Taking a dummy off a baby
Discussion
No2 is 7 months old, started using a dummy at about 2-3 months as otherwise he just would not fall asleep. It would fall out after 10 minutes and he'd be fine for the rest of the night. Now he freaks out every time it falls out so we're in replacing it every 5-10 minutes for about an hour most nights
Looking to go cold turkey this weekend - any tips?
Expecting a lot of crying but happy to let him cry a bit (maybe extending how long each time) but don't really want to replace the dummy with some other crutch like rocking him to sleep.
He's generally rubbing his eyes when we put him down so it's not like he's not sleepy, it's keeping him asleep that's the problem.
Looking to go cold turkey this weekend - any tips?
Expecting a lot of crying but happy to let him cry a bit (maybe extending how long each time) but don't really want to replace the dummy with some other crutch like rocking him to sleep.
He's generally rubbing his eyes when we put him down so it's not like he's not sleepy, it's keeping him asleep that's the problem.
We actually did the opposite with our daughter, more dummies!
Hear me out though.
We put 4 in her bed every night so she could find one, then went down to 3 to make it harder but she could still get one if she tried hard enough, then 2, then 1. Then we just moved it further and further down the bed.
It got to a point when she knew it was there but she wasn’t even bothered about getting it.
Voila! No cold turkey screaming required.
Your results may vary. Good luck!
Hear me out though.
We put 4 in her bed every night so she could find one, then went down to 3 to make it harder but she could still get one if she tried hard enough, then 2, then 1. Then we just moved it further and further down the bed.
It got to a point when she knew it was there but she wasn’t even bothered about getting it.
Voila! No cold turkey screaming required.
Your results may vary. Good luck!
You have my sympathies, literally makes me cringe when I think back to the days of my two kids and their f
king ‘num nums’.
We managed to get our kids to give them up aged about 3 and 4ish.
The lack of sleep doesn’t get any easier, it drove me into a very dark place for 2 or 3 years.
Good luck, stay strong
king ‘num nums’.We managed to get our kids to give them up aged about 3 and 4ish.
The lack of sleep doesn’t get any easier, it drove me into a very dark place for 2 or 3 years.
Good luck, stay strong
The Rotrex Kid said:
We actually did the opposite with our daughter, more dummies!
Hear me out though.
We put 4 in her bed every night so she could find one, then went down to 3 to make it harder but she could still get one if she tried hard enough, then 2, then 1. Then we just moved it further and further down the bed.
It got to a point when she knew it was there but she wasn’t even bothered about getting it.
Voila! No cold turkey screaming required.
Your results may vary. Good luck!
It was a very long time ago but this is exactly what we did on advice from a maternity nurse we knew at the time, worked well and had no problems eliminating the dummy.Hear me out though.
We put 4 in her bed every night so she could find one, then went down to 3 to make it harder but she could still get one if she tried hard enough, then 2, then 1. Then we just moved it further and further down the bed.
It got to a point when she knew it was there but she wasn’t even bothered about getting it.
Voila! No cold turkey screaming required.
Your results may vary. Good luck!
Swaddling at night in bed and a rigid daily routine worked around managing feed and sleep and play times did the trick with both of ours. A dummy out the fridge was an absolute last resort only when teething or if nothing else would comfort or calm them.
They'd be encouraged to only have 20 minute naps during the day and those would be on the floor in a bright noisy room or upright in a pushchair to keep them short but at nighttime they'd be fed, bathed and put to bed properly at around 6pm in a dark quiet room. We'd wake them for another top up feed at about 11pm and within weeks of birth we'd got them sleeping through most nights from then to around 6am.
My sister and niece did exactly the opposite with theirs and had no routine at all. They were and are a bloody nightmare.
They'd be encouraged to only have 20 minute naps during the day and those would be on the floor in a bright noisy room or upright in a pushchair to keep them short but at nighttime they'd be fed, bathed and put to bed properly at around 6pm in a dark quiet room. We'd wake them for another top up feed at about 11pm and within weeks of birth we'd got them sleeping through most nights from then to around 6am.
My sister and niece did exactly the opposite with theirs and had no routine at all. They were and are a bloody nightmare.
This might not help, but....
Our two kids (now 8 and 12), were never introduced to dummies. We found putting some music on in the room really helped them to sleep, so they had some distraction and couldn't hear us moving around etc.
We were lucky and ours were sleeping through from about three months old (from memory).
As others have said, routine really helped too, and with our first finding the music and other routines took some time and some distressing evenings trying to get her settled.
However, ours still like music whilst getting to sleep....which is no bad thing but they are both stuck on the same music/ stories from when they were two years old ish. So my twelve year old daughter still goes to sleep listening to Angelina Ballerina and my 8 year old listens to 'The ants go marching in' on repeat for an hour each night.
At the beginning, Iron Maiden's 'Number of the Beast' seemed to be a favourite with both of them!!
Our two kids (now 8 and 12), were never introduced to dummies. We found putting some music on in the room really helped them to sleep, so they had some distraction and couldn't hear us moving around etc.
We were lucky and ours were sleeping through from about three months old (from memory).
As others have said, routine really helped too, and with our first finding the music and other routines took some time and some distressing evenings trying to get her settled.
However, ours still like music whilst getting to sleep....which is no bad thing but they are both stuck on the same music/ stories from when they were two years old ish. So my twelve year old daughter still goes to sleep listening to Angelina Ballerina and my 8 year old listens to 'The ants go marching in' on repeat for an hour each night.
At the beginning, Iron Maiden's 'Number of the Beast' seemed to be a favourite with both of them!!
ATG said:
Thumb instead of dummy?
I could try it but my nails are quite long.He's going to be with me in the spare room tonight thru Sunday night so we don't have to worry about waking the neighbours if he cries a lot. Dummies are hidden, we're going to fill him up on solid food all day today, including some chunky stuff like porridge and tinned mackerel, fill him with a bottle before he goes down so he shouldn't need feeding (he might want feeding but that's different) and see where we are on Monday morning.
He's nowhere near being able to put a dummy back himself and we can't go another two months so cold turkey it is, we've read enough cases on tinterweb where it's worked to give it a try.
We're not, in fact with the first one whenever we came back from being away it took him a couple of weeks to get back into his normal routine.
He'll be in a different room and his mum won't be there to distract him so hopefully once he's got over that it'll be easier. I'm half picturing Renton coming off heroin but we're going into this very detached so at least it won't be me crawling on the ceiling!
He'll be in a different room and his mum won't be there to distract him so hopefully once he's got over that it'll be easier. I'm half picturing Renton coming off heroin but we're going into this very detached so at least it won't be me crawling on the ceiling!
ATG said:
Thumb instead of dummy?
The problem with the thumb instead, is that it's almost impossible to wean them off it. They could be sucking their thumb well into the teens!My neighbour tied a spare to the bars of the cot on a very short string. It worked quite well apparently.
As yours is still too young to put a dummy back in, I would start cold turkey on a Friday and you've got a couple of non work days (possibly) of disturbed sleep before the baby learns to sleep without.
big_northern_monkey said:
Went cold turkey with my 1st born when she was 6 months. It was a rough few nights but after less than a week she adjusted and they were never used again. Definitely worth the short term upheaval for the long term gain.
Do you remember doing any other/new comforting, like rocking or tummy rubbing? We're thinking of doing as little as possible, as if we pick him up he just screams harder when we put him down again. We're going into it fairly detached so hopefully a) it won't wind us up too much, and b) we won't give in before the three days are out!Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff