Will giving up a dummy help baby sleep better?

[challengedvertically]

That really. I wondered if anyone could share their stories of whether it helped or not?

My baby is 7 months. He's never been a great sleeper, but introducing a dummy at about 3-4 months helped initially. He's had good and bad weeks but ever since a chest infection about 2 months ago, his night time sleep has been particularly catastrophic and I'm on my knees. He settles himself fine for naps and bedtime - but only with a dummy. He wakes so many times at night (last night wasn't a bad one but between me and OH it was about 6-8 wakings maybe? We lose count), and most of the time, the dummy settles him back down again. Occasionally he'll wake up and be angry or chatty, and won't go back to sleep for 2 hours or so (we'll leave him unless he gets upset).

What's frustrating is that he slept 8-6 this week for the first time ever, so I know he can do it!!

If you want to give up the dummy, you have to replace it with alternate comfort. Baby will need something to help comfort him to sleep and the dummy is the easiest and simplest.

Dummy has nothing to do with baby waking up.

If you were lucky enough to have a deep sleeping 7 month old who didn't wake in the night, then it would be entirely reasonable to stop using dummy. It just would mean some work to establish an alternate comforter at bedtime, which is doable if you so wish.

However the dummy has no effect on light sleeping. It is an aid for getting to sleep not staying asleep. It is natural and normal that as jaw muscles relax when going to sleep that the dummy will come out of the mouth. So it's only used for 10-20 mins or so going to sleep. If baby then wakes up, that's not to do with the dummy. But the dumny certainly makes going back to sleep quicker and easier.

Dummies come into their own once baby can find and put their own dummy back themself. That happens somewhere around 8-10 months so you are not far off.

You could practice. Put dummy on floor the wrong way around and get baby to pick it up and put it in himself. Also have a method baby can find the dummy without searching in the night.

But until baby has the manual dexterity to do this, you have to do the dummy reinserts for him. This is the reason I kept my children's cot next to my bed until they could do dummy reinserts themselves. I could reach into the cot, locate dummy and reinsert it all without moving from the duvet or opening my eyes.

Thank you for such a helpful reply! I might be inclined to just stick it out in that case. He can put a dummy in himself in the day - I think it's just a bit much to find one in the dark. I couldn't sleep in the same room again, every little sound he made in his sleep woke me up!

I see a ribbon into the chest of my sleeping bags, with a press stud at the end for the dummy.

It means baby learns that sweeping s a hand over their chest locates the ribbon, which then locates the dummy. The added bonus is that past 12m I established that the only place dummy could be found was attached to the sleeping bag. So it was only used at sleep time and "shall we go find your dummy" was a positive euphemism for "sleep time now".

I'll add to what FATE has said an suggest maybe putting a few dummies around the cot for him to find. This worked a treat with DD and if her dummy falls out or she fidgets and loses it, she now knows to sweep her arms around until she finds one.
sleepless nights are tough, but it's not forever (as I keep telling myself!)

You can get glow in the dark dummies too...... I only realised ours was when I woke in the night and saw it! They are avent ones

Some more great ideas, thank you everyone will give them a go!