The Dummy

When F was born she sucked her wrist which she did until she was about 18months old, where it just became too sore for her to continue. My Mum had to fashion a boxing glove to stop her sucking her wrist and allow it to heal.

A few months ago we were told by our dentist to get rid of my 3yr olds dummy, we had already been talking about doing this but just hadn't got round to it.

We had tried previously on Christmas Eve, leaving her dummy out for Father Christmas. Unfortunately she was ill in the night and so we gave it her back, our Christmas day was spent eating curry and chips whilst dosing F up with Calpol.

This attempt really wasn't at the right time!

Anyway we went for it as hubby is off work for a few days and it just seemed the right time, we talked to her about if beforehand and she seemed ok with it. I think this was mainly because we said we would take her to the toy shop for a treat!

We took her to bed as normal and kept the routine all the same so as not to have too much change all at once, F settled ok at first but then was up until around 9pm asking for her dummy and getting upset. Hubby told her that her Aunty Ruth was going to take the dummy for the children in Africa which the charity she works for looks after, this is the only thing that settled her!

The night went ok until about 4am when she was on and off until we got up about half six. F was very proud of herself and the staff at nursery gave her a sticker for ditching the dummy. After nursery we took her to Toys R Us and after being utterly blown away by the price of a plastic doll, we stumbled across a playhouse.

We didn't set out to spend that much but I think of this as more of an investment than paying £30 for a doll that will only entertain for 5 minutes.

We are hoping to get it all set up today so they can have a full day of playhouse fun.
F did really well last night, she was upset again for about half an hour then settled and slept right through, and awoke again very proud of herself.

I am really pleased as I was so worried about removing her dummy as its her only comfort she really loves, but I think waiting those extra few months has really helped. I just don't think she was ready to give it up at Christmas.

We did consider getting rid of our youngest daughters dummy as she is 17 months now, but I think she is just a bit too little yet. It is only used at naptimes and not during the day so hasn't affected her speech so far.
A is a lot less independent when it comes to being comforted she always wanted a cuddle whilst F would rather self soothe.

Overall I am really pleased we went for it, and even more pleased with how proud F is of herself.