At what age did you wean the dummy?

[Roseii]

DD1 had a dummy that she decided to give up totally on her own at 15/16mo, we have no idea why but she did and never looked back.

DD2 is 29mo and OBSESSED with her dummy, she just loves it. I can successfully keep her away from it if we're out and about and doing stuff but basically any other time she wants it in (ie buggy, car, obvs sleep times, hanging around at home) She's getting worse not better for wanting it, and when Dh and I tried to get tough and only have it for sleep times she cried so much we thought she was going to be sick  So we're pretty much in the situation where she wants it at every opportunity now. DH wants to take it off her but I think 29mo is a really cruel age to do it  She's too young to understand "if you give your dummy up you can have XYZ in the toy shop" in that she'd jump at the chance, hand it over, then expect it back that same day 

But I am concerned that her speech isn't that great, and she has loooong hair that gets wrapped round the teat and it's so gross  The other thing is, we've got a 10 hour flight in March that I kinda think we need the dummy for!! But then that's another 4 months of her wanting it in all.the.time.

Thanks for any thoughts!

[grace annes mommy]

My DD is 4 and we finally ditched the dummy about a month ago!   I had a thread about it, but not sure how to link it for you.

I really stressed about it for a long time - thought it was messing up her teeth, she was too big for it, etc etc.  But in the end, I am really happy about how we went about it.  It was really positive for everyone.

We did it very gradually over many months.  1st limiting it to just in her bed (so for sleep or if she 'visited' her bed during the day).  Then exclusively for sleep, etc.

We told stories about the paci fairy for months.  But also all kinds of stories about big kids who gave up their pacis - some who did it easily, some who really missed their pacis, some who were really happy a baby could have their pacis, etc.

Finally, DD decided she was ready!  By then, she was down to 2 disgusting pacis.     I let her give them to the paci fairy one at a time, bc I really wanted to make sure that when they were gone, it was forever.  She was really proud of herself to give them up, and really, it happened easily, with no tears or sleepless nights.

Keeping the pacis for so long isn't for everyone, but wanted to share our story in case it helps!

[~inbalance~]

Charli, I will hold your hand.  I am gathering the courage to ditch DS2's dummy soon.  It could be my imagination but I'm starting to worry he is getting an overbite.    His speech is not very good either, I mean he has a great vocabulary but is so hard to understand.  So I think we are going to do it soon.  I'm trying to gauge his reaction if I say that Santa takes his suckies to give to little babies and leaves him presents, and I *think* he gets it but it's hard to say.  Either way, I think I'm going to do it soon, if for nothing else because I am worried about his teeth.

[Shiv52]

Hugs xx

I think I would persevere with it only being for sleep times. I am
About to start that with Rosa. Yes shell be upset but you can always take her to her room for a quick suck
If shes upset and then stress it stays in bed. I'd say after 3 ( long draining) days she'll get it xx

[twogirlsmommy]

We started at about 2 1/2 like most pp said above and limited it to just sleep.  If we were home and she wanted it she needed to go into the crib.  We also talked lots about how our friend was having a baby and her daughter would soon need them.  We finally wrapped them in a box and dd and dh took them to my gf's house after the baby was born.  We had some rough time's once they were gone as dd needed to find a new way to get to sleep.  Now she has an army that she sleeps with so I don't really know which is worse lol.

[C&B&E]

Ben loved is dummy too and we finally weaned him off it at 3.5 (easily in the end) but I still wonder if it affects his sleep .  We has a rule that the dummy was only for the cot so if he desperately wanted it then he could sit in there, but it stopped any problems with him wanting it all the time and did mean we were more relaxed about weaning it as i knew it wasn't harming his teeth or speech.
 
In the end we poked a tiny hole tiny in the dummy with a pin and gradually (over about 6 weeks i think) then cut away the teat until it was almost a stump! He was less and less bothered by it, though still persevered with sucking it at bedtimes! He still wanted it until one day i said that if he wanted to swap it for some playmobil then he could. He chucked them in the bin happily    .In the end I was glad we'd waited until he was that old as he would have been distraught before then. He did still miss it for a few months and even now talks about his dummy fondly