Disaster getting rid of dummy

[redfox14]

DH and I tried to get rid of DD’s dummy yesterday. She is almost 2 and we have been meaning to get rid of it for ages but been set back by poor DD having a series of illnesses last autumn/winter. We had looked into a couple of ways of doing it and decided we would snip the end off so that she wouldn’t want it anymore.

It wasn’t too bad during the daytime, when she had her nap she asked for her dummy and when we gave her it, she seemed to remember that it wasn’t working anymore and chucked it aside and managed to fall asleep without it. It was the same again at bedtime and she went off ok - but she woke in the night crying for her dummy, when I gave her it she went absolutely ballistic, crying and screaming.

I tried cuddling her, reading a story, and offering a drink of milk, but she was thrashing around in hysterics until DH found another dummy at the bottom of her nursery bag and came to the rescue!

I feel like it’s been a bit of a disaster trying to get rid of the dummy and she obviously relies on it a lot more for sleep than we realised. We only give her it for naps/bedtime and quite often when we go in to check on her, it’s fallen out or she’s put it aside, so I thought it would be ok.

Can anyone recommend a better way of getting rid of the dummy? I had considered cold Turkey but after tonight I’m very apprehensive!

None of my 3 DC ever had a dummy. None of them seemed to mind and no having to wean them off of them. They all had a cuddle toy, and 1 DC liked his blanky.

You win the award for the least helpful comment on Mumsnet ever 🏆 👏🏻

2.5 here.. we just told him he was too big for a dummy now and that was it! He asked for a couple of nights but was fine when we said no.

Maybe wait now until she is a little bit older?

And having a dummy beyond 1 can cause issues. My son top and bottom teeth didn't meet in the middle, after 4 weeks of no dummy they were back together!

That's just mean. She's so little.

Mine is 20 months and has a dummy for nap & nighttime sleep, plus car journeys. She does have it sometimes in the day, when tired or upset/hurt. But certainly not much awake time at all.

By 2 I want to reduce down to just nap/sleep and longer car journeys, which could be over a nap. But I won't remove from bedtime until 3 or 3.5yrs, when she's old enough to understand.

I say be tough. She can fall asleep without as she has demonstrated that. Don't leave it any longer as we did (past 3yrs). dd now 11 had first £4k set of braces last spring and now facing £5k second set! Dummy mucked up her jaw alignment and seriously buggered up her teeth location!

To be honest OP I would just let her have it for sleep and wait until she’s older and understands a bit more, she’s still so little and can’t understand why she’s lost her biggest source of comfort for sleep, of course she’s going to be very upset. My daughter was an absolute dummy addict, had never in her life fell asleep without it. Just before her 3rd birthday the dummy fairy came and took it away she was so happy that she was now a “big girl” not a single tear and forgot about it quickly, took a bit longer to fall asleep for about a week and then she never mentioned it again. I worried about it so much and drove myself crazy that she still had it as always expected to be the type of parent to get rid quickly but looking back I was silly to worry, it’s long gone now and no harm done!

Another one that says to maybe wait until she’s a little older and can understand the dummy fairy, or why she’s not having a dummy tonight.

For what it’s worth, we got rid of DD1’s when she was just over 2.5. She only ever had it for bedtime, it wasn’t allowed out of her bedroom, however the dentist pointed out that she had dummy teeth (an open bite in her case) and that if we got rid of the dummy before she turned 3, it would right itself. We got rid of it that week by chatting about the dummy fairy, putting them all into a box and leaving it outside, then the next day when she woke up they had been replaced with a new toy. It was super straight forward and whenever she asked for a dummy, we just reminded her that the dummy fairy had taken them and she accepted it. A couple of months later, her teeth had all moved and were absolutely perfect, we couldn’t believe it.