How To Drop The Dummy

We ditched the dummy in 3 days and you can too.

We used a dummy with Matilda from around 3 months until 18 months and to say it was her favourite thing in the world would be an understatement. We decided to take it away at 18 months as she was trying talk a lot and we felt like it was stopping her.

After speaking with friends I quickly learnt that the best and quickest method to get rid of it was by going cold turkey. We decided to keep the dummy for naps and night time but went cold turkey in the day.

Here are my top tips:

1. Out of sight, out of mind 
   The day we decided to drop the dummy I made sure that Matilda couldn’t see it during the day. I hid them all in a draw in an effort to help her forget about them.
2. Distraction is key
   As Matilda was so used to having her dummy all day it took a little while for her to get used to not having it. The first few days she would continually ask for it so I would do my best to distract her with either games, singing or going to play outside.
3. Have a clear message
   Whenever she would ask for the dummy we had a clear message and said “dummy is only for sleep time” and we would repeat this whenever she asked. We found that by having a super clear message, which was consistent meant that she understood why she couldn’t have the dummy. This helps if your little one is old enough to understand what you’re saying.
4. Cold turkey
   As I said before, our method was to go cold turkey, but this might not be for everyone. Because we went cold turkey it meant that things got much easier after 3 days. You could also try a gentler approach, but this may take longer.
5. Be understanding
   Try to remember that this will be a big adjustment for your little one and it will take them time to understand this change. Matilda would get quite upset in the first few days when she couldn’t have her dummy so we just tried to comfort her by using a gentle tone and lots of cuddles.
6. Dummy fairy
   We didn’t use this method because I think Matilda was a little bit too young, however this tip has worked really well for friends. The idea is that your little one understands that the dummy fairy comes at night and takes the dummy away and that’s it, it’s gone forever.

These were the techniques that worked well for us and we’re now a month without the dummy and she rarely asks for it now and if she does when we say ‘dummy is only for sleep time’ she doesn’t ask again. I think as with all toddlers, she’s just trying to see what she can get away with.