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Parenting
Breastfed babies, dummy refuser and needing to soothe
Monstermoomin · 26/01/2023 21:22
Anyone got any advice?
I'm trying to get my daughter (nearly 5m) into a next to me crib/cot rather than co-sleeping as it's becoming unsustainable.
She uses me for comfort which is fine on the whole, my other daughter did too. However, I've found that she's waking herself looking for comfort, either will try her hands or has even face planted her sheet and started to try to suck on that.
I don't believe she's hungry as she will do this even after being fed off both breasts and comes off naturally.
Tried various dummies over the months and she just won't take one.
Has anyone had similar and found something that works in this sort of situation?
Just anticipating that it's going to be pretty difficult when she goes into her own room in about 6-8 weeks.
K37529 · 26/01/2023 21:50
My first baby was like this, she fed constantly day and night and wouldn't take a dummy either, I ended up getting partner to give bottles just so I could get a break.
Monstermoomin · 26/01/2023 22:10
She doesn't feed constantly during the day, she will happily go hours in between feeds and naps well in the sling on me or her dad.
Unfortunately she still won't take a bottle for dad either.
Monstermoomin · 27/01/2023 09:16
Anyone got any ideas? Sleep was pretty much non existent last night and I ended up in tears thinking about it being a repeat every night.
I can't cope with this.
Yousee · 27/01/2023 16:09
Hi OP, I've had a similar carry on with my DS who has just turned 5 months. He's totally different from my eldest DS who was mix fed from the off due to issues gaining weight so I've wondered if I made a mistake EBF this time!
He's refused bottles and dummies but we found the only way to get past this was handing DH, DM, DF a bottle of expressed milk and leaving the building. It's nigh on impossible to hear your baby crying for you and not rush straight in to stick a boob in their mouth, undermining the whole process!
Once he knows that what's on offer is all there is, no matter how much he cries, he gets on with it and he's now quite happy to take a bottle of my milk, formula or a mix of both, will take any teat, happy to have a go of his dummy and give my poor nips a rest.
I've been able to start leaving him for a few hours to get stuff done and, God forbid, enjoy a sneaky hot cup of tea! It's saved my sanity and he's still mainly breast fed but having the flexibility to share the load with DH has been a game changer.
Initially he would not be put down for a sleep either but I got one of those sleep support cot inserts and that made such a big difference. It's one of the only ones that babies can actually sleep on safely and has a moveable cushion that goes under their legs to replicate being held.
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