Nighttime 'Dummy Duty' - is cold turkey the only way??

[MumtoHarry]

For our sins, our (very sucky) 6 month old is waking several times in the night, and will only be settled when we put his dummy back in. We were hoping that the nighttime waking was only a phase.. but its been weeks now

I suspect that getting rid of the dummy altogether is the only answer BUT...

• has anyone ever had this problem of nighttime waking, and it has been 'just a phase'?

• does anyone refuse to give a dummy at night, but continue to let their LO have it during the day (I have to admit that I like the dummy at other times for its instant calming effect and I am not so keen on encouraging thumb-sucking or sucking a favourite toy etc)

And if you did get rid of the dummy at night - exactly how much crying was there and how awful was it

Hi there - you are posting us to a 'T' when DD was 9 months. It drove us mad leaping up and down. All advice of put loads in there so they can find one themselves etc etc just didn't work - she just didn't try and look for it. So yes, we ended up going cold turkey and to our amazement, it was ok. First night took her an hour to get to sleep in the first place with us popping in and out every few mins to hold her hand/ hand on tummy or whatever. Then, she woke once and it took about 30 mins for her to go back to sleep. Next night it took 20 mins to go to sleep and then no night wakings (shock horror) and then the 3rd night I think there was a 5 or 10 minute fight at bed time and that was it. We just stripped it away day and night in one go - we thought it would be fairer on her that way.

Cold turkey is the only way, only took us 2 nights, go for it!

Our 9mth old finds her own dummy in her cot when she wakes, and we find it really comforts her, tho I admit the getting up to find dummy phase wasn't great - but it passed. I had three hanging around the bedroom so I cd grab one quickly and get back to bed.

Now she's a little older, I think she wakes in the night through habit so I've started to leave her to have a little squeak (no more than five mins) and she usually settles herself down without me going in. Looking back I think me leaping out of bed and going to her immediately when she cried woke her up more - we'd be up with her for an hour or two some nights. Now she wakes for a few mins and then back to sleep.

I suppose it depends how you feel about getting rid of the dummy - I don't want to yet. My DS gave his up on his own when he was 2.5, both of them only ever used it to get off to sleep.

my dd had a dummy in bed until she was 5. I went through the waking up thing for a few nights, tried cold turkey for day sleep for a few days to no avail so used a dummy clip on hercsmeeping bag, then got a cot bumper and rolled up towels stuffed around the mattress to stop dummies falling down. Most times she was coordinated enough to grab a loose dummy.

My DS used to wake 2 - 3 times for his dummy. Even though he had about 5 in his cot he was too lazy to find them - cold turkey worked for me and only lasted 3 days!

Progress report - it was Night 1 of cold turkey last night.... and it wasn't too bad. He woke the same number of times, and cried a bit, but never for more than 10 mins or so ... and has woken this morning his usual cheery self.

His finger has already made it into his mouth, so I suspect we may be on the way to creating a demon thumb-sucker instead....

I have a 3 months old sending him to sleep with a dummy. He was ok after night feeds and fell asleep without it. BUT last few nights he was waking up during the night wanting his dummy. Im in a similar situation considering not to use dummy at night. Im going to try cold turkey tonight too. God help!

Update - Harry has just fallen asleep for his morning nap... without mithering for his dummy at all! I am SO chuffed (and off for a nap myself now...)

I am in the same situation with a 5 month old who was sleeping from 11-6 but over the last 4 weeks has been waking up to 4-5 times a night- you plug the dummy back in and she eventually goes back to sleep. For daytime naps she needs cuddling, swaddling and dummy and still takes ages to drop off. My worry about the cold turkey thing is how do you settle them back to sleep without it? Isn't there a chance that they just get addicted to whatever other method you are using instead?

Apparently, you should try different ways so the baby will learn to fall asleep in various ways. Thats the theorie.
BTW I didn't try yesterday as my ds had his second immunisation and needed the extra soothing. Tonight then...

I did cold turkey with ds at 4mths and with dd at 17mths!!

Did ds so early cos he only used it for 5 mins to go to sleep and didn't need it if he woke in the night so he was fine.

Did it with dd cos we were having to go in 2-3 times a night to put it back or craw around the floor looking for it etc. She needed it all night and in the end enough was enough. SHE WAS FINE! No crying or anything! Best decision I ever made!

you're doing brilliantly!!! very well done indeed and all the better because LO doesn't seem stressed by it so you must have got the timing right.

Final update..

Its has now been a week without the dummy .... and (apart from the remaining night feed) we have not been woken in the night once

Also he hasn't really replaced it with anything - the occasional suck on a finger but that's about it. So chuffed.