Cold turkey from dummy at 22 months - how bad is this going to be?

[MrsWolf2]

I have to do it, I noticed today that she’s started chewing through them, so they’re now a choking hazard and have to go immediately.

It’s awful timing though, she could definitely do with the comfort tonight as she’s poorly at the moment. It’s very likely just a cold but she’s got a high temperature with it so very under the weather.

Please can someone tell me how if they’ve gone cold turkey from the dummy at a similar age and how bad it was and how long it was bad for please?

Watching with interest OP - my DD is also 22 months, she only had dummies for sleep but I’m worried it’s affecting her teeth so we want her off them by her birthday in
November .

Good luck!

We did cold turkey at about 22/23 months for similar reasons. It was fine, a bit of a wrench, but the complaints stopped after about 3 days. We bought a new toy as a "trade" for the dummies, which seemed to go down well.

Good luck

She seems to have gone to sleep ok, way faster than normal actually. She must be really poorly ☹️.

I’m telling myself that it’s for the best and maybe I’d have done it now anyway as her nose is all congested so she’ll be able to breathe better without her dummy in. That’s plausible right?!

Oh fuck me, she’s been awake since 2.30.

Does anyone know if there’s any such thing as a chew-proof dummy that’s the same or similar shape as the tommee tippee ones? I would sell my car, house, kidney, whatever else to pay for one right now

If you stick to it, it will only be a few awful days then the dummy should be forgotten about. If she is starting to chew them that’s a good sign that she doesn’t need them anymore. Can you offer her a small drink when she wakes up in the night? Sometimes if you give something different it can ‘trick’ them into thinking they’ve gotten what they woke up for.

Sympathies, OP. DS was a bit older, and we made a big performance of the magical dummy fairy trading the dummy for a particularly desired (but dirt cheap) toy, with a lot of fanfare and ceremony, but your DD may be too young to find that persuasive.

The important info is that it WILL get harder every month you don't remove it, I gave in at a similar age and tried again a few months later. Do not do that, grit your teeth buckle in and get it done now.

This is why I’d never recommend using a dummy - I don’t know why they get so much praise on MN. It’s just not worth it for the nightmare many parents have removing them! Good luck OP.

@peasoup8 Anything that reduces the risk of SIDS is gonna get praise tbf...and anything that makes the early days easier. I think it's well worth it for a few days of no sleep

I’m sorry to anyone who might come across this thread looking for reassurance - and to you **MindatWork - but this is awful.

She was utterly exhausted last night to the extent that we bought bedtime forward to 6pm and it was still 90 minutes of shouting before she slept and was up early again this morning.

Trying to get her to nap now as well so she’s not massively overtired for nursery this afternoon but that’s not happening either. I do understand it’s really really difficult for her to adjust, and I do really feel for her. But I also want to shout at her to at least down and close her eyes as standing up

... with her eyes open singing/chatting/shouting is obviously not going to make it any easier for her to fall asleep.

(Hopefully obviously) I don’t actually want to shout at her but I’m having to regularly step away to stop myself.

I will add though that I don’t regret giving her the dummy at all as hard as this is, it helped her with her reflux pain when she was tiny and a (hopefully) few days of awfulness now is totally worth all the relief it gave her back then.

At least you can remove a dummy however hard. My child sucked two fingers and that’s much more difficult to stop.

@peasoup8 really helpful comment there 👍🏻.

My DD was 6 weeks prem and was given one in SCBU to help her learn to suck and to reduce SIDS risk.

Sorry if my comment came across as unhelpful. But I do think that if you possibly can avoid a dummy then do - even if it makes life more difficult for a while when they’re tiny and you’re sleep deprived. I appreciate that your case is different though @MindatWork

We did it at around 2.5 and it was not planned. Early lockdown days when queues in supermarkets where long...one day couldn't find any of the two dummies we had for her nap, and she actually was having a tantrum...it was difficult for a few minutes and then she fell asleep without it. We didn't want to to and queue for an hour to get a dummy so we took the risk and she didn't had the dummy for bedtime. It was absolutely fine, she didn't even asked for it! We were shocked! So, you never know...
She was not a heavy dummy user, just for sleeping or tantrums...but seriously, she never asked for it ever again. Don't project your fears because it may be ok

How did you get on @MrsWolf2?

@ShirleyPhallus

It was pretty hideous for a while to be honest, we’ve had some horrible nights of her shouting ‘mummy help daddy help’ over and over, and very early starts to the day and one night she was awake between 2.30am and 9am

She has only napped in the day once since we took it away from her, but to be honest naps were getting to be hit and miss anyway, plus she’s teething so it could well be that even with the dummy she’d have done the same.

Because she’s so tired from her lack of naps she has at least been crashing out straight away in the evenings for the last few days, though we’ve had to bring bedtime forward due to the lack of naps so at the moment she’s sleeping from about 6pm to 5.30am. It’s hideously early, but if it continues I’m just going to deal with it until the clocks change, so it’ll then at least feel like a much more reasonable time to wake up!

All the dummies in the house have been thrown away though and that’s really worth all the awfulness at the start.

Ah sounds really tough but that you’ve done well

Good luck on her sleeping a bit better over next few days

Don’t the clocks go back in October? Meaning the 5.30am wake will become a 4.30am wake?! 😳

@FizzingWhizzbee123

Nooooooo!

I mean yeah you’re right, stupid exhausted brain getting it the wrong way round. But noooooooooooooooo that can’t happen. I’ll be starting a petition and/or changing the clocks and all my devices to show what time I want it to be. Everyone else will be wrong.

Sorry I used to love the winter clock change before I had kids. Now I absolutely DETEST it. Hope you manage to work it out soon 🤞🏻

Just updating for anyone who may come across this in future - it’s just over 2 weeks now since we took it away and although her wake up time is now waaaay too early for my liking, her sleep is back to how it was before in terms of total sleep over 24 hours, nap success rate, and time it takes to fall asleep.

That's great news @MrsWolf2, well done you and DD! We're going to be attempting this in the next month or two so I'll prob be on here begging for help. Our DD's fave cry is 'OH NOOOOOO' so looking forward to hearing that all night

I'm thinking of starting this with my lo he's been very clingy & upset at bedtimes for the last few days.Should I go cold turkey or ease him off it?