Tips on getting a very 'sucky' baby to nap without a dummy??

[sweetuphoria]

My DD is 9 weeks old and she sleeps very well at night and doesn't seem to be bothered about a dummy. However during the day I often really struggle to get her to nap without a dummy, and the problem when I do give her a dummy she cannot keep it in her mouth so I have to put it back in every 5-10 minutes when she complains as it wakes her up. Also I don't want to get in to the habit of giving her one as I worry that she will then need one on a night and have the same problem of waking constantly when it falls out.
Any advice welcome..?
:-)

Tricky. Can't think of any helpful advice.

You'll probably find that as she gets a little bigger she'll be able to keep dummy in. Not sure that's what you want to hear though!

You could perhaps try a different brand of dummy? Personally I don't have a problem with them. A happy sucky baby with a dummy is preferable to an unsettled one without imo.

i really wanted to avoid a dummy with my first dd for the same reasons. I spent a lot of time cuddling and rocking her to sleep, I let her suck on my finger. Eventually she found her own fingers, I thought this was better because she can put them back in herself if she wakes in the night. Now she is nearly 6 and I still cant get her to stop! DD2 has a dummy!

thanks for all your help. Spandangle - I'm worried the same thing will happen with her as she is finding her own fingers and at least you can stop them with a dummy.

Thread a muslin through the handle of the dummy - you can then sort of bunch up the muslin at the side of baby's head so it supports the dummy and doesn't fall out.

Try the next size dummy, my DS could. Ot keep the dummy in till someone gave me this tip. It worked.

cC

do you want her to suck her fingers, dummy or neither? i'm nearly ready to get rid of my nearly 3yr old's dummy. as much as i don't like him having one i'm glad i can get rid of it and he only has it in bed rather than sucking his fingers whenever/where ever he wants.
dc3 is 5weeks and i've started using a dummy. it keeps falling out and we were up several times in the night with big brother to put it back in when he was a few months old but i'm prepared for that for the benefits of self settling and getting rid of it. i got a cherry latex teat which he seems to manage to hold onto better than the orthodontic ones.

Walk/Rock her to sleep in the pram. Worked for my 'sucky' babies who refused all dummies but wanted to feed to sleep every time...

Once she is used to falling asleep in the day without a dummy she should need less and less rocking til eventually she can fall asleep without rocking, eg in a cot or in your arms.

We gave each new baby a particular toy every time it was sleep time. Eg sleepy bunny, sleepy cat or whatever. They then form an association with it and being laid down to sleep. If you persist with this you should't need a dummy. Hth

thanks everyone - some great tips.

What you do to get her to sleep in the day is unlikely to affect how she sleeps at night as night & day sleep seem to be controlled by different parts of the brain.

You may need to invest some time into persuading her to fall asleep without rocking etc, or be patient waiting for her to do it herself. I still rock my 14 m.o. to sleep for naps. I could probably wean him off it, but both he & I enjoy it too much.

At 9 weeks though I was desperately trying to persuade him to bf to sleep. It worked eventually, and I was gutted when feeding to sleep stopped working for naps at 8 months, as it was lovely and always worked a treat.

Also up till about 3 months, babies start off in active sleep which means they wake up very easily for the first 15-20 mins. After 3 months or so, they go straight into a deeper sleep which means you can put them down / don't need to keep replacing the dummy.