Has anyone else weaned their child off their dummy when they are nearly 3? We are trying to do it now and it is sheer hell.
Our dentist said she needs to give it up as it is affecting her bite. So we started on Friday.
I am exhausted, and at the end of my rope with her screaming for over an hour before bed - and she is barely having her day sleep as the majority of it is spent screaming. She wants to be "patted off" instead, but I have a 4 month old baby as well and I can't stay in patting her until she's asleep.I am afraid of the habit that will cause down the track. I have tried patting for 10 min but when I stop she goes ballistic again. DH is helping out as well. We tag team going in to her
I know it is early days, but I don't know how I will cope tomorrow when DH is back at work.

Has anyone else had success? How did you achieve it?


Tam - mum of 2 gorgeous girls

Hi, I just weaned my 31month daughter off her dummy. Well I doubt you could call it weaning. I threw it in the rubbish bin right in front of her. She threw a tantrum for about 20 mins, then went to her bed. That was 4 weeks ago. Occassionally she steals Miss 16month's dummy but gets short shift for it. I kept telling her that her sister was a baby and thats why she still has her dummy, but that she was now a big girl, since she used the toilet, and no longer needed one. It worked a treat. Good luck with it.

Me: 30yrs
RS: 32yrs
KS 31 months
ES 16 months
<a href="http://lilypie.com"><img src="http://lilypie.com/days/050511/4/25/1/+10" alt="Lilypie Baby Birthday" border="0" /></a>

Elizabeth was just over 3 when we got rid of hers- I thought it was giving her dribble rash (turned out it was some lip cream LOL). Anyway she was very attached to the dummy so I approached the weaning with some trepidation. I ended up taking her to a toy store and got her to hand over the dummies in exchange for whatever toy she liked. $80 and a barbie with matching barbie car we went home. That night she was a little bit poh faced but a cuddle fixed her up and that was it! Anyway the "exchange' idea worked really well for our DD as she got a 'big girl' thing for giving away her 'baby' dummies.

Hhmm - we went cold turkey with DD1 when she was 2, no problems at all. Then DD2 was born and the dummy temptation for DD1 was just to much to bear! She was almost 3 1/2 before we tried again. This time we were going away for Xmas so left it under the Xmas tree for Santa. She grizzled a bit while we were on holiday and came rushing in the minute we got home to look for Dum. Wasn't too upset when she discovered all the lovely presents that Santa left. She's 5 1/2 now and still tells the story of how santa took her dum to give to a little girl who was crying.
No probs with DD2 as she spat the dummy so to speak from 6 months on. Now if anyone can tell me how to stop thumb sucking.....

We went through this not long ago & I can relate. I stood & cut all the teats off my girls dummies in front of them. I told them they were broken. I still let them have them, but they threw them b/c they were useless.

It's hard when you are going through this. I would suggest that you just stay strong. Maybe you could try cutting the teats off like I did & her have it?

It didn't take the girls to long to learn how to go to sleep by themseleves. We also gave them a new cuddly toy so they had something in place of their dummy.

Hope I've helped. Just hang in there.

Belinda

Proud Mummy to Id twin girls born @ 30 weeks Oct 2002

I am planning on doing it at Christmas. I have started prepping DS already by telling him that we're going to give his dummies to Santa at Xmas. In return he's going to get a crab (his favourite pet at the pet shop and a cheap ongoing investment). H'es not sure about this idea but we have a month to work on it. Fingers crossed! My sister did this with her DS and it worked a treat. He was restless for a couple of nights but she reminded him that Santa had left him the present and taken the dummy and he was fine. Good luck.

Cheers!

Emma
DH Andrew
DS Patrick Finn 19/6/02

we are planing on doing the "santa is gonna take your dummy and give you presants instead" deal at christmas too.. have told DS this speal a couple of times, and now when i say "what is santa gonna do with you dummys at xmas?"
he replies "he's gonna take them and give me presants"

so fingers crossed that it will work...


(c/section booked for 13th dec)
Me 23
Luke (DH) 23
Koby (DS) 2
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/k/kobyethan/
p/word: punkin

This message was edited by lilclair on Monday, 29 November 2004 @ 11:31 AM

With my two daughters, they were just over 3 when we decided to give their dummies the boot.

You know how the tooth fairy takes the tooth away at night? Well the dummy fairy came to our house.

We talked about it with the girls for a week or so beforehand, saying that the dummy fairy will give their dummies to the little babies that don't have dummies, and how great it is that they (the girls) are big enough now not to need them anymore.

The girls put their dummies (all of them) into a container in their room, cuddled a toy and went to sleep. When they woke up the dummies were gone, but there was a little present there instead- like some makeup or something that big girls have.

There were a couple of bad nights, where they couldn't sleep without their dummy, but it was very short lived. It was a great time to do it, because they were old enough to get the concept of a dummy fairy, and it wasn't like their heart was being ripped out by me just chucking them in the bin.

Good luck with whichever method you choose!

x Kate

Kate- age 26. DH Matt- age 29. DD Bailey age 6, DD Olivia age 4, DS Dayne age 2