Jessica has had a dummy since she was a tiny baby – it has been invaluable during her time in hospital, especially when she was recovering from surgery and we were unable to cuddle her. Over the last few months though, we have been gearing up towards her giving up the dummies (particularly as they are starting to have an impact on the shape of her teeth) and had decided that we would do this once the Christmas tree was put up.
The tree was put up a few days ago, and Jessica hung her dummies on to the lower branches for the baby reindeer to take away. You see, the baby reindeer need the dummies so that they will settle down to sleep on Christmas Eve when the elves look after them as the mummy reindeer are needed to help Father Christmas fly his sleigh across the world and deliver the presents. If the baby reindeer don’t have any dummies, then they will cry and their mummies will not be able to leave them and so Father Christmas won’t be able to deliver the presents. And of course, the baby reindeer leave a little present the next day as a thank you.
Jessica was a little reluctant to hang her dummies on the tree for the baby reindeer but the prospect of a present the next morning helped encourage her. Whilst she didn’t cry for her dummy, she did take quite a long time to settle that first night before she was able to fall asleep. I had to tie her hair back as well as she started chewing her hair as a substitute for the dummy.
The next morning, Jessica was very happy with the toy kettle that the baby reindeer had left for her and did not seem too bothered that the dummies had disappeared from the tree until we got towards bedtime. We did then have a few tears as the realisation that the dummies had really gone sunk in but as she was so tired after a busy day out Christmas shopping, she settled down to sleep reasonably quickly.
Day three saw a few more tears and wanting her dummy as bedtime approached but tonight Jessica seems to have accepted that the dummies have gone and won’t be coming back. Sophie has never had a dummy so there are no more in the house anyway.
I’m relieved that my big girl seems to have coped with this reasonably well given just how attached to her dummy at bedtime she was.
Well done Jessica!!! We went cold turkey with P1 at the age of about 2.5. P2 is going to be saying bye bye to dummies when she turns 2 in Feb.
Thanks Jodie – hope all goes well when P2 says bye bye to the dummies too x
Phew! Great strategy, and great work on weaning her off the dummy. Nothing like a little bribery to coax the kids… Bless her – glad she’s getting used to the idea and is coping ok at bedtime (the most fraught part of the day, for some!) x
Thank you – so far she is doing really well without them 🙂
Blimey! In tears here (again)
This is the most beautiful way to ‘ditch the dummy’ that I’ve ever heard! Xx
Thank you – I wanted to make it as positive an experience for Jessica as I could and she seems to have coped very well with it all x
That is such a great way to wave goodbye to the dummies. Well done guys. x
Thank you Mel – she has done very well without them, so proud of her 🙂
This is such a great idea. Gwenn is 20 months old and has had a dummy since 3 weeks old.
The thought of having to wean her off it fills me with dread but maybe next Christmas she will be ready to try this?
x
#whatsthestory
Thank you – I felt exactly the same about weaning Jessica off her dummy but it was less stressful than anticipated. Good luck with weaning Gwenn when you’re ready to do this x
What a great idea for how to get away from the Dummies, it can be a really difficult task to take them away so it’s seemed to be a fairly good job so far. I hope it carries on successfully! Popping by from What’s the Story.
Thank you – it has worked well so far 🙂