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Dummy - yea or nay?
Agnes is a week old. She's breastfeeding well. When she gets tired she forgets to suck her fingers for comfort, or is waving her hands around, so it's taking much longer to settle her, particularly at 4am when we've been awake all night! I'm very tired today 
In the next week or so we'll be introducing a bottle for a daily expressed feed (if she'll have it).
What are the pros and cons of giving her a dummy at this stage?
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My baby had a dummy due to a SCBU stay and it was all I could offer him as comfort. He still has it at 11 months old and is still bf. It's a godsend here! I was VERY anti dummy previously but seeing a baby screaming in SCBU and not being able to offer much comfort changed my option.
BF didn't work out for us, so S is FF. But we had to give her a dummy when she was about 9 days old as she was shocking for sucking her fingers constantly. So much so that she managed to break the skin and give herself a blister on one of her fingers. I don't want her to bece reliant on it, but sometimes it's the only thing that will settle her. She goes to sleep without it probably 8 times out of 10 though, it's mainly for the 5am wake up!
I had no view either ways on dummies prior to having F and now we are using one I LOVE them!! They've truly saved our sanity. F would have huge crying fits because he was so exhausted and all we could do was take him out in the car for half an hour till he fell asleep. I kept reading how babies love to sook for comfort so at 4 weeks with bf fully established we introduced a dummy. He wasn't sure of it first few times but we persisted and now he is so comforted by it that we no longer get the prolonged screaming fits and haven't been back in the car since!
Sweetpea - if we were also 4 weeks along I'd definitely be doing it, but it's only a week and I don't want to spoil any BFing progress we've made. I've read loads of posts on Mumsnet and the consensus seems to be that it doesn't interfere... She's so placid that I didn't like seeing her get that worked up and the more worked up she got the less chance there was of her finding her thumb or fingers!!
My son had it at 24 hours old and did bfing no harm.
i think I'm worrying about nothing!
I think if we have the same scenario tonight we'll go for it.
A was given one in NICU to help with sucking instincts. My others have had a dummy but I have waited until 3-4 weeks to introduce it.
I really hate the way dummies look, but would have happily given one to J if it'd have helped, dummy vs constantly screaming baby is a no brainier. Sadly he spat it out every time I tried, regardless of type (I tried a few) so we went dummy free.
H had a dummy from birth (24 hours old) right up until he was 4. As he got older say past 18 months I limited it to just at night and it has made no difference to his teeth, his bite or his speech development. It was a godsend for me as he was very sucky.
T was given one in neo natal unit as was born at 34 weeks and was to help him develop his suck. He still has it at 13 months for naps and nighttime.
Each to their own but my two love / d their dummies - go for it !
Molly had a dummy from birth, she needed to spend time under the lamp for jaundice and this was the best form of comfort for her, she breast fed for six months without issue. I would do the same again! the other thing which helped (she used to wake herself up throwing her arms around!) was swaddling, I was told this was a no no by the midwife before I had M then the nursery nurses at the hospital did this when she came back from SCBU each day for her meds and it worked, a week after being at home and her throwing her arms around waking herself up and the swaddle worked perfect
All three of mine have had dummies from very early on, no adverse effect on breast feeding and taken away with minimal problems when they were older. It's a natural. Reflex for a baby to suck so I have no issue with dummies as long as they aren't used to delay feeds and feeding cues are still watched for and acted upon.
I was always anti dummies, but gave J one at 8 weeks, as he was no "chompy", but he ditched it at 6 months, thankfully. We'd stopped BF at this point, so he was FF when we started with the dummy. If he hadn't have ditched it himself, i'd have taken it away when he was 12 months anyway.
Nurses tried giving C one when he was in SCBU, but he was having none of it.
My SS had one until he was almost 4, which I was dead against, and got him off it.
I hate the way dummies look and so was never going to give T one… well I quickly changed my tune on that when he was screaming and the only thing that seems to comfort him was a dummy! We gave it to him at about 5 weeks so probably no help in terms of timings as BF was nearly established at that point.
I was very anti dummy when i had W and didn't want him to have one. I did eventually realise that although they may not look very nice, essentially they are doing a job, and that is comforting baby, which is what's important really.
As it transpired W never took a dummy, he just chewed on it whenever he was given one. I've never heard of them causing a problem if you're BFing though. But then i suppose if they reckon that some babies can't cope with switching between bottle and breast, then maybe dummies do cause problems for some...
I've never been a fan of dummies but bought some in case we needed them. My H tried to give 1 to Isobelle on 1st night but she didn't seem interested. Never found another reason to try them so they've just in the packet since then. But I would say it's worth a try
I gave H a dummy at about 5 days old - he is exclusively breastfed and at 5 days old I has literally been unable to put him down as he screamed every time I tried, he just wanted to be constantly sucking. I was beyond exhausted and remember crying asking my partner to take him for an hour so I could just get one hours sleep! I was at the point of introducing formula so my partner could share the load and I could get some sleep. I decided to try a dummy and he instantly settled and slept for about 2.5 hours. That was 8 weeks ago and H is still breastfed and things are going well. I feel that the dummy has enabled me to continue with breastfeeding rather than causing any problems, but I realise everyone is different. I don't think if have got through the last 8 weeks of breastfeeding without having the dummy to save my sanity. H will often fall asleep at the breast after a good feed, but then when I take him off to put him down it wakes him up and he screams as he finds comfort from having something in his mouth. The dummy gives him the comfort and enables him to settle to sleep - now at 8 weeks he will happily sleep for 4/5 hours at night, so if know he's feeding well and I am not missing any hunger cues or anything. I don't want him to have it when we are out in the daytime for example, so I use it purely to settle him at 'sleep times' so evenings and night times.
We used a dummy from about 8 weeks and I wish I'd given in and used it earlier. Until then he was impossible to settle. He still has it now for daytime naps but more as a sleep cue than anything else, he spits it out before he drops off. He doesn't need it to settle at night now. I don't give it to him unless it's nap time and if he was crying out of hunger rather than tiredness he would refuse it.
S had a bottle with most feeds from 3 weeks as I was BFing and needed to give him gaviscon for reflux. It never affected his latch so I wasn't worried that the dummy would.
I think if you are introducing a bottle next week anyway then the effect on bfing isn't really a consideration as artificial teats of any kind can cause nipple confusion.
We introduced both a dummy and bottle early on and find that C sometimes tries to pull off the breast to suck on my nipple and the breastfeeding supporter at the group we go to immediately said "you've given a bottle haven't you?". Saying that I just relatch him and he still prefers the breast so not a major issue.
Fwiw, we give C a dummy and he'll only occasionally take it. I'm hoping he will see the benefits soon
Thanks ladies! It really does seem I was worrying over nothing. I wasn't necessarily anti dummies but thought we should try and do without. When I thought about it there's loads of new babies I know who just had them as standard regardless of feeding method.
She gets upset and sucky from about midnight so I used it to get her settled rather than get worked up but when she was asleep it came out and stayed out, so hopefully we can keep it as a night-time/sleep-time comforter. Definitely worked last night
Interesting post! I hadn't realised sucking comforted babies... Doh. Learn something new everyday!