Hello all, I'm looking for some advice on dummy weaning...My ds is 20 weeks old and we gave him a dummy at about 4 weeks and (oddly enough) it taught him how to breastfeed. He loves his dummy. But it's now gotten to the point that he'll wake up in the middle of the night looking for it, completely wake himself up and struggle to go back down. Night before last, he was up every hour, last night only up twice. He loves to suck so I don't want to cut him off cold turkey, but also don't want to use it too long and risk getting him truly hooked. Any advice? -Kate

hi Kate

My son had a dummy , I had always said that I was not adverse to giving him a dummy we lasted about 1 week. Anyway my son used to suck 1 dummy have another one in his hand and hold an Avent bottle teat in his other whilst pushing it in to the corner of his eye. Strange I hear you cry.

He would have a been a baby that s;ept through the night had it not been for the dummies, it drove us mad, we had dummies everywhere and used to panic if there were none to be seen.

I carried on like this untill he was 2 and a half wne the winter came and he was getting chapped lips because of sucking the dummy and the saliva.

We had started to wean him off holding the other two, but had just kept religously giving him one for bedtime. One night all I said to him was that we were not going to give him a dummy that night because it was making his\lips sore and he just said 'ok' and thatr was that. Ity was as if it was us out of habit and nerves that he would not sleep that kept giving it to him.

The only thing we then had a problem with, was that he could not settle himself as easy at night, with a dummy in he went straight to sleep and a story does not do the same as a dummy.

As he has got older though it is easier for us to explain.

You might need to do some cold turkey and take it off him, sleepless nites for under a week is far better broken nights for a lot longer. I remember how it felt the broken nights, in the end it I was that tired I felt sick some days. Maybe I should have taken my own advice eh!!

Good Luck
Nikixx

Kate, I have a little boy who will be 3 in January. He didn't have a dummy until he was actually 16 months old. He would go to nursery and would take them off of the other children and put them in his mouth so eventually I gave in. Looking back to when he was a baby I could only get him to sleep by giving him a bottle. It probably wasn't the milk that was sending him to sleep it was the sucking action! Now that he is getting older I am concious that he is looking too old to have a dummy. Fortunately Christmas is coming up and we have said that if he leaves them for father christmas then father christmas will leave him a very special present a bike. My brother got his son off his dummys by getting him to leave them with Buzz Light Year and Euro-Disney. Anyway what I am trying to say is that I wouldn't take it from him just yet. He could turn to sucking his thumb or his fingers and they aren't quite so easy to get rid of!

I've got a similar issue with my baby boy, who's the same age! I will be interested to read the answers you get. Jess x