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Giving up the dummy? Got any top tips, please?
Hello
Persuading your child to give up his or her much-loved dummy can be a bit of a daunting prospect (not that we speak from personal experience or anything - cough, cough).
So we'd love to know from you your top tips for moving from dummy-dependent to dummy-free.
Bribery? Reasoning? Slow withdrawal? Cold turkey? Or something super-inventive?
Please do share with us. We'd love to know what works for you!
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Replies
Well, we were absolutely terrified when the day finally came to take away my daighters much loved dummy, but it got to the point that she would not be without it - day or night...
We took a shoebox and spent loads of time decorating it (about 2 weeks at least) in the build up to the dummy fairies taking them and giving them to some other babies who needed them. So we put the dummies in the box, and in the morning there were some toys and all was well.
HOWEVER, we became the dummy - we would have to sit with her til she fell asleep, sometimes taking 45minutes for a few weeks. Looking back, we were totally wrapped around her finger and should never have obliged! Eventually one night, our little girl was being super sneaky and wanted to take a tiny toy to bed with her, so she sent ous out of her room early and from that point on, it was fine.
A friend of mine took her boys to a toy shop, he handed over the dummies and they bought him a toy - simple as that!
I've read up on this Bye Bye Binky (an american system) which apaprently works really well with kids under 18months where you slowly destroy the dummies over the course of a few days- you start by pin pricking them so there's not much pleasure derived from the sucking. Then you slowly snip slithers off the tops of the dummies (you have to do it to all of them) effectively turning them into nibs and apprently the child just gives up! I don't actually know anyone who's done this!
i remember my mum telling me that my older sister when she was about 3/4 refused to give up her dummies.. mum said she had tried everything but she was still holding on... So in the end one night mum went round all the dummy hiding places, painted them with nailbite (solution you out on your nails that tastes bad so you don't bite them) & put them back in their place. Needless to say the dummies were very quickly a thing of the past! Lol
We prepped our daughter that she was now starting nursery so had to give up her dummies, we picked a day and marked it on a calendar she could always see and the morning we rounded them all up,
We went to a toy shop, picked a teddy ( her choice) and paid with her dummies ! Oh stood behind me and while I distracted her he paid cash lol - she was fi e all day and that night took diddy Ted to bed for a cuddle instead of her dummy
Lots of praise and reminders and we did it with not much fuss at all !
Love both of the ideas from mrsg & busymamma!
My eldest had a dummy and it got to the point where she would use it as an attention technique especially at bed time where she would "loose it" and cry out or have to get out of bed etc. She was 2 and half. One night mummy had enough and she had already said "Lily one day your dummy will be lost and it won't be found" many many times...and that is exactly what happened the dummy was lost and it was never found!
With my other daughter she wasn't interested in a dummy (woo hoo!) however her bottle was her comfort...and she was attached to it so much so she couldn't fall asleep without it...by the time she was nearly 3 we felt it was time we got rid. We had tried swapping for a big girl cup but it didn't work so the bottle fairly came one evening after she had hung her bottles on the front door in a pretty bag and the fairy swapped them for a Rapunzal doll which she treasured and that night she only cried for a short time for her bottle but after that she was fine....I will confess I didn't think it would be that easy and I hid a couple of bottles in a drawer for a month before we completely through them out! I do think parents place more pressure on making the change than is necessary and it's normally not as hard as we think !!!