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

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

Behaviour/development

At what age did your child ditch their dummy? How did you do it?

40 replies

Plonker · 17/10/2009 17:18

Dd3 is 2.3 yo and is far more attached to her dummy than I would like

I'm trying to limit her time of having her dummy, but tbh she's not taking to it very well.

She knows dummies are for babies and will often give me hers declaring that she doesn't need it because she's a big girl, only to come for it 5 minutes later telling me actually she's still a baby and can she have her dummy back

I'm not concerned about her speech (it's excellent) and her pronunciation is good too, so that's not a problem. I'm worried about her teeth though as I know that dummys can affect the way her mouth forms, in fact I'm worried that the damage has already been done.

So, back to my title - at what age did your dc ditch their dummy, and how did you do it?

Have considered her giving them to Father Christmas but don't know if she's a little young for that?

OP posts:

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TattyCatty · 17/10/2009 22:40

The Dummy Fairy came on my DD's 3rd birthday and left a present in exchange for her dummy. We talked about it for a few weeks beforehand, and it worked really well - she never asked for it again.

Don't do what a friend of mine did - Father Christmas was coming to get her son's dummy so she made a big thing of tying it to the tree with a ribbon ready for him to collect. The present in return for the dummy was carefully placed under the tree, and then a bottle of wine later, she forgot to remove the dummy.... imagine how pleased the little boy was the next morning to find his dummy replacement present AND his dummy still hanging from the tree!

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Gingemeeeklookatthatspider · 17/10/2009 22:43

TC oops !

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roisin · 17/10/2009 22:46

This takes me back.
These were some of my first posts on mn I think. I came on here and got some moral support to go cold turkey on the dummies. We just told him we were binning them and got on with it. It worked fine.

Be warned though: that was nearly 9 years ago! and I'm still here!

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Plonker · 17/10/2009 23:03

Oh I love you guys!!

I think, from reading these replies, that my best course of action will be to wean her off the dummy's through the day for a while and then tackle the bedtime dummies.

She sooooooo loves her dummy though - I'm not even sure that she'll be happy to give it up through the day yet ...could be a looong few days, weeks, months, lol.

OP posts:

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PurpleLostPrincess · 17/10/2009 23:08

DS was 2.8 and we gathered all the dummies from the house and put them into his stocking and exchanged them for presents with Santa. He only asked for it a few months later when ill but I replied that Santa had them and he accepted it bless him!

DD1 didn't like the dummy and sucked her thumb instead - have had major dental problems but she gave up a couple of months ago aged 11 all on her own.

DD2 loved her dummy with a passion but as soon as her first teeth came through aged about 8 or 9 months, she refused to have it...

HTH

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ja9 · 17/10/2009 23:09

from about 6mo ds only had his dummy for sleeps. stayed that way until he dropped his afternoon nap. then we withdrew dummy. first night was haeartbreaking. 2nd night hard. by 3rd night was not an issue... good luck!

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luciemule · 17/10/2009 23:21

I'm going to be slated for this but my DD is 8 in January and she still keeps about 5 under her pillow and sucks them, in turn, to go to sleep! It's driven me insane however, as DH is in the forces and there have always been traumatic things like moving house every 2 yrs and new schools etc to contend with, that the dummies have always kept on going. She is such an emotional little thing that they are a huge comfort and I do feel guilty thinking about just taking them away. Her friend (who is a french boy) has them too and his mum is exactly the same as me about taking them away. She wouldn't take them to a friend's house and never tells her friends about them but I know that one day she won't need them anymore. I always take them out of her mouth. I've always made sure they're orthodontic and her dentist said if I hadn't told him, he would never have known she sucked them (this amazed me!) Anyway, after my waffle, I would say at 2yrs, just take them and throw them away and don't look back - they will forget really quickly. Say the fairies took them for the baby fairies or something!

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RGPargy · 18/10/2009 22:34

DD hasn't had her dummy during the day for the last few days and hasn't asked for them either. What's odd tho is that although she only has one when she's tired, when she's going to bed she has always had two dummies (from when she could stick them in herself lol). Tonight i put her to bed with just one dummy and she subsequently spent the next 40 minutes chucking everything out of her cot including her dummy, her pillow, her teddies etc. Eventually DH went up and gave her the extra dummy and we haven't heard a peep from her since!!

If she just has it a night time then i dont think i'm going to force the issue of giving it up. It's just the daytime addiction that i dont like. When she comes downstairs in the morning and has her milk/breakfast, i take her dummy away (she doesn't blink an eyelid) and then wash it and put it straight away in the cupboard. As she cant see it, she doesn't ask for it. Job jobbed!

Let's hope she carries on like this!

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MumofJTM · 19/10/2009 10:39

I'm watching this thread with interest too! I want to get my DS (aged 2 and a bit) off his dummies (he only has them at sleep time) next weekend (I'm a teacher and on half term then, so doesn't matter if disturbed sleep!) I'm all set to do the "Dodo Monley" coming and taking tne dodos away for the little babies and bringing presents in return (have brought Cars DVD and some toy cars ready!), but what time of day should I introduce the idea? Just before bedtime or when he wakes up after his nap and get them ready to leave out at bedtime? Sorry for hijacking your thread, OP, but all connected, I guess!

will keep watching!

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MumofJTM · 19/10/2009 10:41

Sorry, that should have read "Dodo Monkey"!

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Sunshinemummified · 19/10/2009 10:45

When DS was about 18m we began limiting dummy to sleep time and travelling in the car.

We finally decided to get him to give them up around his third birthday when he could rationalise what was happening. We decided to give them to the babies at nursery (obviously warn nursery beforehand that this is what you're going to do). So we bagged them up and took them in and handed them over to the nursery manager. DS got a present in exchange and he thought that he was doing something nice for other people.

We had about a week of problems at night (only when settling down) but apart from that he's been fine and he hasn't sucked his thumb either.

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RGPargy · 19/10/2009 17:09

mumofjtm - i would give it a week's build up and keep mentioning it so that he has time to think about losing his dummies. That way it wont be so much of a shock rather than if you just do it one night without warning.

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UniS · 19/10/2009 21:46

about 6 weeks ago age 3.6 .
We had already cut down on use to only in his bed and on LONG car trips. This did mean he would take himself off to bed if in need of a comforting suck during the day.

Then after months of gentle suggestions about dummies being a baby thing and his being a big boy , planning out with him WHAT would happen when he gave up his dummies ( send them to his aunty who is expecting baby shortly) .... he got the idea that he would like a computer mouse , a tiny USB one that fits his hand. So we went to look for one in a shop, tryed it out etc. didn't buy it. Asked him if he would like it as a reward for giving up his dummies. He decided he would like that.
The Same day, he declared at bedtime he didn't want a dummy, he wanted a mouse. I was quite prepared for him to change his mind in middle of the night. He didn't. next day we posted the dummies off and we went shopping for a mouse.
He wakes up a bit earlier since ditching dummies, and played up at bedtime for a week or two, but its settled down.

So in short, what did we do? We did BRIBERY.

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RGPargy · 19/10/2009 22:20

Sounds like a plan UniS!

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nappyaddict · 09/11/2009 14:18

DS has never had a dummy but my friend took her DS to the dentist at 15 months when he'd got a few teeth and the dentist said he should give up the dummy because he already had an overbite.

That then made our other friend take her DD of the same age who was a thumb sucker and her dentist said she also had an overbite and to give it up.

They both said the official age for recommending parents wean them off is 12 months just the same as bottles.