17mnth and sudden attachment to dummy

[Lasm2016]

Hi there

My daughter is 17 months and has sporadically used a dummy.  She is given it at nursery to nap, but she has never used it at home for napping or for nighttime sleeping.  Outside of the house the only time she uses it with us is when we are on holiday or at friends and she's in a different room or sometimes when we are out on the go and she's finding it difficult to nap in the pram.

However, we went home to Scotland for Christmas this year for a week and with a combination of a new house (and lots of over the top relatives being in her face) and she molars coming through, we gave her the dummy every night for a week. Since we've come home she's been increasingly difficult to settle and points to the dummy. Every night I stick to our normal routine and only a few times she has gone down fine and self settled. Most night she screams, I try to settle her myself but I often give up and just give her the dummy (I'm particularly tired as just found out I'm expecting number two).

Any tips for gettting rid of the dummy? She has always been an excellent self settler and whilst I don't mind her having the dummy, I don't want it escalating and her becoming reliant on it - she spent the first 16 months of her life not needing it at all at night!


Thanks
Laura

[creations]

I know a lot of parents like the dummy as it gives LO so much comfort but as your LO has gone without for 16  months, really I would just say there is no dummy and drop it.  I probably sound really harsh esp when she is teething molars   I just know there is no way I would offer a dummy at this age as a new prop.  The way she has used it up to this point sounds infrequent and for a certain amount of soothing, if she starts to use it nightly there could be an added concern of damage to teeth. I just wouldn't go there. Take it out of the room so she can't point to it, put up with a few rough nights.
Might there me a soft toy she'd like to cuddle in bed if you suggested it to her?

[Lasm2016]

Thanks, I agree.  Last few nights we've had no dummy.  I actually think she was maybe hungry and so I have been giving her double portions at dinner time.  She still asks for the dummy but I just put her in her cot with her bunny and she whimpered for a couple of minutes and was sound asleep thereafter.  I think I need to get the dependance at nursery down, she is getting too used to it there.

[creations]

That sounded relatively easy - hopefully it goes that smoothly at nursery too