When to take the dummy away

Erin is 13 months old now and has probably had a dummy from being about a month old. I really don’t remember when we first gave it to her anymore. All I remember is her having really bad reflux and the dummy was the only thing that stopped her crying long enough to go to sleep. I’d always said that Erin would never have a dummy but I soon realised what a life saver it could be.

Now that Erin is over a year old I’ve been thinking about when we should attempt to take away the dummy. It’s not that I’m planning on doing it right away but I’m certainly thinking about how to go about it or when to do it.

I’m really not that bothered that Erin has her dummy while she’s asleep. I’m more than happy for her to keep it as a comfort thing for quite a bit longer. If it means she sleeps then I’m okay with that. I’m more worried about her relying on it sometimes during the day. She doesn’t have it all the time right now but she does use it for comfort and for when she’s teething.

The problem I’m worried about it getting her to give it up during the day when she really doesn’t understand what no means or why she won’t be able to have it anymore. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with trying to stop her having it. I know a lot of places recommend for children not to have them anymore after a year because of something to do with their teeth.

I’d love some advice about getting your child to give up their dummy. What age did your children stop having one and how did you go about stopping them having it?! 

16 thoughts on “When to take the dummy away”

  1. All but my youngest had a dummy and we had the dummy fairies/dummy pirates visit to take them away for the fairy/pirate babies in return for the dummies the fairies/pirates left a small gift for them! They were about 2 when we gave them up, maybe younger I cant really remember!

  2. All of mine have had dummies and most of them just gave it up themselves over time. I really didnt mind as long as they didnt have it when we were out and about it was more of a comfort thing on a night etc x

  3. My little girl is 2 and a half and she still has her dummy at night but fairly recently we took it away in the day. We used the dummy fairy to start with but then just ended up saying dummies are only for night time and she more or less accepted it. She is that bit older than your little one though so that would be difficult for you to try. I would try and hide the dummies during the day as best as possible, use distraction with a snack or a game if she does ask for one. If it doesn’t work just yet though don’t worry, my little girl’s teeth are perfectly straight and she had a dummy in the day until recently. I sucked my thumb for years myself too! Good luck!

  4. Ah, Benjamin won’t even take a dummy let alone give one up… I found it was easy to take it away from my older son though once he properly understood. He just threw them away himself in the end x

  5. We went through exactly the same with emelia. I waiting until she was 2 so I could explain to her. She only had it at night and nap times, but when it came to taking it away we sent the ‘dummy fairies’ in, which seemed to work really well for her, they left a present in exchange for the dummies which gave her a bit of a distraction. She forgot about it pretty quickly too, I thought we would have a battle for weeks. x

  6. Parker still has his dummy for sleep / when he’s tired or grumpy and he’s 18 months.. I wouldn’t worry at all yet :). We took our eldest away when she was around 2.5 with zero issues. She’s got perfect teeth and advanced speech so it’s never affected her 🙂 xx

  7. My advice would be not to rush it, especially if Erin gets a lot of comfort from it. My eldest son had his until he was about 2 and a half and we were able to reason with him about giving it up – he “sent” all his dummies to Fireman Sam, who in return sent him a helmet! We told him all the little babies needed his dummies and Fireman Sam was going to pass them on to them. He was really okay with that! haha The problem came when his little brother arrived and he kept nicking them off him! haha

  8. There’s no right or wrong answer here – just follow your gut instinct! My little one was 2 when he gave it up during the at and 3 at night. The dummy fairy is a good one – it worked for us!

  9. Aww, I remember taking the dummy away from all my 3 boys. It is not the easiest of things to do!! When I gave birth to my 4, she straight away sucked her thumb! It was hard work trying to stop her sucking her thumb too.

  10. Archie gave his up by himself at about three. He just stopped asking for it so we didn’t mention it either, he did only have it at bedtime and as he’s such a bad sleeper anyway due to his Autism we really didn’t want to take it away until he was ready

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