Dummy advice

I have a lovely 1yr old girl who sleeps very well both day and night except that she very dependant on her dummy. She will put herself to sleep with ease but if she has spat out her dummy and it falls out of the cot or she can't find it, she cries until we go in and put it back in. Thinking about weaning her off it soon and I realise that i will have to go back to the basics of controlled crying but would love some advice or tips to help make the change easier for the both of us. Look forward to your tips!!

Hi Alison,
Instead of taking it off her completly, try giving her a new one, of a smaller size. They generally don't like the smaller new born ones, as they are too small for their mouths, and will spit it out on their own. Failing this, you could try putting some sort of flavour that she doesn't like on it, then everytime she puts it in her mouth, she won't like the taste and hopefully spit it out. Good luck.
Tracey

I have a 4 month old boy and exactly the same problem. Will use to go to sleep on the breast, after a while he started waking when I'd put him down. I decided totry and get him to sleep on his own, and the dummie worksbeautifully, accept thatnow he wakes when the dummy falls out. This has become a real problem in the night as he will sleepa fewhours the realise his dummy isnt there and start crying, I goand put itback in and he sleeps another hour or two, then feeds. He wakes quite a fw times in the early hours of the morning. Would love some help too.

Hi Alison,
My daughter (Ella) is also one and is still dependant on her dummy to go to sleep.
After being a thumb sucker myself and knowing how hard as a child to break that habit, I decided to put up with her wanting her dummy to go to sleep and let her decide when to get rid of it.
That being said however, if she still has it when she turns 2, we will start taking measures to get rid of it as I believe at that age they know and understand what you are talking about.

Thanx Louise,
Sounds like good advice and after speaking with Ella's Gran I'm convinced that it really isn't too much of a problem, waiting until she is older and can understand what I am trying to do it will make it alot easier. grin

well

my 9 month gal used to hide them from 6 months of age cos she hated them but all children are different

i have been told though that the best way to get a child off dummys is to tell them about the dummy fairy

the dummy fairy is to come in the middle of the night (like tooth fairy) and leave the child a little something in return for the dummy like a new bear or something that represents there fav pet eg a stuffed dog

i have been told it works and a stuffed animal looks better then a dummy (i hate them but thats my opinion and charlee only had one to keep her happy and she chose to get rid of it)

good luck and let me know how you go


cheers mandi