beauisblue@gmail.com
Wether your for or against them, sometimes it's not your choice, rather your little monsters choice!
When Baby E was a few weeks old, we noiced that while he was drinking his milk out of the bottle he would just play with the teet, sometimes suck but generally just wanted comfort with it.
As we were new to this whole parenting thing we didn't know why or of every newborn did this.
At 3 weeks old the midwife was still making her regular visits and came round while I was feeding him with his bottle and she picked up on him not actually drinking any milk, and most of it was running down his chin - but he was still chewing/sucking away.
This was when she suggested a dummy!
Now I thought all midwives were against dummies, it's not often you hear about midwives advising you use them.
She said he was seeking comfort in the teet of the bottle rather than drinking the milk. And that a dummy would tell him that a bottle was for drinking, the dummy would be for comfort.
Like I said, as new parents who were we to disagree!
I never thought about giving him a dummy nor not giving him a dummy.
I don't think I thought about it full stop.
That evening we went out and bought 0+ dummies.
He took too them. They weren't a foreign object to him anyway!
From that day he has had a dummy.
I really only gave it to him when he was sleeping/napping or if he was grumping.
Fast forward to today, he now rarely takes a dummy during the day - even at nap times. And if we are out and about, yes one is in my pocket to hand just incase but we never really need it! Unless it's a bad day and he's being a little grumpy boy!
He does get it at bedtime, but when we check on him an couple of hours later the dummy is out of his mouth either next to him or on the floor (it falls through the bars!) I pick it up and put it on his chest of drawers out of the way and he won't see it until the following evening!
I feel like he is weaning himself off it. Which is great! I thought I would have a major battle on my hands later on in life when he's older to wean him off it but if all is well he will soon not have one. This is his choice but if he wants one only for bedtime then that's fine with me!
Do you like dummies? Does your little one have one?
You have to do what is best for the baby and I had heard from the HV that some babies thrive with dummies. Seems like Elliott did too!
ReplyDeleteDaniel needed a dummy when he was young (about 6 ish weeks) to help settle himself to sleep). then he found his thumb and then he just learnt to settle himself. He only used it for about 2 ish months.
ReplyDeleteEmma wouldn't have one, despite me thinking it would help settle and soothe some of her silent reflux!!
Alexander had a dummy quite early on to be settled down. Our hospital was one of those that was very anti dummy, but let me tell you, I did not sleep the entire time I was in hospital ( 4 days) after having my C-section. It's a long complicated story regarding milk, but I'll spare you the details. Haha.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Alexander was rather attached to his dummy and I thought I'd have a fight on my hands weaning him - it was not nearly as hard as I thought, thankfully! The fact that Elliott is weaning himself off is great!!
Regarding giving your child a dummy, I don't think that is something outside parties should judge parents on. They have no idea about things that go on behind closed doors or that aren't immediately see able at surface level. Each child is different and individual.
:-)
Bits & Bobs
Great post! I think dummies can be brilliant! Jake had one for a while, but it became a hundrance as he would cry and wake up as soon as he dropped it out of his mouth. So, we weaned him off it.xx
ReplyDelete