Stopped dummy

[Me264]

DS is 20 months and we went cold turkey on his dummy on Friday. He’s had it for naps and nighttime only since he was about 9 months old, but I’m fed up of going in to his room to retrieve it for him multiple times a night.

Bedtimes have been a dream so far, he’s happily gone straight to sleep. Naptime was harder yesterday - it took him a long time to go off without it and quite a bit of crying. What’s been difficult is early mornings - DS has always been an early riser and has woken up at 5-5.30am for as long as I can remember, but would generally go back to sleep until 6.30 when I would go in and find his dummy for him (or at least be quiet!) Now the last 2 mornings he has having none of it - much screaming until I get him up.

So wise MNers, any tips? How long does it take to get over the dummy - I’m hoping only a few days!

I'd give it back
Does he have a comforter?
Toddlers and babies need comfort to sleep and the more over tired he gets the worse his sleep will become .
What's his routine ?
Meals and sleeps ?
Does he have a sleepytot or several dummies to make it easier to find ?

I would give it back at that age. My son never liked dummies but he used muslin cloths as comforters instead - they need something to help them get back off to sleep.

Thanks skippy. He does have a comforter which he’s very attached to. I used to put several dummies in his cot but he’s totally incapable of finding them for himself! He would wake up and literally lie there and cry until I went in and gave him one, wouldn’t even try and find it for himself!

He eats very well (general fussy toddler issues aside) and has had the same bedtime routine since he was tiny - bath (most nights), milk, teeth, story, bed. Both nights he hasn’t had it so far he’s slept right through from 7pm to 5/5.30am so it’s just the early waking part that’s a problem really - and it’s always been a problem, but with his dummy he’d go back to sleep or at least be quiet so I could!!

I’m hoping that with a few more days he’ll get used to being without it in the early morning and be ok. We threw them all away so we wouldn’t be tempted to cave and give it back so I’d have to go out and buy some more if we were going to do that.

Ok.
How long and when is his day time nap ?
And when Is last meal ?
We do dinner at 5pm . What ever we r having . She generally eats well.
Then toast at 7pm and cup of milk at 7:30pm.
She sleeps 8pm-7am and 12:30-2 pm as a nap .
21 months

Our bedtime routine is very quick .
We bath ours in the morning or during the day.
7:30 milk down stairs .
Up stairs at 7:50. Brush teeth . Into pj's. Into sleeping bag. In cot . Night night . Give dummy and leave at 8 .

Daytime nap is normally around 2-2.5 hours at the weekend, 1.5-2 during the week when he’s at nursery. Generally 12.30-2.30 but it moves a bit depending on what we’re doing and how early he was up!

His bedtime routine is about 30 minutes probably including bath.

He went to sleep beautifully for his nap today with no tears and same again just now for bedtime. So I’ll have to see how he is tomorrow morning!

he’s totally incapable of finding them for himself!

I'd deal with that rather than taking away such an easy and established method of comfort. Sewing a ribbon with a press stud at the end onto the chest of all sleeping bags solves the list dummy issue easily.

But if you don't want to them some pointers:

Daytime naps are always going to ne harder than night time. The natural bodily pressure to sleep is less in the day (that's why I use dropping daytime naps as my sign it's time to lose the dummy). So you need to accept you'll need to offer extra help to get to sleep for naps.

Likewise have a 'game plan' for when poorly, teething, or over tired - all otge r times when more than normal help will be needed

Timing of naps is critical when the level of comfort offered is reduced. Anything close to over tired could trigger a spiral where sleep gets worse and worse. So time naps to put baby down about half an hour before showing any tired signs.

Ensure baby has a comforter object and help baby develop a ritualistic thing they do to self-comfort. This means you doing the same ritualistic movement (patting or whatever) to encourage child.

Or, just give the dummy back for sleep time only.

Simplest and easiest no crying independant sleep tool. Dummies are AMAZING.

Just though I would update this for anyone else who is considering stopping. DS took a few more days to settle but is now happily napping and sleeping without his dummy! He is down to one wake up a night where he needs me to go in and resettle him (but goes back to sleep quickly) but is sleeping in until 6.30-7am again which is a relief.

Fate I completely agree that dummies are amazing. Pre-DS I used to be a bit judgy about them but he had one from about 6 weeks old and I found the dummy invaluable for most of the last 18 months (naps and bedtime only since he was about 9/10 months). It’s only in the last 2 months or so that he’s been a pain with it and waking multiple times a night for it, which is why we decided to get rid now