Dummy

[Amand34]

Hello

FTM here and just looking for some advice from others with more experience

our one year old has a dummy. He used to self settle at night without it but we’ve recently had to give it to him (it doesn’t affect his night time sleep. Ie, he isn’t waking up for it or anything)

what would you say is a good age to wean off completely and how would you do so? I feel like we either need to be all or nothing with it but at the moment it is definitely only making life easier!!

We just went cold turkey taking it away at 11 months, he was literally upset for 1 day and then forgot all about it!

@shardlakem oh really? What about sleep / naps etc?

We went cold Turkey in the day at around 10 months old and he was fine. He slept amazingly overnight so didn't want to rock the boat with naps and night sleeping. Just before he was 2 I decided it was time and honestly, he asked for it once or twice but he's still been amazing!

I wouldn't worry about it just yet, we were using special night dummy's that had a big gap so it wouldn't be an issue with his teeth!

Cold turkey for us too at around 18 months as daughter becoming obsessed with it. Wasn't too much of a problem, glad we got rid of it

I had intended to take DS's away at 18 months but then his father left so it didn't seem fair to take his comfort away when so much else had changed. It went when he was 20 months and we only had one or two rocky moments. DD's went at 6 months because she'd wake up every time it fell out of her mouth and we were getting less sleep with her using it than without. I wouldn't say there was much difference between ease of removal at either age but definitely go cold turkey! Once it's gone, it's gone

For that first day I had to rock him to sleep for naps and at night but he really did forget about it very quickly - and he was obsessed with it!

@shardlakem hes now started waking for it in the night and stopped sleeping through 🙈 I don’t know how I’d cope without it during the day though, it really soothes him when we’re out and about!

@Amand34 if he's waking at night put lots in the cot so he can always find one to grab.

In answer to your question, firstly our dentist said prioritize making your life easier, they only really start becoming a problem around 2.5/3. DD slept like a dream with her dummy and we like sleep so....

We made dummies for sleeping only around 18 months as you really don't want them when their speech is starting to develop. So none when out and about.

DD has just turned three and the dummy fairy came and left her a fluffy rabbit (the dummy fairy splashed out on a Jellycat one that DD has now decided she doesn't want but that's another story 🙃 ) but she goes to sleep and sleeps without one just fine.

So I'm in the 'whatever gives you an easy life' camp!