Before I had kids I swore black and blue that my kids wouldn't ever use dummies... and this is how it went....
Baby 1: Bad colic. Comfort booby sucker. In order to save my boobs for future babies I gave in at 5wks old and she took to it like a pro. By 8-9mths is was just a sleeping aid. I took it away 'cold turkey' style when she reached her first birthday because she started chucking it out of the cot during the night and I wasn't interested in losing sleep for that reason! Two days of screaming and all was right in the world.
Baby 2: Reflux. Feeding issues. Medications. Was told to give her a dummy and it helped a lot pretty much from day 1. By 8-9mths it has been just a sleeping aid. I have done things differently this time by tying a cotton muslin square to the dummy so it is easier for her to find during the night. I also keep 2-3 dummies in the cot during the night. I have NEVER gone to put the dummy in for her and she is almost 11mths. And I'm not sure when we will take it off her... probably around her 1st birthday.
Do I care that some people think they are brilliant because they haven't used dummies? No. Hats off to them if it makes them feel special.
Do I think that it makes me a bad Mum? Pff... I'm a fantastic Mum!
In the grand scheme of things... it doesn't matter!
I love dummies when they are used for sleep/comfort. I think the issue is when kids have them in all day & it affects their speech.
ReplyDeleteMy kids have both been total dummy boys (going to bed with a dummy in their mouth & one in each hand). I have mainly used them for sleep and generally put their dummies away when they wake up. I do make a few exceptions, eg when they are sick/tired & need some extra comfort.
Totally agree. Our dummies live in the cot :)
DeleteYep, totally agree with Erin. When I had my first in hospital one of my work colleagues (Speech Path) came to visit and suggested a dummy for her (she was lying in her capsule pushing her lips in and out at the time!). I resisted until she was about 3 weeks. My life changed the day I gave her the dummy. She had reflux and was comfort feeding a lot and making the reflux worse! I only ever used it for sleeping, and weaned it completely at about 22 months.
ReplyDelete#2 - I had the dummy ready at the hospital! He took to it straight away, but about 14 months was doing the throwing out of the cot thing - he got over it pretty quickly, so that was that.
#3 - didn't take a dummy for a couple of weeks! And, initially, she didn't need it. She was a dream baby for the first 12 weeks or so, THEN got bad reflux (in hindsight, possibly food related (something I was eating), as it is unusual to get reflux after 12 weeks and not before). She still has the dummy now at 15 months. We are strict on only for bed at home, but daycare tend to give it to her whenever... and although I've asked them a couple of times to restrict it to sleep times (for speech and language development reasons), I guess I can't be too fussy - they are looking after her all day for me!
Dummies are an awesome sleeping aid and I totally agree they best to be restricted to the bed/cot :)
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