dummy or not.?

[villa_fan007]

our 3 mnth old was constantly awake at night,even after her feeds. we invested in a dummy which did the trick and gave us some extra sleep at night time.
now we have taken the dummy away because we were having to keep getting out of bed because the dummy was falling out ofher mouth.

we have a three year old who sucked his thumb (which was great) but now cant get him to stop esp when hes tired.

the three month old wont suck her thumb but tries to suck her fist or fingers, gets annoyed and starts crying ,so ,still no sleep.
whats the answer ....go with the dummy or or not?
also how can we stop our three year old sucking his thumb?
(we tried bribery..)

[Velvetee]

I personally wouldn't encourage thumb sucking, as from what I've seen many times is that it is a hard habit to break,. There is nothing worse than seeing a 40 year old man on a train sucking his thumb.

It's very difficult to break the habit with a dummy and I suppose your child will decide when she no longer needs it. Other than that, you will just have to take it away and expect your baby to be restless for a while.

I'm not sure what to suggest, as this will probably be a dilemma with me in a few months.

[rnchugg]

All 3 of my kids have had at one time a dummy, and yes they do sometimes loose them in the middle of the night, my youngest is 2 and still has a dummy, i gave my older to kids a countdown to thier 3rd birthdays to get rid of the dummies and it worked with both of them.

as for sucking the thumbs i would try and put something horrible on it to try and stop them from sucking it

Hope that helps

[andy-hughes]

My youngest loved her dummies - she always had several on the go in her cot, and yes, she used to lose them, but it was no big deal to find it for her, and eventuallly she learned to find it for herself.

The Christmas she was three, we left the dummies for Santa to take to the new babies who needed them, and she was absolutely fine with that.

[pmac]

my wife sucked her thumb until she was 18!!! she says she just grew out of it!, the thing is with thumb sucking is that it is always there and becomes a habit.. our 2 children aged 2 and 4 both love their dummies, we have tried to get out eldest to stop on a few occassions but its a night mare he looks silly sitting there with a dummy in his mouth he is a big lad too, but it keeps them quiet!! .. it is a nuisance getting up when they are very small to put dummy back in but soon he will be putting it back in him self!!

[Solarjunkie]

Dummies are known as "soothers" or "comforters" for a reason. Your little one will very soon be able to put it back in on her own, it has to be worth it for the extra sleep!
My sons from about a year old only had their dummies at night, or very occasionally if they were ill, so they knew that the dummies did not come downstairs. This not only avoided their walking around with a dummy in their mouth, which can retard speech, but also meant that there was a comforting item available in times of distress.
As for your 3 year old, if he basically only sucks his thumb when he's tired, don't worry about it. If you make an issue of it, then it could possibly become an entrenched problem. Generations of children have sucked their thumbs. He'll do it less and less as there are more interesting things for him to be doing with his hands, like sending texts!
Good luck.

[tigwig]

Have you not tried attaching the dummy to a clip? I always used to do this and it worked a treat! A 3mth baby will not yet be able to retrieve it themselves but its amazing how quickly they soon learn to. I don't think there is any harm in a dummy as long as they are not used all the time and the child is not really old!

[aims1202]

Babies suck their thumbs as a way of self soothing, a natural way to settle themselves to sleep. mine both suck their thumbs, my 6yr still does it but only to go to sleep at night, i know he will stop eventually. i stopped at 7 and my brother at 5. my 4mth old daughter does it and she is very happy, settles herself to sleep, sleeps all night and has done from 10 weeks. i do occassionally hear her wake a little, suck her thumb and go back to sleep without crying. i did use dummies a little on both of them for a few weeks around 6 weeks, as they do need to suck at this age and some find it hard to keep thumb in, but as they learnt around 10 weeks i got rid of dummies. i am not sure why you want to stop your 3yr old sucking his thumb? he will probably stop himself in a couple of years and i'm not sure its possible to make him stop. i dont think bribery will work and if you give it lots of attention he might do it even more! of course its up to you if you wan tto use a dummy but I am not that keen on dummies myself, mainly because of what you say about them falling out all the time, also because its the parent who decides when they have it and that is often when they dont need it, my daughter does not have her thumb in her mouth all the time, but i do see lots of children with a dummy in all the time. its not that nice to see older children out with a dummy in and i do see that a lot. if the reason you asked this question was to get more sleep at night then the thing to remember, if you are not already doing is to help your baby to settle themselves to sleep, not to feed or rock to sleep and for them to wake up in same place they fell asleep. you could try singing or rubbing tummy to help them settle. 3 mths is still quite young but i would stop night feeds around 3-4 mths and just offer water or try to settle them. As they get older they will wake just because you feed them and give comfort, not because they need a feed.

[villa_fan007]

all good views, many thanks...
the eldest is still sucking his thumb....and the 3 mnth old has a dummy till she finds her thumb..geting more sleep too.