When to start introducing a dummy was something we did a bit of research on and something we were totally guided by by the midwife. At 6 weeks was the recommended time to allow the baby to gain a good latch onto the breast for successful breastfeeding so that is what we did and that seemed to pay off as we had great success with breastfeeding for 16 months! We tried to offer her a dummy a couple of weeks before that 6 week mark once or twice but she wouldn’t take to it. Eventually with persistence she took to the dummy and was a bit more settled.

She wasn’t overly interested in it or reliant on it for the first 12 months of her life. She used it when she was upset or teething mostly. If we were to take it off her if we felt she didn’t need it anymore she wouldn’t really be bothered at all.

In the past few months she has become very demanding of her dummy getting very upset if she sees it and cant reach it or if we take it off her. She can say dummy now  and so she is able to request it or call out for it more. I am amazed at the change in her want for it all the time.

Questions:

• Is it strange that she has become more attached to it as she has gotten older?
• Did you experience the same thing? 

I would like it to be just a bedtime thing and not an all the time thing like it is becoming. When I go looking for a dummy when its bed time 99% of the time I can’t find one and we have about 10! Miss A on the other hand comes out with one in her mouth all the time and I’m like dude where did you find that? She must stash them away in her room!

Thankfully I can most the time reason with her if we are going out and about as I don’t feel she needs it as she walks around or as she plays at the playground etc. Just yesterday I was able to do exactly this. She desperately wanted her dummy as we were leaving the house. I tried to take it off her and she went into a mental break down as she REALLY wanted it. So I gave in and let her have it so we could get out the front door. When we arrived at the playground I turned around to her in the car once we parked and said “now mummy is going to take your dummy before I get you out ok?, then when we come back to the car you can have it back” “Alright mummy”. Yay success. However once I took it and sat it in the middle console of the car and she saw it again she got upset and wanted it back. I simply just said “No remember mummy just told she was taking it and you can have it back when we get back to the car”. Once we are out of the car and onto another activity she is 110% fine without her dummy and doesn’t even ask about it. It is just when she sees it that she desperately NEEDS it. Does your child do the same? 

She is a good talker and I don’t want it to affect her language as she tries to talk through it now and I can’t understand her very well. As she gets older her use of the dummy during the day will become more of a concern for me and I really hope to make it just a bedtime thing again soon. She has all of her teeth at 1.5 years old, except her 2 year molars so it isn’t teething that she is requiring the dummy for.

Questions:

• When did you introduce a dummy? 
• When did your child stop using a dummy?
• How did you get rid of the dummy? 

 

We would love to hear how you and your child got through the dummy years, so please comment in the section below OR on our Facebook Page where this blog is posted.

 

By Clare at Relaxed Parenting

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