How to wean 1 year old off the dummy?

[Rel]

My daughter had a dummy only for sleep up until she was two and a half. We only had one and one day when we were on holidays she lost it under the bed and couldn't find it. By that time she wasn'tas bothered about losing it as she would have been earlier on. My son had a dummy up until he started solids about four months and then he just wasn't interested. Now we have problems getting rid of the thumb though... When the dummy is gone, it is gone! My second daughter has also given up the dummy and she uses two fingers to soothe herself... We shall see what happens...

 

[scerena]

Thanks ladies! I should aloe point out that she does fall asleep without it sometimes also which is another reason my health visitor said she's not as addicted as some babies are so probably a good time to start getting rid of it.

sue_88 I do remove the dummy off her when she wakes up anyway I'm not one to let her play with a dummy in her mouth as she doesn't need it. I will either link the dummy to the cot or remove all together thanks

mrsmk04 same as that- naps and maybe car/pushchair if she is over tired and cannot get to sleep... I'm glad to hear a success story with going cold turkey! Thank you

buttercup sounds similar to what I hear about making a slit in the dummy. I'm thinking cold turkey maybe easier at the moment for me

linz143 awww your LO sounds so cute!! So good that she's good with her baby sister having one too and not trying to take it! I was thinking like you did that it's easier to just take it away and it is then gone and she will stop looking for it. Thank you

mrsmurphey2be I can imagine the dummy makes your life that little bit easier and it works for you with 3 children, like I said I was not passing judgement on anyone, everyone has their own way of doing things. Thank you for sharing

 

[scerena]

rel I like he idea of when it's gone it's gone that what I'm kind of going for! I've heard they find other ways of soothing themselves and she does have a favourite teddy she takes to bed etc... Plus she's so unsettled at the moment and I do not know I the dummy is contributing to it or not :/

 

[PrincessLeah]

We took DD1's away when she hit 18 months. She only had it for naps and bedtime and during the day we'd keep it on a high shelf in her room so she couldn't grab it from her bed. Eventually she'd just start going back to her room and screaming and crying during the day for it. Then it started happening multiple times a day where she was throwing these tantrums over not having it whenever she wanted. It was then we decided to take it away.

I explained it to her best I could that pacis were for babies and she was a big girl now and she kind of seemed to understand. Then we never gave them back. It took about a month before she stopped having sleep disruptions. It only took 3 days before she stopped asking for it altogether, but for a solid month she either took an hour to fall asleep at night and/or woke up an hour early in the morning.

Her younger sister was born 3 months later and uses a paci and now she points at it and says, "Paci. Baby."

That is the saddest, cruellest thing I can think of. You let your 18 month old scream and cry for a dummy which you had placed out of her reach but within her viewpoint? And then went on to allow her to struggle to settle down to sleep for a month? Sleeping later and waking earlier, she must have been so tired and miserable.
So you have achieved your desired outcome, your LO now sees dummies as something for babies. Congratulations on that.
Heartless.

 

[x__amour]

Just cold turkey.

 

[Itsychik]

We took DD1's away when she hit 18 months. She only had it for naps and bedtime and during the day we'd keep it on a high shelf in her room so she couldn't grab it from her bed. Eventually she'd just start going back to her room and screaming and crying during the day for it. Then it started happening multiple times a day where she was throwing these tantrums over not having it whenever she wanted. It was then we decided to take it away.

I explained it to her best I could that pacis were for babies and she was a big girl now and she kind of seemed to understand. Then we never gave them back. It took about a month before she stopped having sleep disruptions. It only took 3 days before she stopped asking for it altogether, but for a solid month she either took an hour to fall asleep at night and/or woke up an hour early in the morning.

Her younger sister was born 3 months later and uses a paci and now she points at it and says, "Paci. Baby."

That is the saddest, cruellest thing I can think of. You let your 18 month old scream and cry for a dummy which you had placed out of her reach but within her viewpoint? And then went on to allow her to struggle to settle down to sleep for a month? Sleeping later and waking earlier, she must have been so tired and miserable.
So you have achieved your desired outcome, your LO now sees dummies as something for babies. Congratulations on that.
Heartless.

Wow, I think your response was a little uncalled for. A lot of parenting is trial/error trying to find out what works best for your child, and I definitely didn't get the impression from that post that the parents were deliberately trying to tease the child like you seem to be implying. You're welcome to disagree with their approach, but try being a bit more sensitive in your response.

 

[Itsychik]

To the OP:

My DS had a pacifier until he was 2 (after 1, only at naps and bedtime), at which point he stopped napping (and we were expecting #2) so we figured it was a good time to get him off the pacifier since it was only for night time at that point.

We tried the "cutting the tip off" and explaining that it was broken but he really didn't really understand that the pacifier being "broken" meant that he couldn't use it anymore (we cut off a little more each day until he couldn't suck on it anymore, and then he threw it away together with DH and got a present to 'replace' the pacifier) but that only lasted until he went to bed and didn't get the pacifier and he was pretty upset. He spent hours and hours crying/screaming for the first week (no matter what we did to try and calm him) and it took us a good 3 months before we got back into a normal bedtime routine... I'm not sure this method would work with a younger baby

SO, DD now also uses a pacifier (which we encouraged, as it helped us get her into a regular nap/sleep routine) but she also wakes at night crying for it sometimes. BUT, anytime she goes to bed if we haven't given her a pacifier she looks around for it and holds her hand out waiting for us to give it to her. So we're going to let her keep it for now and probably try to wean her off it before she turns 2... She also only has it at naps and bedtime.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

 

[c1403]

My daughter is two and still has hers for bedtime only. If I took it away cold turkey then I think that would be very harsh on her. Her speech is fine as are her teeth (seen a dentist). I do plan to remove it eventually so I plan to talk to her about it but I don't plan on forcing the issue. Same with potty training. She will do it in her own time I am sure. X

 

[scerena]

Since my original post she has had no dummy during the day and now she doesn't even cry for it, it wasn't intentional she just kept napping without it so I thought this is a good time to not give it to her at all during the day! She falls asleep fine with out it!
We do however give it to her at bedtime.
I thought this way it's kind of slowly getting the dummy off her! I have a feeling she may give it up on her own soon at bedtime as half the time after her bottle I give it to her and she falls asleep without it! Fx'd!!!!