Sleeping / Dummy problems....

[Jojo13]

Hi,
I have noticed that a couple of people on threads below are having the same problems as me with a 6 mo waking in the night frequently. I wont repeat the whole thing, but in a similar way he has taken to not self-settling and also waking A LOT in the night, either needs settling (ssshing, replacing dummy etc) which is ok, or he is wide awake and wants to play at 1am.. we have resorted in the latter case to bring him into bed with us. Having read the responses on similar threads, I will try and take advice from there, thank you.

However, I also want to ask advice about the dummy - he has always been a very sucky baby(!) and has a dummy at nap/bed time only. It really settles him. But for the last month or so, he has taken to waving & thrashing his arms around at sleep time, rubbing his face and just pulling out the dummy. But then cries to have the dummy back... argh! I have been giving it back to him, but it has got so bad/frequent, that the only way to stop him and get him to sleep is by gently holding his hands until he drops off. I feel like I am making a rod for my own back by doing this, but the alternative is hysteria (Even with me in the room settling him or singing to him) Obviously this is not ideal.

So I guess my question is - Do I bite the bullet and take the dummy away for good? If so how? Or is it a bad time bearing in mind the other sleep problems we are having with self settling and waking up?
Is he too young? Is holding his hands until he drops off ridiculous? I don't know what to do for the best really? He wont sleep without the dummy, but wont settle with it in as he just plays with it and pulls it out... He is always tired enough for sleep because within 5-10 mins of me holding his hands, he drops off peacefully, so I know its not because he isn't tired.

Sorry, longer message than I thought, thanks for reading, any advice very gratefully received!
J

It's just a phase, it will last a few weeks. Maybe a couple of months. But then you'll get through it and you will continue have an easy, effective way to sooth your child whenever upset and/or tired without creating any tears.

By all means have a go getting rid of the dummy if you want to. But I very much doubt the grass will be any greener without it. Only you will have lost the usefulness of the most simple of the no-cry sleep solutions.

Through this thrashing around phase (which many babies go through dummy or not), you could do with techniques to teach/show him to be still when sleeping. Holding his hands works. Or firm hand on chest. Or if you had a baby that liked being swaddled when younger, you could consider bringing back the swaddle for a short while. We bought back the swaddle for my DD when she was about 6 months and she loved it! Just for a couple a weeks.

I've just taken away my DD's dummy as she kept waking in the night when she lost it. I wish I'd done it sooner as she's been sleeping through since we've done it. However, she is 14 months old - not sure how it'd've worked at 6 months. How about giving your little one a teddy/blanket to hold? I've not done this as I don't want any drama if a teddy gets lost etc. My DD has a variety of different teddies and just chooses one, she isn't particular which one. I gave my DD the dummy as she was soothing on me when breast feeding - so to alleviate that problem I gave her the dummy - but without knowing, creating another problem (losing it in the night). My HV told me to get rid of it, even though she only had it for sleeping. Done it and it's worked for us. Maybe try it for a week? It's difficult. Not sure what to advise on the arms etc. Maybe someone else can help.... x

Loooong back story but I have taken dummy away from Fred in the last week at 7months he was a frequent waker in the night and this was how we got him back to sleep - however it had stopped working. If you do start in the morning so baby has naps to get used to not having it. There will be crying so if you don't want to let the baby cry then you need to stick with the dummy. Even with a rotten cold we have now had two of his best nights sleep ever on the trott the last two nights. He does look round for the dummy but I honestly feel like he misses it when he is playing rather than trying to sleep it was like a little game to him taking it out and getting me to put it back in.

I tend to put DD (nearly 7 months) down with a dummy but take it away when I go to bed or when I check on her. I think she gets more frustrated if she can feel that she is lying on it but it's out of reach. She never seems to wake wanting it.

Thank you for your responses, much appreciated.

Have tried using new a teddy and blanket, but he holds it for a bit and then chucks it away in favour of pulling at his dummy.

More often than not, it falls out of his mouth by the time we go up to bed and so we take it out of his cot anyway. He hasn't woken up then. I'm not even sure it falling out is what wakes him, I think maybe he is going through a phase/regression/whatever anyway so that when he does wake up in the night, he then realised he has no dummy. He will sleep in his pushchair or the car without it sometimes too. But at night he always wants it.

I think maybe I need to just go for it and take it away.
Those of you have done this - how did you get on? How long did it take for calmness to be restored??!

The last time we didn't give him his dummy back when we put him to bed he ended up hysterical and then I feel I'm into the realms of controlled crying??

My DD played with her dummy - spinning it around/upside down and back again and pulling it out whilst biting it at the same time. I took the plunge and got rid of the dummy a week today. Cold turkey. She cried for 45 mins first night, 10 mins second night and 5 mins third night. I picked her up from nursery tonight and she was sat with a dummy in! I asked where she had got it from as I knew there wasn't one in her bag - she must've left it there last week without me knowing. I was dreading tonight as last night she came in bed with me too but she's gone with just a teddy and no crying at all but then again she was very very tired.

Hi ladies,
I'm having the opposite problem. DD will go down at night without a dummy, but screams and screams for it at daytime naps and will go down the instant the dummy is in. Help!!! She is 7mo. Sorry to highjack the thread, but if anyone has been through something similar, I'd be grateful.
Thanks