4 year old with a dummy

[becksbecci]

Help. I can't seem to get my 4 year old DD to stop sucking her dummy. She has a dummy first thing, and as soon as she comes in from school. If she sees one of the babies (my DS's) she grabs it off him.

I am so embarrassed because tonight she is staying at grannies house, and I had to pack her dummy in her suitcase.

What can I do to stop her wanting one?
I have tried putting vinegar on it
I have tried the story about the dummy fairy coming to take it for the little babies, etc,
i have tried bribes, i.e. she will get a new barbie toy if she gives up the dummy, etc.

Any advice, nothing is working.

I tink you might have to be a bit tougher.
She is a big girl now, starting school soon, throw it in the bin.
DS2 at 3.5 was a dummy lover. We went to the docs and cos he was ill i let him have his dummy.
The doc wiped the floor with us both about it.
We went home and put the dummy in the bin and have never looked back.
Pay a visit to my grumpy doctor.
Or just put the damn thing in the bin and put up with it, she may surprise you.

I'd say that you shouldn't put vinegar or anything else on it. Don't turn something that's given her so much comfort into something horrid - let her remember it being nice, not being nasty.

Don't give her any choice. Pick your story (the dummy fairy, the bribe, the "you're a big girl now", whatever) and pick a day when the dummy has to go. Then go cold turkey. It's the only way once they are this dependant. It'll be horrible for a couple of days but she'll soon get used to it.

Lots of extra cuddles and attention too.

aww ,very hard to do ,but it is easier to get rid of the dummy than chopping my ds' thumb off!

Message withdrawn

My DD is 5.3 and still has (ermmm.....counting) 6 dummies - all totally individual 'beings' and she has a routine of when she sucks each one. She has them all night - but try to remove them once she's asleep - and when she gets up and when she gets in from school. I tried everything to convince her to dump the dummies - baby angels taking them/fairies etc but she refused to be kind to them all!
Dentist checked her teeth (she's only ever had orthodontic ones) and said he'd usually be able to tell straight away if she was a dummy sucker but didn't know.
They're such a comfort to her and she doesn't like to cudle special toys really - only dummies, I feel so mean taking them all away.
My 8 year old cousin still has some hidden somewhere in her room which she sneaks before bed but would be too embarassed for anyone to see her with them.
Nephew has a dummy box which he puts his dummy into every morning and his mummy takes it out at night.
I'm still thinking I should just chuck them and put up with the consequences.

my dd is 2.7 and is a huge dummy lover however we bought her peter pan dvd on monday as she had enough stickers on her chart (had a few behavior/sleep problems since dd2 arrived in jan) she is obsessed with tinker bell so we now have a tinkerbell bag that she puts her dummies in in the morning, whilst she is getting dressed/occupied somewhere else I quickly take dummies out and make a big thing that I have seen tinkerbell flying out of her room and luckily she believes me but checks her bag just in case (dh even put some glitter in there this morning which she thinks is fairy dust .

At bed time her tinkerbell bag is still on her bed but tinkerbell will have bought 2 dummies back just for bed time. We have had a few bad times in the day especially around 4pm when she starts getting grumpy but am sticking with it nd she seems to be understanding after 5 days that she doesnt have it till she goes to bed and am hoping we'll be dummy free at night by the time shes 3

My DS never had a dummy, but at 2.10 he was still drinking his pre-nap and pre-bed milk from a bottle.

It is only this week we have got him weaned off it.

It helped that we went away for 4 nights and DH and I both forgot to pack the bottles - DS was fine while we were away with having milk from a cup, but as soon as we got back he asked for a bottle.

We stuck by our guns even thoough it would have been easier (for us!) to just given in. There were a few tears, but we just told him he was a big boy, that bottles are for babies, and DH sat down and had a glass of milk with him.

Two nights later he was completely cured! In hindsight should have done it months ago....

All best, maybe some tough love is needed to wean your dd from her dummies!