[Konradsmom]

My baby is now close to 4 months old, we used to rock him to sleep when he was smaller ( big mistake) but now we have managed to get him to sleep by putting him in his crib when he is drowsy and then patting him and giving him his pacifier.

It seemed like the end of our problems until he keeps waking when the pacifier drops out of his mouth and then he cries for it - now he's back to waking up a number of times through the night.

we tried to remove the pacifier when he's asleep but he will wake up right away.

Any ideas as to how we can wean him from his pacifier?

[carang]

please let me know when you find out! my first HATED it and never took one. my second LOVES it and can't live without it...she's almost 11 months old now.

[AndreaY]

Know it's of no real help, but my daughter gave up the dummy as soon as she found her thumb and realised that sucking it was so much easier and she would never lose it. Weaning her off that is SOOOO much harder!

[jellybaby]

Mine is bad too, he is 19months now and he knows that i am trying to get him off it so he hides them around so when i don't/refuse to give it to him he go and find one he had hidden!

[Matty]

We had the same problem. My son had a dummy from birth and became hopelessly dependant on it.
The last straw was a night where my 4 mth old woke 15 times ( no exageration my hubby counted).
The next day we took it away cold turkey, starting with the day sleeps.
It was hard, it meant letting him cry, though one of us would stay with him and ssh him.
Within the week he was a new baby, and would have a 10 min cry and then sleep solid.
I still managed to be able to give him a dummy if we were out, but he knew at home it no longer existed.

I guess they need to relearn a better way to get to sleep without props.

[alibali]

We had the same as Matty, except it more around 8 months old. After getting up 10+ times one night, I realized that the pacifier was actually making nighttime worse for both the adults and the baby. The next day (after serious lack of sleep), I threw out all the pacifiers and went cold turkey. Probably not for everyone, but we used a cry it out method where we would go in and comfort our daughter, leave the room, wait 2 minutes, comfort again, leave the room, wait 5 minutes, comfort again, etc (I even used a timer as each minute felt like an eternity!). It took about a week and then all was good. Baby started sleeping through the night (excluding teething, etc.) and my husband and I kicked ourselves for not getting rid of the pacifier sooner! Kicking the pacifier habit went smoother and quicker than we thought it would. From everything I read about it, it's better to do it sooner than later. My daughter is now 1 year old and I dread to think about trying to take a pacifier away from her now. She now throws mini- tantrums if anything doesn't go her way and she's so aware of what's going on. Hard to sneak anything past her, unlike when they are "unopinionated" babies!

[manya_feb]

hi all, i happily started pacifier for my daughter when she was born but luckily my mother threw it and not once but again n again...saying (1) its not good for the mind (2) i m getting away from my duties like ....i should be talking to the baby and not just shut up her mouth and also once babies get used to it...its difficult to get rid. So, if you want your babies dont suck them puhleeez give them some time........talk to them...they will definitely take your energy but worth it. Its difficult in the beginning seeing them crying but only one week and it will be fine.......just one week time. try this!

[Konradsmom]

I am living through this nightmare now when the pacifier drops from his mouth when he's asleep and then he wakes up. Its not to the point where he's up 10 times in the night, but I find that its not helping him learn to sleep.

but the funny thing was that he didn't start off using the dummy as a newborn - this was taught to us by our sleeping consultant and now I'm left to try and unravel this mess.

last night we tried no giving him the dummy but he was crying to the extend it was more a scream than a cry...and I don't think I can do the cry-it-out method.....don't know if I can last and stand the crying..