Ditching the dummy.....success stories please!

[gummymum]

DD is 17wo and I am trying to get rid of the dummy! She wakes a lot at night and I wonder whether the dummy is contributing. I have been doing the Pantley pull-off and she will accept me removing the dummy when she's quite sleepy but not sure how to progress from here?

Both my children were dummy addicts (DS1 at one point always had to have 2: one in his mouth & the other in his hand!). I was really worried about getting him off it and kept putting it off & putting it off. But when he was about 3 (late I know) I became stricter about using it only at home, then just for naps & he just sort of tailed off using it. DS2 was the same, nearly 3 years later.

So maybe relax about how much she uses it for sleeping/naps and just control it more at other times?

HTH

Thanks Scamp - do you remember if the dummy made any difference to their sleeping habits as small babies?

My 8mo DD lost her last dummy today, decided not to buy any more because I've been meaning to get rid of them for ages now. Have just put her down for the night without too much trouble, will see how it goes and let you know....

I have just had a success story but my dd2 is quite a bit older than yours. I will link. :)

p.s. from about 18 months we did get strict and limit it to sleep/nap times only. Also we did remove it after she was asleep at night.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1172905-dd-gave-her-dummy-up-and-it-was-fine

Oops just realised your baby is only 17 weeks not months. :)

Let my thread be a warning to you if you wait for another 3 years.

We went cold turkey at about 16 weeks and just got rid of it - we were on holiday and my DD started waking much more frequently at night looking for it, I decided enough was enough and we totally stopped using it when we got back. 3 days of pain when she was really grumpy and I had to do all her day time naps walking round the park. Painful but looking back the best thing we did, at 8 months she now sucks her thumb for all sleeps.

Same as sleeplesssister, came back from a holiday when dd was around 3 months old , her older brother threw the dummy in the bin ! 3 days of crying for it , but then it was totally forgotten . Never looked for it since . She is now 2.4 yrs:) do it sooner rather than later .

Thanks, very interesting replies. I guess Pantley won't really work, looks like cold turkey is the way forward! Not sure how she will ever settle without it - can't get to her thumb as she can't sleep without the swaddle. I guess we could go cold turkey on that at the same time?

It's so difficult to work out what to do!!

Well it's day three and it's not as bad as I thought, we've had a few full blown back arching strops and a bit of whinging before bed to start with but seems to be getting better.

It's probably easier to give them up sooner rather than later before the ability to throw a strop kicks in!

gummymum as someone who's just been through this, if you're giving up swaddling as well I'd do that first as if you put her down swaddled without a dummy she won't be able to self soothe - suck fingers / thumb / blanky etc. FWIW giving up the swaddle wasn't as awful as I thought, just 2 bad nights while she got used to flailing arms and now she's fine. Thinking of giving up dummy as well as we too spend most of the night popping it back in! I did read somewhere that snipping the end off the dummy takes away the 'fun' of sucking and they give it up on their own but haven't tried it so couldn't say, and might have been with older children. Good luck with what you decide :)

Thanks for the advice. Have a few blank days in the calender so might just go for it!!

Dreemagurl and BoftheP how old are your LOs?

Sorry meant to say, DD is 20 weeks, was 19 when we removed swaddle.

oh sorry boftheP I see your Lo is 8mo