Dummy & 16mth old

[Belle]

Is 16 months a crazy time to try to wean off dummy completely (only has it for sleep really)? I can totally see the merits of waiting until he's 2 or 3, and he's certainly well past the stage of us being able to remove it without him noticing, but I think he's so dependent it's messing sleep up - he now doesn't retrieve it himself in the night, but cries until we come and do it.

[Polly D]

Snap!

[Belle]

The weird thing is, often it falls out when he's asleep and he doesn't notice at all - so I don't think that's what wakes him exactly (and also he can fall asleep without it in car/buggy ie when on move) - but it's as if once he's awake he needs me to come and replace it, where before we never had this problem. I had hoped we'd missed that stage! All the baby sleep advice always seems to say get rid of crutches eg dummy...

[alieh]

Hmmm....we got rid of ours around 6 months. If it were me, I would be inclined to teach him how to replace it himself at this stage. It is quite old for him to have to learn a whole new way to fall asleep, and may be easier to now wait until he can understand giving it to the fairies??

Have you seen these, which might make it easier for him to learn to replace himself? http://www.sleepytot.com/ Or you could tie 4 dummies to the corners of a muslin cloth? Litter the crib with millions of dummies?

Rather then replacing it when you go into him, you could just guide his hand to the dummy and get him to put it back in himself. Might make for a few sleepless nights while he sorts it out, but could pay off once he gets the hang of it and hopefully he'll stop calling for you so much?

[gwod]

I would give giving it up a go right now...I remember being sure that the bottle was entirely necessary for one of mine's sleep routine and panicked about the impendng sleep doom when we left it behind once - but when I put my daughter to bed she went straight to sleep and we never used it again. Probably easier than having to negotiate with an unweildy 2 or 3 year old. Sometimes the trappings of the nighttime routine are for us as much as for them!!!

Good luck!

[ryedalema]

Speaking as someone who has to get rid of a dummy with a three year old (she has individual names for hers!) - get rid of it as soon as you can! I'm dreading the nightmare of the 'dummy fairy' swapping her dummies for birthday pressies next month.

xxx

[Vickster]

rydalema, we just went through this with our 2 year old. I actually think older is easier, as you are able to reason with them, and they understand the concept of the dummy fairy, or whatever method you choose.

We went outside and tied the dummy to a tree with a ribbon and said goodbye to it. We told him that the dummy fairy would come in the night and take his dummy away and leave in its place a present. He went to bed that night no issues, and didn't ask for it once! It did take him AGES to get to sleep though, as he was clearly used to the dummy as a sleep aid, but this got better and better as the week went on. The present we gave him was a big Chuggington train carry case, that fits all the little ones inside it. So for about a week, provided he had been good and gone to sleep the dummy fairy put a little train in his carry case. He was so excited to see what would be there when he woke up, he completely forgot about the dummy! After a week, he was completely weaned off it. He mentions it occasionally, but we just have a chat about it and remind him that he gave his dummy to the dummy fairy in exchange for his lovely toys.

Good luck!

[sanity girl]

There was a useful thread about this recently see here

[prdarling]

I think earlier is easier! I got rid of my son's at 12 months and we had 3 nights of crying at bedtime

Night 1 - 45 mins (of pure torture)

Night 2 - 20 mins

Night 3 - 5-10 mins

After that there was absolutely no problem.

There is no way I'd have been able to negotiate/reason with him at 2 - he was at his most unreasonable!! After 3 then we may have got somewhere but we just bit the bullet and got on with it. Worked great for us

[sleepy bunny]

Any age is tricky. We got rid of our daughters when she was around two and as she was learning to talk began asking for it during the day. A tip from a friend who got the tip from a nursery nurse worked for us. Cut a hole in the end of the teat by cutting straight across the end, you only need a small hole,if there is no reaction from him cut a larger hole. The idea is you aren't taking away the dummy, but it doesn't have the satisfaction anymore. Our daughter then rejected it in stages- putting up with it at first, then just holding it in her hand, then gradually forgetting it- it took about a month and was fairly trauma free! I didn't use a dummy with daughter number two exactly for the reason you stated- having to get up seven or eight times in the night to find it and put it back in again for daughter number one! Whatever you decide, good luck.

[Belle]

i think despite the down sides I am v thankful to the dummy for saving my sanity - son was very screamy (looking back wonder if it was because of his reflux, or poss colic or just the fact he's very 'spirited') and it was a lifesaver, and there have been recent times eg having his operation for grommets when I was thankful for it (they let him keep it in throughout the op and it certainly helped calm me that he had it as he was put under). Anyway have been inspired by PR darling's story so gave it a go tonight (poss a bit mad given haven't tried any naps without it yet so not sure how I'll cope tomorrow...). Took almost exactly 45 mins so just like with your son PR D! He did stop after 20 mins and we had just started congratulating ourselves when he started up again and it was pretty horrible. What I'm now really dreading is the night as normally if he wakes we just rush in with the dummy...will have to have some resolve.