Getting rid of the dummy at night?

[BDavis]

I’m not sure if it’s even the right thing to do! Any advice is appreciated 😊

DS (14months) has a dummy for sleep only. He gets it at night and at nap time. Within about 10 mins of falling asleep he drops the dummy but when he wakes in the night he looks fit it and if he finds it quickly he drops straight off back to sleep. If he doesn’t find it then he’s wide awake and needs cuddled back to sleep.

Over the last few weeks he’s become increasingly worse for either posting it or knocking it out of the cot while he’s sleeping so of course when he wakes, it’s not there for him to fine. He ALWAYS posts it out the wall side so I’m having to go to bed with a stack of dummies every night - I’ve just been and given him number 5 😳 and resettled him again! Obviously a very disturbed nights sleep for me, but also for DS! Each morning I have to move the cot and gather up the pile of lossy dummies.

I’ve tried putting multiple dummies in his cot and each night I’ve done that we’ve had tantrum of the century 😬 he’ll wake and put one in then try and put another one in in his half sleepy state and he gets very upset that it won’t go in 🙈🤣

Any advice on dropping the dummy at night? I have no idea how to go about it!

We dropped ds dummy at just under 2 years. Exactly same situation constantly finding the dummy in night. Took it a night at a time and literally just didn't give it him and encouraged him to settle without it. There were a few nights he struggled so much we gave in. But was straight back on it next night. Took about three week and he's slept through ever since. Some people go down the dummy fairy or giving them to Father Christmas etc but I think that's hard for a young child to get their head round.

@workingtheusername

We dropped ds dummy at just under 2 years. Exactly same situation constantly finding the dummy in night. Took it a night at a time and literally just didn't give it him and encouraged him to settle without it. There were a few nights he struggled so much we gave in. But was straight back on it next night. Took about three week and he's slept through ever since. Some people go down the dummy fairy or giving them to Father Christmas etc but I think that's hard for a young child to get their head round.

@workingtheusername Thanks, that’s really helpful! Yes, lots of what I’d read went down the fairy or FC route but with older children. Sounds like your method would work better for my DSs age. Although, DH works offshore and is away for the next 2 weeks so I might wait until he comes home so that I have backup 😅

Following - in a similar position and keen for advice!

It really was a case of just go for it but I did give in a few times I just didn't give up and after first few days it was easier and he stopped asking after few weeks and from then on it never bothered him. Lots of cuddles and reassurance tho.

We went cold turkey with the dummy after similar frustrations when our baby was 8mo. He would take it out, play with it, drop it, complain... I did a bit of reading around online and talked to some mum friends about it and based on that got the idea that it would be a few days of pain but then all good. How wrong I was! Without the dummy sleep became a complete nightmare as it was impossible to put him down without him waking up again immediately. It could take hours to get him down. He also was waking more often. This carried on for 3 weeks before started to gradually improve. I got so stressed out at the time because I didn't naturally attribute it to the dummy and just thought his sleep was like this for no reason. But in retrospect I do think that it was just a long process of getting used to sleeping without it. I don't want to discourage you (it's possibly your LO might take to it a lot more quickly anyway!), I just think I would have found it easier to deal with if I'd had more realistic expectations going into it.

@Prolapsy it’s hard, isn’t it? 😬

@workingtheusername Thanks 😊 I’ll give it a go when I’m feeling brave enough! He still won’t fall asleep himself in his cot and lays on me in his armchair in his room to fall asleep so there’s definitely lots of cuddles 😊

@Shouldhavereadtheinstructions Thats really helpful, thank you! That’s the worry I had actually! My DH works away from home for weeks at a time so while he’s away all bedtimes and nights are on me which is becoming a bit rough with the dummy dropping situation as I’m up at 5am to get ready for work 😴 by the time I get home at 6pm, get him bathed and chilled out ready for bedtime and down to sleep it’s usually about 7.30/8 🙈 then it’s my dinner, prep all his food for the next day, tidy all the toys etc (Hes looked after in my house) and do chores that need done 🙈 then it’s bed and constant waking to replace a dummy 😬 so I could do without it being any worse while DH isn’t here for backup 🤣