Saying bye, bye to a dummy...

[Jzee]

is so hard for my 3year old and he's so upset without it that I've let him have it back. Most of the time he's fine without it, but as soon as he's tired then he wants it. Last night we put it away in a special box with all of his other baby things, which he was fine about, but when it came to bedtime he was sobbing for it. Today, he was so miserable without it that I gave it back to him. Should I just be strong and let him go cold turkey or let him have it until he grows out of it hopefully before he's 20! Any tips on how to say farewell ?

yes i have the same trouble, my dd is also a label girl as well as the dummy, my other dd gave her dummy up at 4 when she was more able to understand rewards etc, and the dummy left her money for new trainers in exchange for the 60 dummies, yes 60 dummies!!!!!
I think i am going to wait a bit longer before i do it with dd, maybe when she is nearly 4

Could you let him choose a new cuddly toy which he only has when he is tired, and for bed?

someone told me to cut a bit of the teat off every day so it gets less comforting, but dont know how safe this is???

I really sympathise. My dd is 3 and had beed totally dummy free for about 6 months but I had to do it gradually. Cold turkey is too hard.

First, she wasn't allowed the dummy outside the house. She adjusted to that quite easily.

Then, when she felt ready, we had no dummy at all in the daytime. That was slightly harder but she soon got used to keeping it just for bedtime.

Stage 3 was giving up the bedtime dummy and that was the hardest. We had a couple of false starts. She had to want to do it. She put her dummy in the bin and waved "bye bye" to the bin men. I made sure there were no spare dummies in the house so I could't give in. She found it difficult and I felt really bad. I sat on the floor beside her bed a couple of times until she fell asleep. I just kept explaining how none of her favourite people had dummies and how clever she was etc. But after 2 or 3 nights she was going to bed quite happily without a dummy. Oh, and she got to choose a lovely new toy for being such a big brave girl. That helped.

I know this is a bit long, but I hope it helps.