6 mth old wakes every time dummy falls out

[whisker]

Hi there, my 6 month old daughter has never slept through the night. We are exhausted & at our wits end.

She feeds well, is a healthy weight and is breast & bottle fed. She goes to bed happily at 7pm and sleeps through till 10.30pm feed (8 fl oz formula). She can sometimes sleep through from 10.30-2ish, but then wakes crying after every 45 min sleep cycle and won't settle until we replace the dummy.

I used to feed her when she woke at 2.30-ish, but soon realised she wasn't hungry & she slept no better either way. We have a blackout blind, so it's not light. We have begun changing her nappy when she wakes at 2.30 as it is very heavy & wet at this time & we thought this may be what's causing her to wake, but it makes no difference either. She naps at 9am for 30-45 mins, around noon for 2 hours and sometimes around 4.30 for 15 mins, so she's not sleeping too much or too little during the day & doesn't need her dummy replaced during these naps.

The moment I replace he dummy she falls straight back to sleep, but can't replace it herself & seems unable to settle herself in any other way. We feel if we could wean her off the dummy, she might learn to settle herself without it, but dont know how to do this. Any suggestions?

She can also settle herself with a muslin - she loves to nestle int it & chew on it, but I'm afraid to leave one in the cot with her in case she chokes on it. Any thoughts on this?

Sorry this is a bit long-winded. Would really appreciate any advice you can offer.

Many thanks!

Hi, I hear you... going through a very similar thing with my 5 month old DS. He has a very similar pattern to the one you describes but does sleep until about 3.30am most nights before waking. He is never really awake and I don't feed him either (he doesn't fuss for his 7am feed so i know he isn't hungry in the night). Again, the dummy settles him off. I've thought about going cold turkey, other mums say it takes about 3-4 nights to crack but he actually benefits from the dummy at other times of the day in short spells (on the way home before a feed, if he is rattled on a car journey)... so I'm reluctant to eliminate altogether. Something I have found that helps (depends on the baby though).. I turn DS on his side next to the cot rails to sleep and position his arm/hand in front of the dummy.

I'll look out for any top tips that people can offer as well because I'm feeling the need for a good nights sleep. Sorry I can't be more helpful x

I'm struggling with exactly the same thing with my 7 month old - just marking my place to see what advice is offered.

Not really got any advice on how to try to stop this but my son (now 8 1/2 months) was exactly the same until about 3 or 4 weeks ago. He was waking sometimes as little as 4 times but sometimes as many as 10 times and hungry, hot cold or overly wet or even properly awake really - just wanted his dummy.
I haven't done anything to stop it he just seems to have grown out of it. He still has to have the dummy to sleep for daytime naps & bedtime (most of the time) but when it falls out he doesn't wake for it. He might cry out once or twice a night (but usually more like morning 5 or 6am), sometimes he goes off without me seeing to him and sometimes he wants the dummy putting back ibut it is no more than twice a night nowadays.
He even sleeps during the day without it at all sometimes now so was thinking about taking it off him apart from at nighttimes and trying to get rid of the blasted thing all together.
Good luck ladies & I hope they stop soon, I juts wanted to give you a bit of hope that it may just be a phase x

sorry should have read "NOT hot cold etc"

Thanks for your responses. Good to know I'm not alone in this & that they can just grow out of it. There is hope! Side-positioning hand in front of dummy idea too, although my daughter tends to thrash about side to side before dropping off, so attempts to 'wedge-in' the dummy usually prove fruitless.

Any thoughts on leaving the muslin in cot with her? Is this a health/choking risk?

Any other suggestions welcome.

Many thanks x

DS1 still sleeps with about 4 dummies in his cot, and I think I started doing this when he was around 6mths (he is 2.3 now!) Is he able to put the dummy in his mouth himself yet? I used to put DS1 down with one in his mouth and one in each hand and he would swap them over and over until he went to sleep.

Other than that, do you have the No Cry Sleep Solution book? She describes in that a technique called the "Pantley Pull Off" in which basically if your LO depends on feeding/dummies to fall asleep you wait until they are just about asleep then remove the dummy and hold your finger under the chin. If they wake wanting the dummy you let them have it but do the same thing again and again until they fall asleep without the dummy in their mouth. Have never tried it personally but might be worth a try in order to break the cycle and help her fall asleep on her own?

DS2 sleeps with a muslin and he is only 12wks. However he doesn't suck it so don't know about that risk. One idea would be to cut it down to a smaller size to reduce the risk of smothering etc? (although if you did this would probably need to be hemmed as I would imagine they would fray)

Hi, in my experience there's only one way to deal with this and that's to remove the dummy altogether.

There is 2-3 nights of a few more wakes than normal but they soon forget about the dummy, honestly.

Babies apparently sleep in cycles like we all do. When they come to the end of a cycle those used to dummies can only settle back to sleep with the aid of a dummy, which they naturally can't find or put in themselves. Even older babies, with 4 dummies clipped on, still likely can't - it's too much co-ordination and thinking to pat around for dummy, find it, and put it right way in - all in a half-sleep trance.

They are capable of sleeping/going to sleep without a dummy. Have it in the day by all means but don't use it for night-time settling or sleeping.

We went through this and all research pointed to getting rid of dummy for sleeping - I remember saying to DH incredulously "Apparently we have to remove the dummy!!!" (which was and to us at the time). As if that's the reason, we scoffed. So we didn't try it for 3 months, which was 3 months more of being woken 2-3 times a night.

At wit's end we eventually tried removing the dummy. It worked really well and in fact the dummy was soon redundant in the day too (not our choice!)

The information said this could take 10 nights to take effect but it only took 3. Be brave - try it (what do you have to lose?!) Good luck!

I think I wouldn't give her a dummy anymore.

FWIW, my 18 week old DS sleeps with 2 muslins. I think they're sufficiently breathable not to be a suffocation hazard, but I'd not thought about the choking thing. I know lots of people on the sleep boards have recommended using muslins as comforters.