Dummies? Anyone use them?

[Rowellen]

We gave our DS one from about 6 wks. He wanted to suck all the time (for comfort like your DD) so it was a lifesaver for me. It didn't interfere with BF at all. We also preferred that to thumbsucking. If his thumb drifted towards his mouth, we'd remove it and replace it with a dummy. Now, he only has it to sleep. We have to keep them out of reach during the day though because if he can get his hands on one, it'll be in his mouth & he cracks it if we take it away (that only lasts a moment though). He knows where we keep them too, he'll go to his nappy bag and search for one. We have to remember to take them out lol!

[AliBaby]

We gave our DS one from about 6 wks. He wanted to suck all the time (for comfort like your DD) so it was a lifesaver for me. It didn't interfere with BF at all. We also preferred that to thumbsucking. If his thumb drifted towards his mouth, we'd remove it and replace it with a dummy. Now, he only has it to sleep.

Same here. It really was a lifesaver. I hated it at first but you know what, if it offers comfort to my baby then why not?

We use the Avent ones. They are gorgeous and didnt interfere at all with bf, I bf her until 11mths. I actually got a dummy chain as I have a child that chucks things that arent attached! Also when she got a bit bigger, it is easier for her to find in the night when she wakes as she just feels for the chain and then picks up the dummy and put it in.

If I havent put it on the chain then she often wakes up in the night or from a sleep early as she cant find it to help her resettle.

[amberj]

I am a big dummy fan, but then I haven't had to try to wean DS off it yet!!

What we did that worked well was to limit the dummy to naps only when DS was about 4-6 months old- at a time when we could keep him interested in other things so he didn't miss the dummy too much when he was awake, but still young enough for him not to throw fits about it.

Now dummies are for sleep only, and they are a great sleep cue for DS. And occasionally if he is really upset we will use a dummy too and its astonishing how much it calms him right down. I guess the sucking is very soothing.

The only problem we ever had with dummies was around the 6-9 month mark (I think, can't really remember), when he would wake up 4-6 times during the night needing a dummy put back in. It was really quite annoying at the time. Eventually he learned how to find his dummy himself during the night (we put like 4 in the cot), and that stage passed.