Occasional dummy use - confusing?

[Lemondrop99]

So we ditched DS’s dummy around 3.5 months when he started pulling it out of his own mouth repeatedly and getting hysterical about it. He’s now just turned 5 months and adjusted very well to not having it.

The only problem I have is that I find it pretty difficult to leave the house with him. He naps brilliantly in his cot but it’s always very hard work to get him to nap on the go (car seat/pram/sling etc). He has limited tolerance for being strapped into anything and gets fed up within 10-30 mins. Sometimes he just loses it and I’ve ended up deploying an “emergency dummy” in situations where I can’t do much to calm him (in moving car, on a bus etc). It works and 9/10 he’ll nap when sucking his dummy.

The thing is, I worked so hard to get him to sleep well without his dummy, I don’t want to mess it up. I’m aware he’s coming to an age where object permanence becomes a thing and he remembers that something exists even when out of sight. I don’t want to confuse him by only offering the dummy on the go and end up in a situation where he’s crying for it. I also don’t want to have to put him through ‘losing’ his dummy for a second time.

Am I just creating a problem by using the dummy occasionally when I can’t do much else to calm him? Or are babies capable of understanding that they’ll only get there dummy in certain places (like the car seat, pram etc). Even so, I still don’t want to use it regularly in these places, only when necessary. Basically I’m worried I’m going to confuse/upset him.

Thoughts?

I think you are overthinking this. If t works use it. If it turns out he wants it at night/sleeping at home too then so be it and deal with getting rid when he is older and can understand more/be bribed/be distracted. DS was a full on addict and getting bed at about 2.5yrs was really painless and the few years we did have were well worth it to mitigate 2.5yrs of tears and poor sleep.

I really don’t want to go back to using it regularly, and especially not in bed. He still pulls it out in when in his car seat, so we’d just end up right back in the realms of hysterics. Plus he can sleep fine (probably better) without it at night.