Taking the dummy away.

Hi all,

I want to get Arianne use to not having a dummy to fall asleep, since I don't want her to be 2 and walking around with a dummy.

What tips did you find worked??

She just doesn't want to sleep without it.

DS used to have a dummy and he absolutely loved it and wouldn't sleep without it. The reason we got rid of it was he ended up favouring one particular dummy and I couldn't find another one like it anywhere.
After being at my parents for an evening we couldn't find the dummy anywhere and I decided that is it. We can have panic whenever we loose the dummy.
That night he was so tired and was practically asleep when we got him out of the car and into his bed. The next day I got him to have his day sleep in the car as I stayed busy all day.
I kept him up pretty late that night to try and replicate the night before where he was so tired when he went to bed.
By the third night he was sort of used to not having the dummy and grizzled a bit, but was fine.

Looking back, I think the addiction to the dummy was more me than him :o)

Good luck

We have tried a few times not working so far:( I don't want a two year old with one either:(! (though it's just at bedtime but still!)

We didn't want to go past the age of one but with twins it seemed so daunting. In the end though we just did it. We didn't read any books or try any techniques. We just took them away one day before their afternoon nap. I think you have to be brave and just tough it out. Also once you take the dummy away my advice would be throw it out so you can't be tempted to give in when you have a bad night because then you end up sending bubs mixed signals. The first couple of nights were tough but after a week they stopped waking in the night altogether and we haven't had a sleepless night in over a month now.

I didn't want them to have it past the age of one purely because I knew the longer we waited after that it would just get harder and harder to take it away. At this age they forget so easy.

I think it also helped that the girls both have a teddy and a blankie each (that are only used for bedtime) so I guess it's not like they went from a dummy to nothing.

Gotta love the blankies! The girls have had theirs since around 4months. They have had their teddies since birth. I had a blankie till the age of 8! I keep thinking maybe I should can the blankies too before they become an addiction.... Meh can't hurt right.

C had a dummy til she was 2, then I weaned her off it and she found her thumb .
Least a dummy you can take away , people complain if you chop children's thumbs off

I started giving Campbell a small cuddly "blankie" a few weeks back, round about when he started rejecting his dummy anyway... and I thought he was going to have a dummy addiction! Now he uses his blankie or the fabric of his Peke Moe sleeping bag to go to sleep.
So you could maybe try introducing a cuddly first (putting it down your top for a hour or two can help her accept it), then once she likes having that, then try taking the dummy away.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I took it away one morning, she went to sleep but for the afternoon nap, she wouldn't sleep just play with her blankie and teddy for over an hour and her bedtime well she just screamed and screamed and I gave in again and gave her the dummy.

It seems like I will just have to suck it up throw out the dummies and ride it out. It is such a scary thought.

This is going to sound awful but the first couple of nights we close the hallway door so we couldn't hear them crying we knew they weren't hurt and had no chance of getting hurt they were just confused and it was hurting us more to hear them. Usually after an hour or two they would give up.

We got rid of Jakes at 6 months, but he only had it for day sleeps so it wasn't that hard to get rid of. We gave him a soft toy mousey to sleep with and he cried a little the first few naps then got over it. I think the younger you do it the easier it is.