Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Dummy Weaning

2 replies

Callyoak1 · 13/07/2020 21:27

Hi everyone, I’m new to this group and I’m sure this has been asked a million times.

I had my first son almost 4 months ago, I never planned on using a dummy but a few weeks in he wasn’t settling well and it was recommended by my midwife that we use a dummy to help smooth him. We tried it and it worked a treat, however I’ve noticed now that he cries for his dummy even when he doesn’t need it. If I’m making him laugh when he has the dummy, I remove it and then he cries for it again. I tried to only use it when he needed settling or for naps but my husband started giving it to him more than that and so I’d like to break the cycle now. I read that the best time to wean them is between 4-6 months as they haven’t got an emotional connection to it yet, but I wondered what advice you have for successfully weaning them?

He used to sleep pretty well at night but now I’ve noticed he’s waking for His dummy which I don’t like and I don’t want to keep having to get up to give it to him, and I don’t want to teach him to do it himself, I’d rather be rid of it.

On the plus side, he often spits it out once he’s asleep which I guess is a start but now that he’s waking for it more I think it’s time to part ways. Any advice would be great!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
BabySleepTeacher · 13/07/2020 21:42

The Lullaby Trust do not recommend beginning to wean from a dummy until 6 months at least.

I would, however, suggest only using it for sleep.

You can use baby wanting a dummy as a pointer, like a warning signal, that it's naptime. Under 6 months old it's fair to say that the only reasons a healthy baby will cry is hunger or tired*

So if you know your baby is well fed, then any amount of fuzziness, clinginess, wanting to be picked up, basically any time baby is not happy to just play - means baby is tired and needs to nap.

If your baby is crying a lot when not with the dummy, it might not be the dummy that is the problem but that baby is over tired.

  • will also cry when uncomfortable (nappy or temperature usually), but this is more visibly obvious
Sunnydayshereatlast · 13/07/2020 21:48

From 7 months ds could put his own back in...

New posts on this thread. Refresh page