dummy to comfort 3 week old?

[oxeye]

Three week old DD feeding well, but at times during day seems to want to suck, but not suckle, and very hard to comfort. Would a dummy soothe her or what should I do?

Yes I would. Mine would never get into it but freind`s kids who did seemed to to settle with the them. I think the hard bit is weaning them off the dummy when they are older. My HV recommends them.

thanks for that Thinker, it's hard to know if it's a short term benefit with a long long term problem in the future

One of those things that's so hard to predict. I worried it would affect bf (if that's what you're doing) but gave it within first 3 weeks - he fed for two years so no problem there in my case.
He still uses it at 2.9 for sleeps though. Don't think I could have kept on with the bf with the amount of sucking he wanted to do - dummy thumbs up from me.

yes, she's BF and it's the comfort child versus stay sane balance I'm looking for - thanks Iggie

DS was like this early on, so we got him a dummy in about week 3. Helped enormously, as it made him much happier. My boobs were very sore with all the sucking, so it helped me too. There was no mistaking when he was actually hungry either. At about 3 months he decided that was enough, and he's not had one since - he's now 9 months (and still bf). HTH

Try offering a clean little finger for a while. You may need to cut your nail first but mine gave lots of comfort to my DD1. I prefer it to dummies because they can't have it during sleeps so don't get dependent like with dummies.

Big thumbs up to dummy from me, I have twins and one really wants to suck, definately helps to sooth her when upset and get her to sleep, when she's definately not hungry. Other one not so bothered. I would say though, big problem now is she uses it to get to sleep so wakes every time it falls out until she is properly in a deep sleep, sometimes up to an hour, so lots of up and down stairs when they first go down in the evening!

If you use a finger, like Alison suggests, don't make the mistake I made where I dug my finger nail into the roof of babies mouth when she sucked on it (suck is really strong) turn your finger so nail is downward onto her tongue. Or cut finger nail completey short!

All my 3 had dummies from v early on (DD2 and DS from week one). All were v v sucky babies and loved their dummies. It had no effect on bf with mine - i never had any trouble knowing when they wanted to feed (spat dummy out and screamed!), they all had fantastic weight gains and no feeding issues at all. I also credit the dummy with helping me to ease them into a routine as I didn't have to keep feeding the whole time.

All 3 of mine became avid thumb suckers (a whole other problem.....) as soon as their motor skills were developed enough to keep their thumb in (3 - 4 months) and the dummies were utterly rejected, it was like the dummies were a temporary measure until they could sort out their thumbs. Some babies are v sucky (mine were / are - I still can't break that thumb habit). Give it a go, see what happens. With my DD1 the dummy was our life saver - we gave it to her at about 2 weeks and she stopped screaming for about the first time since she'd been born.