Ditching the dummy......

[Sparrowlegs248]

Ds2, is 2yrs 4 months. Has a dummy at bedtime. Sleeps well, might get up and into my bed after 4am or might sleep til 6am. I'm happy with that. I feel that I should be getting rid of the dummy but am a bit apprehensive that it will mess his sleep up.

Is it best to go cold turkey? There are about 3 dummies left so it may be that we just run out.

@Nottalotta I tried to get rid of the dummy at that age and it was hell (I gave up after an hour) but then a couple of months later I started to notice her top teeth pushing out so I said enough was enough.

I told her the dummy fairy was coming to take the dummy's for a baby that needs them, made sure it was on a night she was exhausted so she fell asleep after 10/20 minutes of moaning. She woke up to a present of the dummy fairy (cheap digger toy she wanted) and she only mention it a couple of times after that but I kept saying the dummy fairy gave them to the baby's remember!! And she was happy with that!!

Even now buying new dummy's for her baby brother she doesn't want it back and its only been a couple of months xx

Good luck 😄

At 3.5 ds gave his up willingly. Feels a bit abusive removing a dc's comfort imo. All my dc have up at their own pace. None had speech problems or dental issues. All dummies gone around 3.6. Sleep times only from a year old though. And during car journeys!

I let ds make his own mind up when he was too old to have his dummy, he only had it at nap times & bed time from being about 3, by 5 he just decided he didn't need it any more, his teeth are ok. MIL was awful about it to him from being 18 months old, he used to hide it behind a cushion if she called & she wouldn't let him have it if she looked after him.

Forgot to say ds had slept 12 hours a night from 9 months - no logic behind risking that changing!

Thanks all. I'm not sure he'd go for the dummy fairy but willing to try it. I envisage him getting very cross and upset at babies taking his dummy.

He definitely doesn't have a speech problem , he speaks ridiculously well and clearly for his age. And only has the dummy for bed.
Maybe I'll leave it for a bit then. I might put a one somewhere as a standby and give it a go (I can't find one......then if it's a disaster I can find one)
I'm getting to the stage of feeling awkward when anyone asks if he still has a dummy, that's why I was thinking about stopping using it.

@Nottalotta ignore them! My DD would still have a dummy if her teeth weren't effected and shes nearly 3! My DN had a dummy till she was 5 at bedtime 🥵

Thank you, I was anti dummy with ds1 and then by the time I realised it might be a good idea, he wouldn't take it. So I'm new to this!!

We did the dummy fairy when DD was either nearly 3 or nearly 4... can't remember now. She only had it at night by that stage and had no problems at all. She only occasionally mentioned it afterwards when she saw a baby with a dummy and wondered whether that was the baby her dummy had gone to. She slept better afterwards as didn't drop it and wake up missing it. Good luck!

We cut a hole in our little ones dummy (I didn’t feel they would understand the abstract concept of a dummy fairy at 2 but they did understand when something was broken) I gave it to them as normal it was handed back to me because ‘it’s broken mummy’ I made a song and dance about ‘oh no what will we do it’s the only one we have, oh well you’ll have to go to sleep without it’ and aside from a couple of evening needing extra reassurance at bed time that was the end of it! Good luck!

That's an interesting idea @Bees1 . I did a sweep of the house for dummies yesterday, found a different coloured one to usual. Last night ds was very tired and grouchy, at bedtime I offered him his dummy, about 5 minutes before bed. He said he wanted it so I gave him the purple one. "Not that one!!". I said "Oh dear there's only 3 left, what will we do when they're all gone?" And he said "cry". Not looking promising!!