[TwoTs]

My DD is 3 and still has a dummy! She is very reliant on it and I don't Know what to do. sHe only really has it for sleep time and sometimes in the car, does anyone have ideas how to wean her off it? We have discussed the dummy fairy but haven't gone through with it yet our early childhood nurse said not to worry she won't go to school with it but I think she might she is that attached to it!!

[PatG]

I'm sure it's different for every kid but I know of several dedicated dummy users who have, after being told that dummies belong to babies, decided to give it up on a birthday or other event as after that they are too old to be a baby. Or another that "gave" the dummies to a new baby. Another mother "lost" the dummies and just never gave them back. Lots of crying for several days/nights but then over it.

[ali27]

My daughter ( now 26) was a dummy addict - even snatching the dummy from her newborn brother. We tried everything - giving the dummy to Santa, bribing her with gifts and encouraging her to "be a big girl". Nothing we did would change her mind - strong willed then and now. Eventually she gave up on her own - no dental problems or any other residual problems. In my opinion, just leave it be.

[my_rainbow_shine...]

My very strong willed DD still had her dummy at 3 (well several dummies, she would have one in her mouth and in each hand and a few spare in the bed). One day we were at the shops and she wanted a toy barbie laptop. I said well when you're big and you give your dummies to the dummy fairy you can get one. That night she got a small bucket and collected all of her dummies and left them for the dummy fairy. She went straight to sleep, woke once that night and cried for about a minute, then was fine. Took her to the shops a couple of days later and got her laptop. It was worth it to break the dummy addiction. Perhaps take her shopping and find something she really wants and use that as an incentive.

[clm1982]

Got no advice cos we have the same problem

[soontobegran]

We had some dedicated dummy users at age 3 and what we did is that we 'talked it up' for a few days beforehand by saying that they were growing up now and that the little babies needed the dummies and when the 'dummy fairy' thought they were all grown up she would come one night and take the dummies and leave a special gift in their place.
We talked about what that special gift was going to be and we wrote a letter to the dummy fairy making sure that when she came she'd know what to bring.

DH and I decided on the night it was to happen and removed every single dummy we could find in the house and cut them up so that there was no going back.
Of course during the night we depended on the fact that the dummy was going to be out of the mouth...sometimes we had to go back a couple of times to get it but there was much excitement when they woke and found a gift.
I think the notion that this meant they were 'big kids' now made them feel special.
You have to be tough, there may or may not be tears, ours were quite cruisy about them being gone but then they did only have them for bed or if they had hurt themselves for about a year before we took them away.

Good luck.

[Bodacious Prime]

Same problem here too and if you tell her she's a big girl, she'll say "No! I'm a baby" because she been told so many times that big girls don't have dummies.
We're doing it in small degrees, so ATM dummies don't leave the house. I also hide her dummy while she eats and distract her when she asks for it. I intend to just keep stretching out the no dummy time until it's just for bed. I reckon getting rid of it for bedtime will be the really tough bit.

[ChickenNuggets]

Swap it for one of these! http://www.jellystonedesigns.com/

[lozoodle]

Honestly I'd just take it away. At three years old there is no reason why she can't understand the concept of being too old for it. Chuck it in the bin, and tell her its gone. Put up with a few days of whinging and it will be fine.

You're the one with the control in this situation

[livvie7586]

DS still had a dummy at 3.5. his favourite daycare teacher started the 'getting rid of the dummy' idea, with a trip down to the babies room and a comparison to what DS could do in the kindy room. he did decide on his own that they were yucky and they went in the bin, and that was that.

Otherwise, he was going to take them all in to daycare, and they were going to make a big fuss of giving them to the babies