5 month old dummy user

[mummy1clare]

hello
mumsnet virgin
My 5 month old was given a dummy from the start and it has worked a treat - although we had our reservations about using one we thought she would find her fingers or thumb like my eldest child. But no such luck.
She has now started to sleep on her front and with the dummy in seems really unsafe.
Has anyone got any suggestions on what we should do. I'm thinking I should go through the pain barrier and try to ditch the dummy.

Hi mummy1clare

Welcome to mn!!
Not sure about the 'unsafeness' of using a dummy on the front? DD has used hers all the way from birth til now (21months) and she sleeps on her front most of the time and the dummy has given her no problems.
If you want to go for the pain barrier now is probably as good a time as any but if she is comforted by it and sleeps well do you want to disrupt it?? I just ensure that dd only has it for sleeps and we will let her give it up when she is ready.

We had to cold-turkey on the dummy when dd was 6m as it was making her sleep worse - she kept losing it and being unable to find it again. I don't know how we managed to get ourselves into that mess in the first place, as with ds we didn't use the dummy for sleep, only for daytime soothing and for settling.

Dd was also a tummy-sleeper. The dummy never got stuck in her mouth, if that's what's worrying you. We used Avent dummies mostly, but I'm sure that there are plenty of models with various sizes and styles of the bit that goes on the outside. At least one (Nuk? Mam?) has a sort of framework, rather than a perforated plate, which might suit you better, as the child can breathe through it if they fall asleep with the dummy wedged into them.

BTW, ds found his fingers at about 3-4m, which was why we felt able to wean him off the dummy, but dd only found her thumb after a week or so without the dummy.

hi pretty candles - How long did cold turkey with the dummy take?

hi mummy1clare,
my DD used a dummy until 9months. i had thought she would find her thumb sooner (all the books said she would!) but it took her that long.
so we waited, and then at 9months we went cold turkey. she doesn't really know what a dummy is now.

not sure about the sleeping with dummy issue, tho don't they say it can prevent cot death?