Dummies and sleep - good or bad ?

[CathyJo]

My dd is 9 weeks old and gets crotchety when put down for a nap or at night to go to sleep. I introduced a dummy, which does calm her down and help her to drop off. The only problem is that when the dummy falls out it makes her wake up and cry unless she is in a deep sleep. I don't mind at the moment because I figure she is still quite little and does seem to be quite a 'sucky' baby, but am concerned that as time goes on she is going to get addicted to it and as a result I will forever be running up and down the stairs/getting out of bed to put her dummy back in and she will be reliant on it to go to sleep. I am creating a bad sleep association or will she just grow out of it ? Would be interested to hear your experiences.

You are probably trading convenience now for dummy-related-inconvenience later.

My 2 dss had dummies, wonderful things, always slept through from about 12 weeks. Never had a dummy during the day except for naps and at 2ish gave the dummies to father Christmas to give to new babies in exchange for a trike.

mine learnt to put their own dummies back in from about 4-5 months,if they woke up that is.the older 2 stopped wanting them at about 2-2.6,i had to get ds2 to throw his away when he was 3 but i just told him nursery children dont have dummies anymore and he accepted it.

dd2(2.6) and dd3(15 months) still have theirs(dd2 only at night now).dummies are good,i like them.

Agree with diva that they find them themselves.

I use a dummy for my 13 week DS, like you for naps and to tip him over the edge into sleep after his 6.30 ish feed. I also use it if I'm in transit, say walking home, and he's fussing for a feed but I just need to keep him happy for a short while. I'd rather that then he gets massively upset.

Like you I'm worried about 'rod for own back' later, but what I do do, is remove it myself immediately after he's asleep and shush him whilst I do it, so he doesn't miss it if it falls out on its own. This seems to work and I don't need to use it at 11pm or in the night. However, ask me in a few months time, as it's apparently now that it gets habit forming...

fwiw, 90% of the other new mums I know swear by their dummies!

A dummy often helps to settle my 11 week old to sleep although I'm finding that as he's getting better control of his hands he prefers his thumb and will spit dummy out to get thumb in so am not worried. It's useful for those times when he can't quite control his little thumb but am hoping he'll get more efficient.

I'm trying to stop all this worrying about 'rod for own back' business as was worried was cuddling him too much as was only way to get him to sleep, but he's now beginning to want his bed instead of me and i haven't done anything different. I say go with the flow and do whatever works, it seems to change by the day anyway!

neither of my dds wanted a dummy, but ds settled better with one.

He made up his own mind when he was about 8 months old that he didn't want it any more and spat it out if I tried to give it to him.

He is now 2 and has never regressed.

I had the same concerns, and for a while we did have to stick the dummy back in once or twice each night. But we were still in the same room and, frankly, if it's a choice between sitting up and putting a dummy in then everyone straight back to sleep, or no dummy, shushing, patting, rocking etc then I'd go with the dummy every time. DS learnt to find it in the night and put it back in from about 8mo.

Like a couple of people have said, we just use dummies for sleep, and sometimes in the car. It's a good way to indicate what's coming next.

Oh, and a cranial osteopath said to a friend of mine that it's preferable to suck a dummy than a thumb, plus you're in control of it. You don't see many 8 year olds with a dummy, but plenty still suck their thumbs well beyond childhood!

I'll definitely use one again with my next baby.

Are you not recommended to give a dummy at 4-6 weeks anyway to prevent SIDS?

DD1 had a dummy til around two and it did seem to help her be calmer at night.

But I'm sorry, we DID end up going into her room quite a lot to retrieve the blardy thing as it was always falling out into a really awkward area that DD couldn't reach. I got quite peeved about it cos when I woke in the night to do the dummy retrieve I often couldn't get back to sleep, so was v.tired.

With DD2 ten years later, we started off with a dummy, but at six months we did some sleep training with her and I'm afraid it mainly involved cold turkey - so we stopped going in and retrieving the dummy. Within two/three nights, she'd given it up.

Now 14 months and sleeps a solid 12 hours with no waking up to give a dummy. Hooray!

I went through a period of sprinkling several dummies around DS's head so there was always one to hand if he reached out for one. seemed to work...