Okay, am prepared for abuse and suggestions of being a terrible mother, but is it SO bad that 5 year old has dummy?

[missmoopy]

My dd (5) STILL has her dummy and shows no signs of wanting to give it up.

She is bright and happy and I am really not that bothered about her having it. She only has it at bedtime as she feels it helps her relax.

Occasionally I have visions of her at 18 packing her dummy to go to Uni, but generally I am fine with it.

What do you think? And, if you think it is awful,how do I encourage her to give it up??

springy my evilness is reserved for other issues!

differentname, I do respect your advice, BUT you cannot make a blanket generalisation that all children who have dummys have poor teeth. Pinkteddy, if you read the posts, people are not dismissing the advice, they are sharing experiences and advice. The entire point of Mumsnet.

wicked I think maybe its being a bit of a hippy that makes me want her to give it up on her own too, rather than be rigid about "well, now she is x years old, society dictates she shouldn't have a dummy..."

Mismoopy - so your child has a dummy, so what? Don't listen to what anyone else says, get it in perspective, it's really not that big a deal.

I had a dummy till nearly 7 (at night only) - I soon gave it up when I was ready.

You know we (the adults) give our children these things in the first place - bottles, dummies, comforters etc...so why should they give them up to your agenda?

missmoopy, I didn't make blanket generalisations!

In all my posts I have said that it has the potential to cause problems, because it does.

That doesn't mean that all children who have dummies will have problems. I know that, I am just stating that the risk is there.

Missmoopy I also don't read Differentname's posts as sweeping generalisations. She is just stating in her professional opinion that prolonged dummy use or indeed finger/thumb sucking (i.e. to the age when adult teeth are coming in) may cause significant dental problems.

Of course we all hope that your dd like many others on this thread will suffer no ill-effects but that is a risk you have to decide upon. This would seem to me as a parent way more important than any issues of perception or snobbery but that is just my opinion.

Re: the dummy fairy, a mate of mine also had the same problem with her daughter being frightened of it. She still had a dummy at 4. What they did to finally get rid was to find a magic tree in the garden. They then put the dummy in a little bag (that happened to be hanging on the tree) and left it for a few hours. When they went to check, it had been magically replaced by a bag of goodies (including sweets, but what the hell). It worked almost immediately - worth a try?

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I have taken DS's dummy away this week and wanted to share my experience as its so different to what I expected.

As I said before on this thread, DS has just turned 3. He was totally addicted to his dummys which he had for nap time (2hrs) and sleep time (12hours). His sleeping was so good, and I was so paranoid about sleepness nights after him being a terrible sleeper as a baby, that I was in no hurry whatsoeve to remove his precious dummys. I am also from the school of thought that they are harmless and a real comfort for DS, however I had a nagging worry about the possible effect on his teeth.

Anyway, DS attends nursery once a week where he has a nap with his dummy. This week I forgot to pack it in his bag, they said he was a bit upset but still went to sleep. I was totally gobsmacked.

So that night I told him if he slept without his dummys we would go shopping the next day for a present. He agreed. He went to bed just fine, I could hear him wimpering a bit and he took longer to go to sleep than normal but he managed it. Again I was gobsmacked!!

The only downside is that he is waking much earlier than usual (about 5.45), but I am hoping this will pass.

I honestly thought we would have hours of distressed screaming begging and crying when I finally plucked up the courage to drop the dummies but we have been really lucky!!

Hi,
I did it this year using the dummy fairy technique, but I bought this "kit" from a company called The Dummy Fairy Workshop which really made the whole thing fun. My little boy had about 15 dummies (yikes), but he gave them up in ONE night!!!!
I'm sure you'll find them if you google them.

AJ

missmoopy, I think as long as you don't mind your dd looking like this it's fine! (oops, there go those teeth again )

dont worry my grandson was 6 before he gave it up but how it was done was firstly the offer of a present that he wanted but on the condition that he parceled the dummies up in nice bag and then they were hung on the tree in the garden for the stork to collect to give to the other babies who would need them and he was told what a sweet kind boy he was. All you have to do is to remember to remove the bag before he wakes and NOT put it where it will be found!!!!!