Should I stop my daughters dummy during the night?

[vnewmummy]

Hi,

I have a 12 week daughter and her feed/sleep pattens are feed at 6pm, I then put her down for the night with a dummy and we wake her at 11pm for another feed. She usually goes back down without a dummy but this week she is waking up crying for it. So as a result I am out of bed running to her room to stick a dummy in to get her back off to sleep.

One of the reason I do this is she can go without another feed from 11pm to 6.45am and as she is a hungry baby I dont want her to start feeding and having a full bottle during the night again or were back to square one. She has 7oz feeds during the day at 3 and hour intervals.

Should i just let her cry?

Should I keep giving her the dummy?

Should I let her cry and when she is then fully awake feed her?

All advice would be gratefully received!

I personally think you should let her have the dummy. She is wanting the comfort from the sucking as you know and although it is a nightmare having to keep putting it back in before you know it she will be doing it herself.

My dd now 2.6months still has a dummy at night and loves it. During the day she doesn't need it, her teeth are lovely and she is so chatty it's untrue so there are no downsides for me. Just a happy contented little girl; who has always slept well.

I found a dummy invaluable with my two suckky babies. It is a pain when they wake for it. You could try sellotaping it to her face. (Joke) although was tempted to try it more than once!

I think it is worth carrying on with the dummy for now. Young babies get comfort from sucking. We stopped with our DC when they were 5mo and waking a few times a night for them

Don't drop the dummy. If she's a dummy baby (as mine was), she'll need it for ages. Don't sacrifice your sanity on the point of principle

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Carry on for now. I have just taken the dummy off my 8 month old, I couldn't have done it before now really as he really needed it. Give it a few more months.

I used to do a feed at 11pm, and used to work well for me as well. I moved it to 10pm slowly , once he was a bit older, then he dropped it all together (he stopped taking it) once he was established on solids.

There is a school of thought that says that young babies have a very strong sucking reflex and "need" to suck at this young age.

My dd1 never needed/wanted a dummy. My dd2 is 6 months old and has from a few weeks of ageneeded a dummy. I tend to keep it for sleep times where possible. She has recently given it up for the early part of the night (prefers to settle herself by yelling "bababababa" and blowing raspberries). I need to replace it maybe once or twice in the early hours. This is one of the reasons we have kept her in our room, also because we opted to follow the FSID guidelines re keeping baby in the same room).

I found great comfort from fellow mnetters who were very reassuring when I was anxious about her becoming "addicted" to her dummy. As time has gone on she is definitely less dependent. on it.

Agee, don't ditch it!

p.s. sounds like she is doing exceptionally well at her age to sleep so long at night. Lucky you.

Also I would say (but it is just my personal opinion) please don't "just let her cry"

Imo she is too young to "learn" that you are letting her cry so that she won't want her dummy any more. 12 weeks is still so tiny.

If you are getting comments/"advice" from other people (disapproving relatives in my case) about the dummy, then just ignore it. Focus on what is best for you dd and you. (and your dp)

Don't ditch the dummy. Buy a clip for her grobag or sleepsuit - very soon she will be able to find it.

Top tip (which I wish I'd been given) if you want to wean her off it before too long, don't ever buy the next size dummy, soon after six months it will no longer give her comfort so she will stop using it but you won't have 'taken it away'.

Agree, I found the dummy a burden but my salvation all at the same time. Every time it dropped out I'd curse it but it settled my DD so quickly and happily that I stuck with it. This week (she's 18 months) she has voluntarily stopped using it. Just didn't want it, and she was a dummy addict. I'm crossing my fingers that long may it continue but to be honest if she screams for it tomorrow night she'll get it back. It gives them such comfort

AFAIK taking a dummy away form a baby who is used to a dummy increases the risk of cot death. Let her have it.