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Hi All
My son Harry is 14 months old and has his dummy every time he has a sleep. He has it at no other time, but I am thinking it might be time to start weaning him off it. I am reluctant to do this because it helps him to settle but I don't want him relying on it as he gets older.
Has anybody else got some tips for dummy weaning?
Hi
I don't really have any great advice. I was always one that said "my kid is never going to have a dummy" but naturally he did but never got one till he was a few weeks old. Anyway around 10mths or so I gave it to him and he chucked it so I picked it up threw it in the bin and he has been without it ever since.
My nephew was around 2 and still had a dummy he had to stay here one night and I pretended to throw it in the bin. I told him that the garbage truck needed it more and he never had a dummy again. Although he used to complain to his mum that i threw his dummy away. Even though she had it.
Love :smt049
hey,
i was also one of those " my kids never gunna have a dummy" but sure enough he got one..
he was 18 months old when he went off it because he lost it.. i seached everywhere and couldnt find it.. couldnt be bothered to buy another one so i said thast it no more dummy.. and he didnt even seem to care.. i found ti a few days later under a cupboard and just chucked it.. he did find my nieces dummy however in her toy box.. put it in his mouth but i took it away as soon as he did it and he cried for a lil bit but then just carried on as if hed never even had one
Lesley
I was the same lol we all do it don't we! Paris had hers till she was about 16-17 mths I think, I waited till one weekend she was particularly unwell...and you know how they just zonk out when a bit sick, well she did that and didn't want the dummy. Probably didn't have the energy for it, and from then on hasn't had one since. Paris never got the dummy unless she was sleeping though so there was never a permenant attatchment to it if that makes sense. I think like anything just try different things until something works, like every phase thats what we do LOL!
Goodluck, you will have to let us know down the track what worked for you!
*hugs*
Cailin
Thanks for your replies! I have decided to keep the dummy for a while longer and see if over time harry decides for himself that he doesn't want it anymore. When he is a bit older I may be able to gently encourage him to let it go. At least he is not wanting to suck it during the day, he only likes it when he goes to sleep. :boy:
How do i get Kimberley to give up her dummy ??
She is now 2 and will not go anywhere without it or her dog toy.
We did have a stage where she would not have it unless she went to bed but now back to having all the time.
I keep saying she can have it until she has all her teeth but she still has 6 to come.
Would love some advice.
Hey cool my post got bumped! Just an update on the dummy situation - Harry is now 2 and still has his dummy and he is quite attached to it also.
I haved stopped worrying about weaning him off it for the moment because quite frankly I don't want to deal with the tantrums and fighting that will almost certainly occur if I take it away!
I forgot to mention - Harry has a dog toy too! His name is blue and he takes him everywhere and has to sleep with him. We have two of them now so that there is a back up when one of them is being washed or goes missing! It looks like both our munchkins are dummy and dog toy kids!
Nicola turns 3 in 3 mos and still has a dummy at night, infact 3 or 4 which she swaps around :-k I figure that she will get rid of it when she is ready - it's not like she'll still have it at 18 year old......at least she doesn't suck her thumb!
Kimberley has 6 dummies and i did try and hide 5 of them but one day we could not find it so i went to my hiding palce and she saw me get her a new one so now if i can't find one she jumps up and down at the place i put them.
We did keep them in her room and when we went looking for one we could not find any.
Part of me is hoping she will just give up using it. Some times when we are out i think we get strange looks from people as she has it with her.
Michelle - I wouldn't worry about what other people think - having a healthy and happy child is the best
I stopped giving Lachlan his around 4 or 5mths old and have had no dramas with him not having it. He has had dummies in his mouth since but only chews on them and doesn't suck them, and quite happily lets me have it back. He doesnt' get one in his mouth often though only when Kam thinks he should lol.
Love
Several people have told me they have been able to wean their babies off dummies by snipping off the end of the teat. It breaks the sealed in air and all of a sudden isn't so satisfying to suck. Even nannies have told me this! :) Wonder if it works?
Only had a dummy for one of mine, and he just loved it sooo much, it was hard getting it away from him. It got lost when we moved house, he was sort of old enough to understand that and luckily accepted it.A few weeks later it turned up in his toy box all squashed, so we had a throw away ceremony, so to speak, as it was yukki. Solved the problem :)
well i just thought i would tell you that my son jay who turns 5 in may this year only just gave santa his dummy at christmas - we bought a special box which he left it in and all is done - he never worries that he doesn't have it.
am a bit ashamed it took so long but he actually needed it after the loss of his sister and i figured it was not like he had it every where just for sleeping and he certainly wouldn't have it when he was 18 or so.
lani loves her dummy and i won't be in any hurry in getting rid of it - with all of my kids i have found that after the age of about 1 i do not take dummy out of the house and it stays in their bed so have never had a problem with them wanting all the time.
my g/friend told her 2yr old that the easter bunny needed dummies to turn them into chocolate that was a good one and it worked.
see ya
Ashlea is 3 and is still so so attatched to hers, mainly for sleep though. If we are at home and shes tired she'll use it, but if we are out shes fine without it. I guess im just too lazy to bother with the upset nights until she got used to not having it.
We tried the give it to santa stuff but it didnt work.
Kelly, i also heard the snip the end off thing, havent tried it though. When AShlea popped hers i told her im not buying anymore so she doesnt care that its flat, she still loves it.
My friend had a brilliant idea but her son was younger. She kept a little bottle of lemon juice out of jesse's site near the sink, and every time her gave it to her cause it was dirty she would wash it then she'd put a drop of lemon juice on it so it tasted yucky. After doing this a few times he started to make the bad taste association with the dummy and no longer wanted it cause it was 'yuck'
Thanks for all your ideas.
If anyone else has any would love to know.
Kimberley has had flat dummies before and it never bothered her one bit. I think it bothered me more so i brought some new ones.
I will try and stop her taking out with her when we goplaces. She doesn't have it at day-care other than to sleep with.
Sometimes i think i am just to soft.
Aidyn managed to wean himself off his dummies in the past month or so.
It came about because I bought him the next 'stage' in his dummies for 8 months +, and the shape of the teat was so much bigger and different to his old ones that he just didn't want it... at all... and we've had no problems since! :)
Mason loved his dummies. He had heaps of them as we were always losing them so we'd get another one and then find 5 in the toy box!
Anyway we got them for Angus as well and he decided he didn't want them anymore when he was about 7 months. He decided sucking his thumb was better.....but thats another topic.
Mason still had dummies up untill he was 3 then we stopped replacing the lost ones and the ones we found ended up in the bin, until there were none. When he'd ask we'd say I don't know where dummy is it's lost. He would grumble a bit but now is over it.
Maybe have a rule that dummies are just for sleeps and go from there. You could try putting him down without one
I have to say im one of those mums that said id never give my child a dummy either. But i never did. Ive never given her a bottle with teat either for that very reason. I didnt want her to get attached to it and not be able to cope without it.
Does your DS spit it out when his asleep. Perhaps you could take it out his mouth once his asleep. I dont know im not much help.
Dr Phil always says to replace one habit with another. Maybe you could replace the dummy with something else. Maybe a toy or blanket. Like the other girls said though, it it doesnt bother you to much, let him wean off it. (If thats what kids do with dummies).
I dont like the things but thats just my opinion.
kerrie
I was the same Kerrie. Said i would never give my child a dummy, and i didn't.
One of the mums at pre-school said when it came time for her DD to get rid of the dummy, they got her to throw it in the bin herself. When she came back asking for it, they reminded her that she had thrown it away. She said that it worked for them, as she only asked once and that was it.
But maybe she was ready to let go of it, so that made it easier?
Nic
I have come to the conclusion that it just not that big a deal. Harry is not ready to let go of the dummy yet so I am not going to concern myself with it. I know what it is like to feel like you are getting funny looks at the shops when you have a 2 year old sucking on a dummy but I am not going to concern myself with that either. It is nobody's business. All I can say is don't get rid of the dummy because you feel like you have to because your toddler is "too old" to have a dummy. Like most things, if your toddler is not ready to give it up then you are setting yourself up for a fight, and for what? Appearances?
That is a good point Bon. I know my DH is already worrying about how we'll get rid of Kaleb's, and he's not even 3 months old yet! However, I did read a good tip in a magazine this week - a woman wrote and said that she made arrangements with a toy shop owner, then took her daughter to the shop to 'trade in' her dummy for a doll she could take to bed instead. I thought that was a pretty cool idea.