Here’s our Parent Panel mum Claire Lancaster, from the Cheshire Mum blog, with her inspired solution for helping her son to give up his dummy habit.

My children were never going to have a dummy.  My children were never going to suck their thumbs. 

My children never got this memo!

My son had a dummy from being about 6 weeks old until just before his third birthday. H was a dummy addict, a proper one with a dummy his mouth and at least one in his hand. He would regularly switch them over; I suppose it must be a bit like a fresh piece of chewing gum! 

It started off being just for getting off to sleep times, and it was only for the first few weeks. Those were the good intentions. Then it was for nap and sleep times and making sure H had enough sleep. Then car journeys were permitted too, plus times when H was unwell or teething. Oh, and then there was the post office queue because the overseas parcels had to be posted, and the lunch with friends we hadn’t seen for ages and wouldn’t see again for years. Then, before we knew it, we had created a walking talking dummy addict.

Like all good love affairs it wouldn’t last forever. The time was right for us all just before H celebrated his 3^rd birthday. Baby G was coming up to 6 months old and the dust had settled from the family shake up of a new sibling and we’d also successfully achieved toilet training. I did have quite a lot of anxiety about the thought of a world without a dummy, it had supported our family day and night, through sickness and health, good times and bad!

We took a “Dummy Fairy” approach, although as it was just before Easter we had a “Dummy Bunny”, and this is what we did:

• We restricted the dummy to bedtime only, it stayed in his bedroom for a few weeks before we got rid of it completely.
• We talked a lot about dummies being for little babies, that Lil’ H was going to be three, that this makes him a big boy and big boys don’t have dummies. 
• We read story books about giving up the dummy, I recommend “No More Dummy for Piggy” by Bernette Ford & Sam Williams and “The Last Noo-Noo” by Jill Murphy.

Then we we started the final eviction: the Dummy Bunny left Lil’ H a letter with a bag to collect his beloved dummies in and a promise of a ‘very special surprise’ if he left all his dummies in the bag and put it outside the front door.  We made it really special and exciting for him discovering the bag and letter with glowing balloons, the letter was written on paper cut into a rabbit shape with a fluffy cotton wool tail. Cute!

The Dummy Bunny and its very special surprise was our primary focus, Lil’ H really wanted the special surprise, but for the first night, he wanted the dummy more.  I had a three night limit after which the bunny would come, but H decided for himself that night two was The Night.  We collected them all up, left them for the Dummy Bunny, went to bed and to sleep without a problem.

The next morning Lil’ H was rewarded with a huge box of gold chocolate coins, they are easily portion controlled and the bunny coins were a great incentive from then on.  He never asked again for the dummy.  I was, and I remain, amazed.

I have to be honest and say the week afterwards he woke a few times and needed us to resettle him but he never asked for the dummy. He just needed someone there whilst he learnt to go back to sleep, and when he did he was rewarded with a bunny coin the next day, so it didn’t take him long to be sleeping well every night. With hindsight, knowing what I know now about losing the dummy, it really wasn’t something I needed to stress about as much as I did.

This post is dedicated to our dear dummy and your dedicated services to parenting. I salute you: 24/7/365 for 3 years you were a loyal companion to my Lil’ H and a great support to this mummy.  I wish you nothing but the best for your retirement … sorry we couldn’t afford to send you off in anything more glam than, well, the bin.  However I do hear that you will be amongst the finest calibre of landfill in Cheshire! 

So what’s your story? Did/do your little ones have a dummy?  How did you tackle the farewell?  Is it something which is giving you angst like Claire?  Will the “Dummy Bunny” be paying your house a visit this Easter?  We love getting your comments so please do share your thoughts. We’ll send a Twist N’Pop cup to one person who leaves their comment here.

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