beginning to play the dummy game at night.....or is it his teeth??

[sarahprater1]

Hi,

Alec is almost 7 months old and up until last sat his routine has been pretty perfect - he has 3 naps during the day - he loves his solids, he is sitting and rolling and was normally sleeping through from 19.00 until 0700 - still having dream feed.  He now has his 2 bottom teeth and I think he may be teething again - on sat night he woke up screaming - wouldn't settle himself, I popped in the dummy and he imediately fell back to sleep - this happenend every 2 hours or so - on the sunday he was unsettled and grumpy (again not like him) we were using bonjela and gave him some calpol at night - however the same thing happenened - popping dummy back in every 2 hours or so - I have tried waiting to see if he will settle himself - but he won't - I am now not sure if it is teeth or whether my husband and I have now caused accidental parenting by using the dummy to have settled him - I have now had 4 nights of this and am worried we have started a bad habit - although obviously it could be his teeth am unsure....

So advice on a) how to wean my boy off his dummy as am worried it has now become a prop or b) do I just go with it as it could be his teeth??!!if so any teething advice would be great too!!  Got to go my boy is waking 

Thanks very much a beginning to get frazzled, and confused Mum 

[Ennypen]

If I may I would like to share what has happened with my son William..

Basically we have been experiencing all of the same things as you until recently except he was waking regularly at 3am and shouting and getting agitated - and as soon as one of us staggered out of bed and popped his dummy in he would go straight back to sleep.
I, with the help of fellow BWers looked at my routine and all sorts and it basically came down to the dummy.. with natural sleep cycles he was waking  up and needed his dummy to help him back off to sleep - so when it wasn't there he would shout for it and get agitated if it didn't "appear".. which it did as mommy came and popped it back in! I decided at the time that I could live with it as I knew that in time he would either gain the skills to pop his dummy back in himself, or he would self wean off the dummy - as he only has it in bed - never anywhere outside his cot.
At 10 months William started to sleep through the night.. a good 11 hours regulary each night.. and I was wondering how on earth it was until I noticed that he had his dummy in when I went to him first thing in the morning... then I caught him one morning.. looking for his dummy, grabbing it and manipulating it back into his mouth.. it was brilliant. In the night he still wakes but doesnt wake us up as he grabs his dummy and is soon back off to sleep! Since then we have not had to wake up ourselves or get up in the night except for once when he had an unusual dirty nappy... I am hoping that eventually Will will self wean himself off the dummy in the night.. but if he only sucks it till he falls asleep its not in his mouth for too long a time before it falls out so its not too bad a thing..

I can't tell you what to do.. but if you have eliminated the waking due to teething by giving calpol or baby neurofen or something, and he is not waking because he is hungry etc.. then you have to decide whether to wean the dummy - there are posts about it on the props board, or you need to do as I did and lived with it for just a while longer while he learns to find the dummy and pop it back in when he wakes in the night. I've known some mommies put several dummies in the cot to increase the LOs chances of getting one.. but Will always manages to find his bless him.

Good Luck with it - you will soon be sleeping through the night xxx

Helen xx

[sarahprater1]

Thank you very much for that!! Sorry it has taken me so long to reply but have been on dreaded nightshifts - oh the joys of working life!!??  I think I will follow your advice as he seems to have settled back down a wee bit - he needed the dummy twice for a few nights and last night he slept through without waking...!!  Fingers crossed, it may just have been his teeth bothering him and then he needed some comfort on waking - I have read other people's stories of weaning them off and although they sound quite feasible, I;m not sure I want to do that - like your William he only has it in the cot for naps and bedtime.  So thanks very much for your support - i will hold my breath and hope for the soon to come day when he will find it himself!!

xxxxxxx

[Johno & Aurelias Mum]

Hi

You could try putting a few dummies in the cot, we had about 5 on the go at one time!  However, it means that if it falls out and on the floor, there's another one ine there.

We are a few months further down the line and Johno is sort of self weaning.  He's only ever had the dummy in bed, he has it to go to bed and I presume he sometimes wakes and puts it back in.  However, he almost never has it in his mouth when I look on him when we go up to bed and never in the morning, never when I go to wake him from a nap.

The other day, he put one in and instantly took it out and said it was yucky, put it in the bin.  I looked at it and it was split so I did as asked and put it in the bin.  We haven't replaced it.  I've also noticed that he gets fed up with it when we are doing stories in bed as I can't understand what he's saying so he keeps taking it out to talk and often doesn't put it back to go to sleep now.

[Ennypen]

 

[sarahprater1]

Thank you!  I think I will put a few dummies in his cot - as yesterday my husband had gone to work and I went in to get alec and he had found his dummy and put it back in!  For the last 5 nights he has slept straight through from 1900 until 0700 - which is new and wonderful (no dream feed for 5 nights also) so I am guessing it was his teeth troubling him, but i will leave dummies in there as you suggested.

Thanks so much - this website is such a support