My little boy will be 3 in January and still uses a dummy on a night to help him sleep. I know this is not ideal and I know a lot of you are shaking your head at me as you read this, but we just can't seem to help him give up his dummy.
In the middle of the night he will cry out for us as he cannot relocate his dummy in the dark and sleepy state although he settles instantly and in all fairness it soothes him straight back to sleep. Maybe a little selfishness here on my part as at 3:30am I really don't want to be arguing with a sleepy toddler that he doesn't really need his dummy - I too want to crawl back to my warm bed and fall asleep!!
We have tried sitting him down and telling him he is a big boy now and its time to pass his dummy on to someone else who needs it. I let him have a think of who else would need his dummy - but the clever witted toddler that I have sat there and really had a think, there was a lot of mmmmm oooooo ahhhh sounds coming from him as he was weighing up possibilities in his head. I actually thought he was going to come up with a super cute answer like baby Finnley (my friends baby) but no - he found it hilarious that the only possible answer to that question was himself.
I offered him my suggestion of random ideas who may need a dummy - baby dinosaurs? (from this I got a "awwww cute, nope") - pixies? ("no") - pirates babies? ("no") - fairies? ("no") - Santa? - he looked at me at this idea - he asked what would ho ho ho (that is what he calls Santa) do with them? I said pass them onto other boys and girls who need them. He liked this idea - "but not yet!" he said!
So now i'm confused - I've sort of got a way of him giving up his dummy - but how does it work?
I've heard of people saying they've done this before - hanging them on the tree for Santa to take - but surely of all nights, Christmas Eve is the night you want to make sure they fall asleep exceptionally early - last thing we want on Christmas Eve is to be up and down the stairs to him all evening as he cannot settle himself without his dummy. What was I thinking saying Santa? - I think I've shot myself in the foot with this one!!!
Thoughts and advice are very much welcome on this one! With my daughter she gave them to the dummy fairies and that was that. What alternative is there to a dummy fairy for a boy?
How did you help your little ones give up their dummy if they had one?
1 comment
Take him to a toy shop, let him pick a toy that he REALLY wants, then he has to pay for it with his dummy. The choice is then his but if he really want the toy, the dummy will go !