Hi girls,

Following on from the post in pregnancy, i wanted some advice as to how to get rid of my daughter's dummy.

She is 14 weeks old and had colic when she was younger and needed a dummy to settle her. She would get herself so worked up it was the only way to calm her down and get her to sleep.

She has just started to get sore gums from teething and someitmes just chews her dummy rather than suck it for ages before finally taking it and falling asleep - however sometimes she just spits it out and cries. So we have to keep going back in and put the dummy in. At the moment all she is interested in sucking is her hands but she won't fall asleep doing this and tries to fit her hand in her mouth along with her dummy, which then knocks the dummy out! It's like a never ending cycle! She is a very alert baby and doesnt seem to 'wind down'.

Anyway, i would quite like to try and settle her without her dummy but when i put her to bed she tends to just cry until she gets the dummy and then i need to hold it in until she falls asleep! Do any of you have any advice on how to get her to settle without the dummy - or any success stories?

Thanks
L and Emily (14 weeks)

Hey LB, my eldest son had a dummy. It really settled him down, he was always very wriggly and couldnt lie still enough to go to sleep. It was good in a lot of ways for him, he never shut up (still the same at 4) and if we were out and he started to get animated it would quiet him down.

We went through months of getting up once or 2ce in the night to give him his dummy back, the prob when it falls out in the night. Once he could find it himself that stopped. I didnt get rid of it till he turned 3, although from about 2 he only had it in bed. He put it on the side of his cot before he got out and didnt get it at all through the day.

Its a really hard one, i do think they are great at certain times and ive used them for all my kids but the last 2 i only used it a few times.

I would maybe try and settle till she is nearly sleeping and take it out. Worth trying for a while. Other thing is to take it away altogether. It will onky take a day or 2 till she gets used to it

Good luck chick

Gemm x

I got rid of LO's at 20 weeks as he got is first teeth at 18 weeks so I let him have it for them.

(I had enough at 20 weeks as I was putting it in his mouth 10 times a night, I would get back to bed and he would chuck it out grrrr)

So I stopped nighttime dummy to begin with, and replaced it with cuddly bear (one comfort for another I guess) - then only let him have it for naps in the day. Then went cold turkey for 3 days.

Good luck xxx

We went cold turkey at nighttimes too. LO was waking up nearly hour and losing his dummy was part of the problem. I stopped giving it to him on the Wednesday day and by Friday morning he was settling without it no problem. For me personally half the battle was getting MY head round the fact that he didn't need a dummy to fall asleep, I don;t think Cam was bothered, was just a little change to his setlling routine. I think one of the other lovely BIJ ladies suggested the following though, or very similar

day 1 - 3 : cut single slit in dummy (so it's less suckable)
day 4-6: cut second slit in dummy to make cross
day 7- 10: cut tip off dummy
day 11- 14: cut more of dummy off

I think the general idea is that you gradually make the dummy less appealing to LO so they don't want it. The only thing you'd have to make sure with this is that the dumny wasn't going to be choking hazard once you've fiddled with it maybe.

Good luck though xx

Thanks everyone, I think i might wait until she is a bit older then and can hold a teddy properly or an alternative.

Thanks for your advice!

Lx

Hi,
We got rid of the dummy at 16 weeks. I was fed up having to get up in the night to put it back in.
My LO now uses a muslin cloth as a comforter. The little teddy comforters were too heavy for him and he would drop them.
The muslin he snuggles it and sucks on the tag of it. I used to sneak in and take the muslin away when he was younger, after he had fallen asleep, but now at 8 months he has it all night.
We did have to do a bit of pick up/put down as well at bedtime. But after about a week he was sleeping without the dummy and settling himself.

we got rid of dummy at sleeptime as we were wearing out the carpet doing dummy runs in the night, we went cold turkey at 14 weeks although he still has it during the day and enjoys it when he is getting tired and now he is teething it works wonders at calming him. After 2 days of crying himself to sleep (only ever took 2-3 mins though) he started sleeping through the night at 15 weeks and hasnt woken since...im pleased i got rid of the dummy for sleep time and he now sucks on his fist or on a muslin to settle himself,

I was going to suggest the slits in the dummy, and a muslin as a replacement comforter. :\) xx

Hiya chick!

We just went cold turkey when J was 9 months, the first night he moaned a bit of it but settled fine.

I sometimes wish he still had it now he's teething, he won't take to any other comforter either - including me!

Soon enough she'll find it herself when it falls out! I'd wait until she was a bit older to get rid of it.xx

Thanks for all the replies girls

Well tonight she was just constantly spitting out her dummy and getting really really upset. So i have just left her for a minute or so to have a whinge and only went in to settle her if she gets really upset. The last time i went in was 30 mins ago and i just patted her back and spoke to her and she appears to be asleep!

Hopefully this continues at night! I think I will still keep the dummy for daytime naps if she wont settle until she is a bit older. But i will leave it as a last resort.

Fingers crossed she will be ok tonight!

Lx

hia
just wanted to say that my dd went through a phase of spitting her dummy out a few times a nigh then crying for it again. We stuck with the dummy runs and within 2 weeks she was sleeping through again. I think what made the difference for her was that she found her thumb so if she woke up in the night she sucked that instead. She is now 7 months old and only has the dummy for sleep times. She uses it to fall asleep and then stays asleep all night!! I am glad we stuck with it as it gets her straight to sleep.
Just wanted to add another side
xx

We removed dummy at 6 months and in the months running up to this gave LO a soft toy to hold as well as having dummy. That said now at 10 months he doesn't bother with any comforter and he still struggles to self soothe!

Good luck