To use a dummy or not?

CL

I also read a study that using a dummy at night reduces the risk of cot death. My baby is 12 weeks old and my DH and I had discussed while pregnant whether or not to use a dummy and decided to give her one. Sucking is a natural comfort to a baby and we gave our baby a dummy when she was 2 days old. I breastfeed and she has a dummy when she is tired and about to sleep and sucks it all night. I would very much recommend it. If she is fighting sleep during the day, as tired babies do, she loves her dummy and it sends her off to sleep.

skintchick

mumofsquirt wrote: »

Hi there

I spoke to my health visitor about using a dummy with my little one. They (NHS) recommend using a dummy to get babies to sleep as it can help reduce the incidence of cot death. She also said if you don't introduce a dummy early on they probably won't take to it.

The cot death thing is not necessarily wholly true. See here http://www.babyfriendly.org.uk/items/item_detail.asp?item=140

Quote from it:
Firstly, we must look at other research (2) into dummies and SIDS. This tends to show that babies who used a dummy during their last sleep were less likely to die, but that routine dummy use is not protective. This may indicate that infants are at greater risk of SIDS if they routinely use a dummy but have not been given their dummy on a particular night.
Secondly, the potential risks of dummy use need to considered. These include:

• interference with good establishment of breastfeeding in the early weeks
• increased risk of otitis media infection
• increased dental malocclusion
• risk of accidents such as obstruction of the airway

Thirdly, we need to ensure that the advice being proposed is realistic. If dummy use is really protective against SIDS but only if used every night, parents must be informed of this. The possibility that missing a night will increase risk among routine dummy users creates confusion and concern. We must be secure that parents will never forget to give the dummy once they have started to use it.

so it's really inconclusive, and once again the Government advice has been made so simplistic as to be useless (see also cosleeping).

meritaten

ok zaksmum - is your daughter trying to stick to the fourhourly feeding routine? or is she feeding on demand (by far the best way in the early weeks)?

candygirl

Use one if it stops the squawking:DDGD used one for about 6 months then rejected it, but she needed it as a soother:D

Salz

I was also advised by midwives in the hospital to get a dummy for my daughter - she was in special care and very small, and they said it would help her sucking reflex. She never had it in the day after the age of 2, and was rid of it completely by 3.

JodyBPM

I didn't use a dummy with my first, because I don't much like them, and because I only had one, so could soothe her, put her on the breast etc the moment she peeped. When I had my son just over a year later, I was really reluctant to use a dummy because I don't like them, but found that I simply didn't have enough hands to give 100% attention to him and also my 1 year old. So it was give him a dummy to soothe him, or leave him to cry whilst I was changing/feeding etc my 1 yr old. So a dummy it was.

I actually was quite disappointed in myself for resorting to the dummy - I felt I should have been able to soothe him myself. But actually we took his dummy away (at around 2 I think, and from less than a year it was for night/nap times only - can't stand toddlers toddling around chewing on a dummy) and it was no problem at all. We did the whole leaving the dummy out for the dummy fairy to give to new babies and getting a pressie in return thing. My DD who never had a dummy still sucks her thumb at 6, where as DS doesn't do anything like that.

So actually I think that dummies are possibly quite a good thing, I'm not sure why people are so anti them, but I know I was myself too until I needed to use one.

Spendless

1 of mine didn't have one - the eldest used to spit it out, when he realised it wasn't something to feed from, so eventually I gave up. He's never been a thumb sucker.

The other 1 did have 1, she settled far more easily to sleep than ds ever did, but that's the case even now (they're 11 and 8 next month). She gave them up easily aged 3, but a few nights of being upset that she'd done so. No problems at all with her speech. She talked earlier and had far more vocabulary than her brother.

Pros and Cons with both. It's upto your dd.

ellay864

I hated the idea of dummies but when DS1 was only a week old my midwife recommended I use one. I was breastfeeding him and he fed really well but wanted to be constantly sucking on me. I cried when I saw the dummy in him at first but he did settle...and it didn't change his feeding at all, it was very clear when he wanted food and when he just wanted the soothing of the sucking. He only had it to settle with and for sleep, never just sat with it in for general use. And as he got older and would ask for it he knew he would only get it if he wanted to go for a nap; as soon as he wanted to get up to play dodie came back to mummy's dodie pot. We never had him trying to speak with it in.
DS2 was exactly the same - he loved his dodie and blanket but associated them with sleep whether that was at night or daytime nap, and they stayed in his bed/pushchair etc when he was up and about

Pont

balletshoes wrote: »

your daughter doesn't want to use one, so really thats the decision made .

I did use a dummy, but controlled its use after my DD was into a routine (and I'm pretty sure I started her on a dummy before she was 2 months old).She only got her dum when she was in her cot or pram and ready for sleep. She gave her dum to Santa one Christmas Eve when she was 2, and didn't use one or ask for one again after that.

I did word-for-word as balletshoes. A dummy was given to both of my DDs but only when they were ready to settle down to sleep. It was never allowed outside, or around the house during waking hours. We worked up to getting rid of it before they reached two years of age. When the girls hit two they threw the dummy in the bin with no problem whatsoever.
Not a problem in my opinion.

JC9297

I think the majority of first time mums would rather not give their baby a dummy, however many find that when they give one, often as a last resort, they have a calmer more settled baby. Would your daughter rather have a screaming unhappy baby or a calm baby sucking on a dummy? I know I was reluctant to give my first a dummy but when we did it was much better for all of us, my second would not entertain one but was a much more settled, contented baby anyway.