Getting rid of the dummy

[HappyGoLuckyHippo]

Baby is nearly 6 months now and had bad reflux so the dummy helped with soothing him and sleeping. We avoided daytime use so this is not really a problem. I really want him weaned of the dummy now, as he is waking through the night (at the end of sleep cycles) needing the dummy replaced to drop off again maybe 6-8 times a night. We went through this with my older child and tried to wean him off it but gave in and he still has a dummy at nearly two :( (We'll need to tackle this at some point too I know!)

The trouble is since stopping the dummy the baby is really really struggling with naps. He does ten minutes before waking up screaming and needing rocked back to sleep for another ten minutes. Times a hundred...
Last night at bedtime he did the same (short sleep then crying) but eventually went for a longer sleep from about 10-11pm onwards.
I'm worried we're just replacing the dummy with rocking but I can't just leave him to settle because a) he is screaming, not just moaning a little and b) he'll wake his big brother up (separate room but the crying is LOUD!!). And I realise the rubbish daytime sleep will make his nighttime sleep even worse, aaargh!

Is there any hope that this will end well? Any ideas for how to proceed, or should we just give up?

Could you put some dummies around your baby's cot? They are getting to the age when they will be able to put their own dummy back in, I used to tie a dummy to each corner of a muslin for my ds, he cuddled the muslin as a comforter & by 7/8 months could put his own dummy back in. 6 months is very young to be starting to take the dummy away especially as you are already having sleep problems, have you moved up to the next size dummy? With a bigger teat it might not fall out as much.

We got rid of the dummy at 9 months ish with DC1. We got rid of it in the daytime first by moving to pushchair naps. I walked him to sleep and then parked the pushchair in the hallway. When he stirred pushing it back and forwards was enough to send him back to sleep without picking him up. As he got more used to it the walk needed to send him to sleep got shorter - eventually just pushing it backwards and forwards in the hallway was enough. He also stopped waking after a short while. We also have him a comforter in the hope it would help.

We lost the dummy for bedtime once he was fine without it during the day. He was breastfed, but I stopped feeding before he was completely asleep and DH rocked him to sleep in the rocking chair. Again, eventually we were able to gradually reduce the amount of rocking until DH was just sitting there.

No idea how you do pushchair naps when you have an older one though, so not sure how helpful this is!

Thanks for the replies!

@Nat6999 that's an idea about the muslin! He does like to snuggle into one, good one! Don't think he's 100% there with being able to put his dummy back in yet but if we don't manage to wean this time I'll try that! What sort of age would you wean at do you think? I'm worried about it being harder the longer you wait (dreading getting toddler off them).

@Teddyreddy oh well done, and good thinking about doing daytimes first! At least that means you're not so tired (and prone to giving in) yourself. I feel like nighttime is actually easier for us at the moment, strangely enough. Naps are so difficult!

He's gone down for the night and has now slept over an hour so we'll see how it goes!

My ds had his dummy at bedtime until he was 4, we didn't know it at the time but he is autistic. He was a terrible sleeper so we used anything we could to get him off to sleep so that we could as well. Don't feel guilty, he won't still have his dummy when he is 18, just do whatever you need to so you can all get a good night's sleep, it isn't worth all the broken nights.