Starting with dummy at 3 months. Am I mad?

[Littlef00t]

My LO wouldn't take a dummy when I had tried it before so would persevere with very tearful starts to some naps and bedtimes if we missed the sweet spot for putting her down.

In the last couple of weeks she had become increasingly difficult to settle, wouldn't calm when shushed and stroked etc so tried the dummy again.

It's magic!! Just a few sucks and she is calm and a few more and she's asleep.

So much better than the crying, rocking, boob to soothe etc. I'm only using it when she's winding herself up and taking it out as soon as she's dozy hopefully before she's asleep but im terrified of her becoming increasingly dependent and it becoming a rod.

I don't think it's too late to bin if posters recommend, will just have to persevere with self settling without.

Personally I would keep the dummy if it's soothing her. It's not a given that they become dependent -- my DS started using one at about 4 weeks, after a couple months he just stopped wanting one and that was that.

Why are you worried about her wanting a dummy?

Plenty of children have dummies and have no teeth problems etc

My worry is more that she will become reliant on it to settle, so if she wakes in the night she will need me to re plug her.

You hear of parents having to go cold turkey when a baby wakes every time they realise it's gone.

If it works just do it! I'd have given anything for DC1 to take a dummy at that age. She was a nightmare to get to sleep. We gave DC2 a dummy very early, he loves it and so do I, it is like a magic switch. :-)

DS has had a dummy since he was a few weeks old (wouldn't take it at first, then we tried it out of desperation like you) he's 9mo now. He only ever has it to go to sleep it if he's really tired and it's too late to nap.

If it falls out when he's asleep it doesn't bother him, if he doesn't wriggle too much he often finds it himself and puts it back in himself anyway

I gave my dd a dummy when she was about 4 months old.
When I was pg I was adamant she wouldn't have one, and my mother is very anti-dummy too which added to the pressure.

At about 3 months she started screaming and screaming whenever she was in the pushchair or car. It really got me down and I started not wanting to leave the house because I couldn't deal with people staring! I got a fab carrier but that didn't solve the car problem. In the end I bought a dummy telling myself 'it'll only be for the pushchair/car'.

Well it was a slippery slope - dd was dreadful at going to sleep for naps, and dreadful at night too. The dummy helped - and IMO it was far less stressful for both of us to pop a dummy in and she'd drift off than for me to spend forever rocking & shushing her. She's a terrible night waker anyway - but sometimes if she wakes I can just pop the dummy back in and she'll drift off fairly quickly, which again at 3am is a much nicer option than picking her up and rocking/shushing for half an hour!!

TBH I wish I'd got one earlier. I'm sure that eventually I'll regret my decision to get one, but for the moment it's helping. It's not like she's plugged in all day and all night anyway. When it gets to be a problem we'll go cold turkey - it'll be hideous for a few nights but hey ho.

I give DS one to fall asleep- have done since he became sucky at about 2 or 3 months. He has it to help him drift off, and then as soon as he's asleep we pull it out. It's working so far (he's now 4 months). He doesn't ever wake in the night wanting it, as he's never learnt that he can have it during sleep. So I recommend carrying on as you are if it's helping.

Ok, sounds like I can carry on if i pull it out once dozy so she doesn't get used to it. Much kinder to her than all the crying.