is at school sucking his thumb. I know it isn't much help but I thought I'd give you two sides to this.

i don't think there is anything wrong with thumb sucking per se - and indeed, at a young age, i'm not sure there is anything you can do about it - i took my son's dummy away a la baby whisperer at 5 months, and he just put his thumb straight in - i think the baby whisperer has a view on that too - that it is ok, and they will stop when they no longer need the comfort - well, that's what i'm hoping for

I gave both of mine dummies within their first month - partly because it helped them, and partly because I thought it would be easier to wean them off the dummy than off their thumbs. You can't take thumbs away, after all! Ds found his fingers within 3m, so I weaned him off the dummy - no point being hooked on both. Dd's sleep was being affected, like chicaguapa's ds, so we took the dummy away, cold-turkey, and at the same time did cc to get her through the night at 6m. We knew she could sleep through because she had been doing it at least once or twice a week from about 3m, but the dummy was becoming a problem and she was sleeping thourgh less and less. Within 2 nights she had found her thumb and that was that.

Ds at 4 still sucks his fingers to sleep, but is very cooperative about not sucking them at other times. Dd, OTOH, at 2 will not be parted from her thumb. Frankly, if they need them they need them. And if they need orthodontics later on then so bit it - at least they have the comforter they need right now.

I've completely changed my opinion on dummies and thumb-sucking since I had children of my own!