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Your views on the use of dummies
Hi there
I am interested to know how many of you are successfully using dummies and whether you have encountered any negative comments. I am not sure how I feel about introducing one at this stage. My 11 week old sucks his own fingers but is mainly comforted by sucking my DH's thumb of an evening which sends him off to sleep. He seems to be able to settle himself in his moses basket at nighttime though. I am breasfeeding and had a lot of latching on problems in the beginning and had to use nipple shields which I have now managed to wean off
Thankyou for your comments A xx
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Replies
Hi, we have used one from birth. Mainly due to it reducing the risk of cot death. Abby is 11 months old and doesn't really use it thought the day, we use it just to go to bed. We take it off her as soon as she wants to talk as well x
my lo had one from 9 weeks, mainly because he refused to accept a bottle and i wanted to teach him how to suck on a teat. he was intrigued but pushed it out with his tongue as he just didnt get it! after a few gentle introductions though he realsied how and it did make him have a bottle too.
he's now a year almost and he has it to get him off to sleep or when tired and grumpy. of course it will be an effort when we stop but i dont think he's too reliant - you do see some kids with them in all the time.
they say after a year teats/dummies can affect speech development - but as my lo has been bf he's hardly had any bottles and with such slight dummy use i dont believe this will have much effect. we will have to wean him off it at some point of course but for now he's getting used to nursery, breast feeding well and taking expressed milk when im not around - i think he has enough going on and is still very young.
i was never set against dummies like a lot of people seem to be - little people find them very comforting. people say they are dirty but they go through a sterlilser and are changed regularly, unlike most of the other things they put in their mouths!
i actually havent encountered anyone being negative at all. x
Son doesn't have a dummy at all. I tried to introduce one at 6 weeks but he screamed like he was being hurt every time! He doesn't suck his thumb / fingers or anything.
My little boy sucked his thumb from the moment he was snuggled up with me in the recovery room! After a few weeks he started sucking his fingers instead, and this is now his comfort / security thing he does when he's tired or overwhelmed. He did used to suck on my finger a lot when he was tiny, which helped him get off to sleep, and maybe a dummy would have been easier, but I'm glad i didn't give in. He is still breastfed at nearly 11 months.
It's personal choice really, but what are your reasons for introducing one at this stage? If he can settle himself well I personally wouldn't bother now.
xxx
Like someone else said we then went through a phase where she would have woken all annoyed if she couldn't find it at night.It definitely had its use but if I hadn't thought it would help her in some way I wouldn't have bothered.
The way I look at it (& her too now, incidentally!) is that you can take a dummy away from a baby/toddler (ie wean them off it), you cannot however amputate their thumbs!
I'd say if they look like thumb suckers, give them a dummy!
I have no babies as yet so my advice may be crap, lol!x
I don't really see a problem with thumb sucking. I sucked mine until i was 10, and had no problems. Much prefer to see that than a dummy.
xxx
yeah i suppose, i do hate to see dummies in kids over 2 or 3 but i also hate watching my 6year old nephew suck his thumb. I wanna scream at him to 'man up'! lol!
It's not easy & whatever suits the individual child i suppose! people will always be opinionated about these things, but if the kids happy i wouldn't get to hung up on dummy/thumb, there's more in life to worry about i suppose x
My boy had a dummy as I can take it off him but cant take a thumb off him. Plus it reduces cot death and save my poor nipples whilst breastfeeding. Having said that it is entirely each to their own. I do hate the comments people make when the see my baby with his dummy, it is no one else business.
Our son had a dummy from a few days old and we got rid of it easily at 18 months old. We only really gave it to him at sleep times. My husband was dead against it but our son was a comfort sucker and it saved my nipples a lot of pain!
x
I have 3 children and none of mine had dummies. None of my children sucked there thumb or fingers. I have nothing against dummies but choose not to give them to my children.
Heres a few Pro's and Con's
Hi all
Thank you so much for all your informative replies. The reason I was asking is mainly because of the apparent reduced risk of cot death when using a dummy. Having looked more closely at the research however it does appear that it is quite inconclusive. My LO doesnt appear to need a dummy at the moment as he is managing to settle himself using his own fingers, his thumb or sucking on my hubbys thumb (he's probably going to be a thumb sucker but hey ho). The problem I have is that since birth he has slept at the foot of our bed in his moses basket but I realise the time is coming to shortly move him into his own room (across the landing) before he grows out of his moses basket. There is not room to move his cot into our room. Probably like all mums cot death is never far from our minds and I am feeling so scared at the thought of not having him in our room. when I heard that dummies were recommended I just wanted to get some opinions from other mums. BW my HV told us the current recommendation is that LO remains with us in our room til he is 12 months old. Has anyone else heard this? Thanks again, xxx
hi angelina
the cot death research with dummies has not been endorsed as official advice. babies dont succumb to cot death unless they are sound asleep, a baby sucking on a dummy is not in a deep sleep so of course it wont happen whilst sucking on a dummy. however, when they do fall properly asleep the dummy just falls out! sometimes the people doing the research are under so much pressure to find something they grasp at straws! also, the biggest known reduction of cot death is breast feeding (reduces it by 40%) and early dummy use can intefere with this so its all swings and roundabouts really!
i heard to keep lo with you for 6 months, i strongly believe i would have done this had it not been an issue of logistics - the three of us crammed in one room unable to walk around the bed or cot. while lo's room was empty, oh snoring, etc. it was ok while he was tiny in a moses basket and maybe if hed been a smaller baby we'd have managed it but he grew out of the basket really quick, did a couple of months with us in the cot and at 4 months i had to admit defeat. it didnt feel right the first couple of nights and i did worry about cot death but his door and our door were open, and its such a small house it seemed like we were pretty much together anyway! if we have another lo we will hopefully be in a bigger house and then id be happy to do 6 months. im not sure about 12 though as now lo wouldnt settle and would be trying to catch our attention! x
The advice is 6 months, as others have said, but we moved Ryan out at 4 months. He was getting too big for his crib and we didn't have room for his cot in out room, lus he was waking every 2 hours overnight, after previously being a good sleeper. We moved him out and he immediately started sleeping better, i think we were all just disturbing each other. It is a worry, but we have the angelcare movement monitor and a video monitor on him which is a big reassurance.
I think the big thing for reducing the risk is making sure they're not too hot, and are put to sleep on their back. Which again is a worry once they start to roll over themselves!
We gave our Lo dummy from a few weeks old and were advised to remove by 6 months which is what we did and it just meant we had to settle him in other ways. Our main reason was due to reflux which is now resolved.
I have heard about keeping Lo with you for 12 months but not sure where from! We had Lo in with us until 10 months but that was due to preference and moved him when we started to disturb him at night. When he outgrew moses basket we moved him into a crib purchased on eBay for ??10 to maximise space in our bedroom so that may be an option if you want to extend the time Lo is in with you.
Linds