Sucking habit - 6month old

[KDog2010]

Hi. We took the dummy away from our then 5month old as she had become so dependent on it she couldn’t stay asleep without it (which ultimately mean hourly dummy runs in the night). We had a bad two weeks of fighting to get her to sleep each night / naps and adding a night feed in as the only way to get her back to sleep.

Then 2 weeks ago she suddenly became obsessed with her teddy and now (not sure when it happened) cannot get to sleep / stay asleep without it’s leg in her mouth. Whilst I don’t think it’s the best for her sleep quality (as she wakes a lot to find it and sometimes plays with it a bit in the night, I’ve decided to let her keep it as she clearly needs some sort of comfort and has meant we no longer do a night feed.

However - should I be removing the leg from her mouth when she falls asleep as much as I can so she learns to self soothe back to sleep without sucking or let her have it and hope she grows out of it?

Of course I want her to have comfort but I am also conscious of teaching her good sleep skills whilst she is so so young.

Thanks so much.

Hopefully someone will be along soon with some wise advice, @KDog2010

She’s a baby - of course she has a sucking habit.

I would give the dummy back. Soon she’ll learn to retrieve it herself, and it has to be better than a soggy mouthful of polyester.

At 7 months mine could find own dummy and self setttle the majority of the time.
Give the dummy back.

Some babies/toddlers need to suck for a bit of comfort. We're getting rid of our dummy for 2.5yr old DD at Easter but it's helped so much (sleep times only and she sees it as a treat). Her 5 year old cousin still sucks her thumb so at least with a dummy you can take it away