Tell me about weaning you DC off the dummy

[MaryH90]

I’m trying get the confidence up to take the plunge with my DD and her dummy. She’s 19 months now and is currently only using it when sleeping (has been since about a year, prior to this she had free access). DH and I know that now is the right time to start weaning her off the dummy completely but I’m quite terrified, I made a very brief attempt a few months ago when putting her down for her night time sleep and she was so completely distressed for so long I gave up the same night. Can you share your experiences of weaning your DCs off their dummies?

Forgot it on a Sunday night away and no shops nearby were open. He screamed for an hour whilst being vigorously rocked then fell asleep. Woke up a few hours later, cried a bit more, fell asleep. Next night we decided just to carry on without it.

A week later he'd forgotten all about it. He was between 1.5 and 2

I’d be interested to know this too. My son is 2 years and 4 months and only has one for sleeping but is very attached to it at bedtime. I’m determined to get rid of it by this time next year!

Try to engineer a few scenarios where they fall asleep without a dummy-eg car or pushchair ride at nap time.
Then all I did (both times) was to sayi couldn’t find the dummies at bedtime and cuddle them to sleep instead (this brought about its own set of probs really as was still cuddling them to sleep years later! )
Both accepted it much better than I thought they would and barely asked for a dummy again!

Mine had dummy only for sleeping till 3. I dreaded taking it away - had heard horror stories. Dd2 didn’t get one I was so scared.
Anyway we read a bed time story together on the dummy fairy... and every night she gave me one of her dummies for the bin - it was voluntary each time and got a present from the fairy. She had four dummies and I thought the last one would be tough but she was so eager for her present she threw it away herself! Went to sleep playing with her present... asked for it the next day and I reminded her she threw it away... and she went to bed. After a few days she never asked for it again.
It was so much easier than I thought! Glad I waited till she was 3 though when I felt she really really didn’t need it...

My mum told me that with me, she just announced that if I was old enough to ask for it, I was old enough to do without it (around 1.5-2 years old). Apparently I believed her! I was upset for a couple of nights, I’m told, but then I got over it. It doesn’t stick out for me as a major childhood trauma! Although I think it did give my mum some grief. Her #1 piece of advice for me when I had DD was not to go down the pacifier route. We managed to avoid it... but had fun breaking the “milk in bed” sleep association! Only just managed to give that up this past week, at 17 months... oops...

Use 0-6 month dummies so they’re too small and they lose interest when they don’t work

My ds is 3.5 and is still surgically attatched to his at bedtime :(

Child 1 decided she wasn’t a baby and threw it away - cried a few times done after night 2
Child 2 left the last one at CM - CM offered to drop it round and I said no thanks
Same as above 2 nights
Child 3 bashed her mouth and couldn’t suck it - gone!
Same as the others 2 nights

Too young ime /o. Easier to wait until they understand they are too old and it needs binned. Ds 3 happily binned his last one and slept fine.
Ds has slept 12 hours a night from 9 months with his dummy. Wtf would I risk changing that??

DC1 - 18 months - the manufacturer changed the shape of the dummy and he refused it. A few painful nights. I wouldn’t have bothered except that he woke up in the night when he lost it.
DC2 - almost 4 years (!) - the dummies were disgusting - bitten and impossible to clean. We showed her and threw them away. About three painful nights, but much easier than I was expecting.

But I wouldn’t stress about it - better a dummy than a thumb...

First night, went to sleep without the dummy after a cry. Has woken up once so for since 6:30. Fingers crossed the rest of the night isn’t too bad!