Ditching the dummy ....

Hi there. I'm trying to get Morgan off the dummy (no offence to anyone but I don't want her to have one as a toddler, and think its easier to get rid of them sooner rather than later). Jake only had his for day naps (was BF'd to sleep at night til 6 months and rarely woke in the night (fed if he did), then had a bottle and self settled) so I just took if away at day naps at 6 months, he grizzled for a couple of mins when going to sleep for 2 days then that was it. Morgan seems a little more attached! She only has it when sleeping in her cot (not in the car or buggy) and I've tried putting her down over the last few weeks without it, some days she is fine and makes no noise, some naps she will grizzle briefly then go to sleep - or amp up (so I give it to her) or she will cry as soon as I put her in bed, so I give it to her. As soon as she has it she makes no noise and goes to sleep. At night she quite often falls asleep or is nearly asleep on her bottle so I can usually get her in bed without it, but if she is more awake she will look at me very angry if I'm not giving it to her (with her mouth open waiting!). She used to wake quite a bit 30mins later for it but doesn't now. But the last 3-4 weeks she has woken some nights about 11-12 for it (or just stirred some nights at that time and gone back to sleep after one yell), and most mornings shes woken between 5-6 for it. Shes not waking hungry as she will happily go back to sleep with just the dummy, and if I don't go in she will talk for up to 30mins then go back to sleep - but if shes starts yelling I usually end up giving it to her. and BFing at that time is hit and miss - I've done it a couple of times and she will either go back to sleep or have a bit of a feed then try to play (and I don't wnat to be up at 5.30am or so!). Then some nights like last night she will do her normal sleeping til 6.30am with no waking.

So I dont really care that she has it for day naps, but as shes started waking for it more often than not at 5-something-am I think its time to get rid of it!!!

So - if you got rid of the dummy around her age (say 6-10months) did you just go cold turkey or do it gradually? How did you do it if you did it gradually?

I'm not anti-CC, but have found if I go back in she just gets more worked up now if I don't give it to her (rocking with my hand on her tum used to work when she was little).

If you didn't get rid of the dummy and your little one started waking for it --- did if get better over time? Or worse?? (ie will she stop bothering to wake, so I don't need to worry! haha).

Any advise on getting rid of it?? At the mo it seems so much easier to just give it to her than listen to the complaining!! (but I know long term it will be easier now that when shes REALLY attached as a toddler!)

Also, shes just started crawling, so I'm wondering if the waking is to do with that? either way I'd still like to ditch the dummy though.

Sorry for the novel.

Edited by Nikki

We got rid of it cold turkey when DD was about 5 - 6 months old and I replaced it with a muslin blanket/wrap. It took about a week of me staying with her and helping her settle for her naps and bedtime but there was not a lot of waking after that. We went from me having to get up sometimes 12 times a night to put the dummy back in to no waking at all. I think cold turkey was the way to go for us as otherwise I felt it would have been too confusing for her. I was petrified about doing it and put it off for ages but then once I did it, it was so easy that I wished I had done it sooner.

Ty has always been obsessed with his dummy... at one stage he started waking at night and wanted it but it would have fallen out of the cot. So now he goes to bed with about 12 dummies sprinkled all around his cot! Haha it sounds absolutely ridiculous but there's always one near him when he wakes up during the night And when he wakes up he spends a while playing with them before I have to go and get him up

I too want to get rid of them in the not too distant future so I am trying to just let him have them at night.

My Mum took me to the Dr and he said that I wasn't allowed a dummy anymore hehe, so when we got home from the Dr's Mum did a 'ceremony' where we buried all the dummy's. Then she had to go round and get all the strays in case I found them.

Not appropriate and absolutely no help, but I thought it was a funny story

Oh, I have one she didn't like somewhere -maybe I could try that!

ETA: That did not go well!!

Tried to give her a little cuddle before putting her down but its so hot and she just wasn't interested. So put her in bed with her doll. She started crying when I left, waited a couple of mins and went back to put my hands on her tum and rock/shhh (like I did when she was little) - looked at me like I was mad, and started crying again as soon as I left the room, waited another few mins and I could hear she was kinda calming a bit (few seconds of scream, then low pitched wail/grizzle off and on) so waited a bit more and she wasn't letting up (I could hear her sucking on the doll in between!) so back in and tried rocking again but she wasn't going to close her eyes, gave her the dummy she didn't like - 3 sucks and it was back out and she cried again (really pissed at me now!). Gave it to her and left. More crying. Back in a few mins later to try again .... and after another couple of mins shes asleep. So it took almost 20mins altogether, when shes out in seconds (or at least quiet) with the dummy.

Edited by Nikki

Just an update - she went to sleep last night fine (pretty much fall asleep on her bottle so no dummy, which is what we've been doing for a few weeks) then woke 30mins later, so dh re-settled her by holding her hands on her chest (shes always settled for him like that) and she slept til 6.45am, back to normal! She still does that some nights so not holding my breathe though! This morning she had a grizzle for about a minute and then went to sleep! Yay.

Nikki have you moved to the next size up in dummy? I changed Ben's to a bigger size about a month ago but kept the smaller size and wondered if I might try giving him the smaller size when we decide to wean. I was thinking that maybe the feel of it will be different so he won't like it.

How did last night go in the end?

Bethany had a dummy (we tried to avoid it, but around 6-8wks we found, like you, that it made a world of difference for her) and between 3 & 6mths her sleeping got so shocking that we dropped it cold turkey at 6mths. We used the 'sleep sense programme' which recommended dropping the dummy. She hated it and protested grandly the the first few nights (still woke in the night - the programme has steps to follow then too) & day sleeps but by the 3rd night she was sleeping through and it stayed consistent after that. (Well, to a point... but that's a story for another day lol!) It's in an e-book if you're interested, PM me and I can email it to you :)

All the best!! :-)