when should my ds give up his dummy

[hermitmum]

he will be 7 in a couple of weeks

My 7 year old still sucks her thumb a lot. I can't get her to stop either :(

I think it's part of 'retained reflexes' and am sincerely hoping that when we finally do retained reflex therapy with her she'll no longer want to suck her thumb....

Are you guys losing it? A portable, cheap, independent almost socially-acceptable, very effective strategy for self-soothing, preventing objects being chewed and getting to sleep is working well. And you want them to stop before they're ready?

ds2 stil has dummies & he's 8! Not a chance he'll give them up.

my son is 6 and still has his dummy and a blanket! wont sleep without either and i get so fed up arguing with him in the day to keep it out of his gob i end up letting him keep it

I wish I had never taken Dd2's dummy off her she is NT but is a terrible sleeper, I took the dummy away when she was 6 and the sleeping got worse. She is 15 now an still sleeps really badly, I think she is nocturnal.

We used to keep Dd3's in a container during the day and she just had it at bedtime, she ditched it herself at 5 and we have never looked back.

Ummm, I'm not complaining about sucking her thumb to get to sleep. I'm talking about sucking her thumb during the day - including during class.

It's not particularly socially acceptable for a 7 year old. She doesn't have any friends in her class.

But, it's nowhere near top of my list of my(or her) problems.

Maria, I was comiserating with the OP - not 'losing it'. I don't want her to stop before she's ready - I want her to be ready to stop ages ago.

My son had a dummy..in bed.. til he was 11.
No-one ever saw it, it stayed under his pillow (washed every day I hasten to add!) and it helped him cope with his fears, his bad dreams etc. He NEEDED it.(He has ASD and MLD)

He's 13 now.. still has a comforter which he can't sleep without :)

Sorry guys, 'losing it' really was meant in jest but I didn't think to add an emoticon. The backstory is that dd (NT) is a thumbsucker and, having seen how much it helps her, I really wish ds1 was as well.

Ds 12 still have a comforter ( soft toy ) at night and through the day if he is at home.

What we did for school was sew a small toy into his trousers pocket.. This way it can't get lost and if he needs a bit of comfort he just pops his hand in his pocket :)

I just wonder if you could choose together a small toy or pebble or something and do the same.. ( you just sew a false patch thing over the toy so it can't come out and is always there).. It does have to be small and washable!

sort of a magic special pocket thing that no-one knows about... Or it could even be a little patch of comfort blanket sewn in.

My son is 7 and still has a bottle which doesnt go down too well with his doctors but it is a great comfort to him at night
Im not sure when/if to try and stop it either,or just to see if he grows out of it himself.

DS1 is 3 and dropped his dummy about 6 mths ago. Only because we lost it tho and tommee tippe had stopped doing that version.

He has a pillow he takes with him everywhere and still has a bottle at bedtime and at 2pm in the afternoon. i know some of my other mummy friends think he's too old for it but I don't care. It comforts him. Life is stressful enough for him without having his only 2 comfort items taken away.

Let your DS drop it when he's ready. It's not hurting anybody.

Ds2 has a blanket - he'll be 10 in Feb. dd3 also has a blanket she's 7. They're a lovely comfort and so soothing.