Saying ‘Good-Bye’ to the Dummy (for a 3 and 1.5 YO)
Firstly, I have to admit I was terrified about giving up the beloved dummies. Our kids loved them, slept surrounded by them so they could easily find them in the night and slept really well with them… until they didn’t.
We decided it was time for the dummy to go when our son was 3 and 2 months and our daughter was 20 months. The dummy was no longer helping but hindering sleep. We had moved our son into a big bed at 3 and it was starting to interrupt our sleep as he would lose his dummies out the side of the bed in the night and wake up early not being able to find them, staying awake for the day. Our daughter (in the same room as her brother) was a vocal sleeper at the best of times and would roll onto them in her sleep, making them unable to be found and waking up sad and crying. Our newest family member was 8 weeks old… Now was the time to embrace it and rip the bandaid off!
Tips for SUCCESSFULLY eliminating the dummy/ies
Start by only allowing dummies at bedtime, IN the bed/cot
Choose a time when nothing is happening – normal life
Ensure both parents are on board
Start on the weekend
Give a lot of lead time – Since our son was 2, we read him books about giving up the dummy. The first time we read him ‘Daniel and the Dummy Fairy’ his eyes welled up. There were lots of changes going on in his little world when he was 2 – new baby, moving houses, another new baby. These changes had meant we’d put off taking the dummies away and he’d been a great sleeper with them until now.
So! We decided it was time for the dummies to go so that there was enough time between them being taken away and my husband’s family coming to look after them in 5 weeks time while we attended a family wedding interstate, overnight.
Tips CONTINUED…
Re-read – Right before the removal, re-read the dummy fairy books
Send them a letter – The day before D-Day, the kids got a letter from the dummy fairy (covered in glitter and a printed out photo of Daisy the dummy fairy I’d found online) saying it was their last night with dummies and tomorrow she would come to get them and give them to some new babies… and the kids would have a special present at the end of their bed when they woke up.
Lots of talking about it in the lead up – as the time approached, we spoke about it in a really positive way. Our son got it, but all the reading and talk went straight over our daughter’s head.
Find a present that they will LOVE – our son was really into Fireman Sam, so we found him a big set of Fireman Sam things (fire station, truck, people etc… just on Gumtree) and for our daughter who was little and loved to snuggle things, especially dogs, we got a dachshund toy.
How we did it
We decided D-day would be Sunday (a weekend day that both parents were around)
We took dummies during their day sleep (even from mouths) and put presents at the end of their beds in big, gold, shiny boxes.
We had really emphasised that the dummies were going during this sleep.
Our son woke first, after an hour and a half and found his present – he was stoked with his Fireman Sam toys! Our daughter slept a bit longer but woke up sad and upset and only wanted dummies. Finally when she woke up properly and calmed down she opened her doggy and bunnies and loved them – naming her dog straight away.
Night 1 – first sleep with no dummies – So. Much. Crying. (That doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing to do though!) Our son wept as if we’d just killed his best friend and our daughter was generally hysterical. It was an hour of us in and out of their room giving cuddles, singing songs etc and then they finally crashed. I was exhausted and in tears. I was on a no sugar diet, just got my period back in full force and had a new baby. What were we thinking?! I’d read somewhere to bin the dummies in the outside bin so you don’t cave – so glad I did as it was HARD!
Sleep that night – Daughter stirred once but settled quickly. Our son slept through but woke up early (that was normal) – they were both happy.
Day 2 day sleep – Both kids went down at 12:30pm and were silly/made noise until about 1pm, then fell asleep. Win!
Day 2 night sleep – The kids chatted and giggled etc for about an hour then fell asleep by 8pm. Yay!! No tears!
I think we as parents anticipated a lot more pain and disruption… but it was honestly so much easier than we thought! They didn’t ask for their dummies again after the second day sleep and we never looked back! No more searching on the floor for dummies in the night and no wakings due to missing dummies.
Total win! You can do it too! Just do a bit of prep with your small person and rip that bandaid OFF!
The two picture books we used to help the kids prepare –
Daniel and the Dummy Fairy by Leisa Papa
No More Dummy for Piggy by Bernette Ford and Sam Williams
Good luck! It CAN be done!