Ditching the dummy

[SarahDay1990]

Am I in for a rough ride? My LO is turning 3 in Sept and my baby is due in January. My LO has had a dummy since birth. However she only has it for naps and night sleep - never in the day. I wanted to start weaning her off as wanted a few months clear before the new baby comes. But some friends of mine have said when they ditched the dummy with older children it was weeks abs months of upset….any experience? Also any tips? I was going to do the dummy fairy and just go cold turkey. I naively thought it would be a few restless nights but I fear it could be weeks/months…

We did the dummy fairy.
The trick is to throw them away so you can't give in.
We didn't have much problem, certainly not months of upset.
Good luck

I've spoken to many friends about getting rid of the dummy and not one of them took longer than a week.

We ended up having three evenings of crying for ten minutes but she still went to sleep on those nights. Have not heard a peep from her about the dummy since.

I waited until ds agreed to bin his. 3.5.and def no regrets. Older dc similar ages... No regrets. Your dd has her own comfort. Why would you want to remove that?

We had the dummy fairy for both DC. It helped that when we took away our eldests, our youngest was still a baby and we made a big deal of him being 'big' now. Same with our youngest, his cousin had just been born so the dummy fairy needed the dummies for him.

We let them pick a toy to replace the dummy. I don't remember eldest being bothered at all. Youngest did ask for it a couple of times at night. But there were no sleepless or upset nights.

We bought them something they really wanted and put it where they could see it all the time and said they could have it once they rounded up their dummies and put them in the bin. Worked a treat. Our eldest found it hardest but it was only a couple of minutes moan at bedtime for a couple of nights. By our youngest we had dummies all over the house so we found them for months afterwards! She was allowed to watch them, have 3 sucks on them and then into the bin!

*wash not watch

Has she finished daytime napping @SarahDay1990?

I use daytime naps stopping as the trigger for dropping dummy. Because if she still needs to nap, chances are the lunchtime nap will stop when you take the dummy away.

Yes she does still nap…I just wanted a bit of clearance before the new baby comes in January as almost want her to forget about her dummy before she sees the baby with one!

We gave the dummies to the baby birds. Put them on the grass together and explained the babies were crying because they needed the dummies. Later on when he was distracted we replaced them with a couple of kinder eggs.

Once he realised the “birds” had left a thank you gift he was ecstatic and never mentioned the dummies again!!

Just take them away. They cry a couple of times for a few days and it’s forgotten. They stop waking up searching for it or crying for you to find it for them.

You are the person your dc trusts most. Why would you betray that by taking their comfort away?

You are the person your dc trusts most. Why would you betray that by taking their comfort away?

Yes because there are hundreds of fully grown adults still walking round with dummies!

If the above was true why would we make them do anything? I mean no kid wants to sleep on their own, no kids wants to go to bed early …. All this pussy footing around over a dummy. It needs to go, get rid of it. They won’t remember.

He can swap his dummy for a cuddle or a blanket or teddy.

Why does it NEED to go? My ds happily binned his after a very short conversation
. Logic told him he was infact too old... I didn't take away his comfort against his wishes..

@SarahDay1990

Yes she does still nap…I just wanted a bit of clearance before the new baby comes in January as almost want her to forget about her dummy before she sees the baby with one!

Hmmm, do you think she'd manage without naps anymore?

The overwhelming likelihood is that day time sleeping will stop if you drop the dummy.

It's tricky because I do get why you want to do it now. If baby has dummies then you won't have a dummy-free house for her to give up her dummy in, so could be harder on her.

But on the other hand, many toddlers nap past their 4th Birthday and keeping daytime sleep easy for her will give you a better break once baby is here.

@FATEdestiny she does still need a nap -
Perhaps not every day and I’ve cut It down to about 1-1.5 hours but she does still need it! Wonder if I hold off until sept time. That way she might be nearing dropping a nap and still gives plenty of time before baby comes. Although you’ve all filled me with hope that it’s not going to be aw awful as I thought!