How to get your toddler to ditch their dummy WITHOUT too many tears – and it’s all about the three C’s
GETTING your toddler to ditch their dummy may seem like a scary battle - for both you and your little one - but there’s a number of ways to make the experience easier.
Dummies can be great to relieve stress and soothe babies - they are excellent settling tools and can be a great way in helping your baby self-soothe.
But as your little one gets older and you decide it’s time to say goodbye to their beloved dummy, it’s helpful to use some advice from experts.
Christina Axton, MD of has provided her top 10 tips to make getting rid of the dummy a cinch.
Multiple Milestones is a charity that supports families with the triplets and quads.
Christina is a Norland Nanny and fully qualified maternity nurse working full-time as a junior sister on a neonatal intensive care ward.
“Then the crying begins and before you know it, your baby and dummy are best buddies!”
But Kirsty said a key factor to making losing the dummy a cinch, is to ensure there aren’t dummies lying around all over the house.
She also believes that the sooner the dummy weaning is done, the easier it will be.
She added: “Toddlers are extremely strong-willed creatures and so waiting until they are over a year old could be a lot harder.
"My advice would be to remove the dummy before 6 months or wait until between 18 months and 2 years.
“This is when you'll be able to make use of the Dummy Fairy, the Easter Bunny or Father Christmas to take them away and leave a present in return.”
On Instagram, mums have been opening up about their experiences with ditching the dummy.
While some admit to finding it a total breeze, others have admitted it is a huge task and revealed it’s actually quite difficult to wean children away from dummies.
Mum-of-two Samantha Nicholass-Crook recently shared a post after she helped her daughter Mabel-Rose send her dummy off to the ‘dummy fairy.’
The dummy fairy can be a magical solution to ditching the dummy.
Explain to your child that there is no longer a need for a dummy and the dummy fairy will be collecting it and taking it to a magical place where baby fairies or animals are in need.
Mum Samantha tried this method and wrote in a caption: “It's time for the dummy fairy. She’s getting so big. #dummyfairy #wheresmybabygone"
Elsewhere fellow mum Steph, who shares her first-time mum journey on Instagram, revealed she has been having a different experience with the dummy fairy.
Known for sharing her honest approach to motherhood on the Working_mums_group Instagram page, the mum shared a funny selfie with her daughter alongside a candid caption.
She wrote: “Dummy fairy. When???????? How?????? Tell me tellllllllll me. When is she meant to come? Do I go hardcore and bin them all?
“I can't tell you how much she is gripping this in her teeth so I can't take it off her. I swear she has several spares underneath the pillows just to piss me off and make me look a fool!
“My mother told me to take it off her at 2.....my kid turned 2 and became the devil. The dummy kept her quiet for a bit. My dad said if I get some more peace with it then leave me to it.
“Now she's nearly 2 and a half and it's HER DODDDDDYYYYY and screams for it. It hasn't really held her talking back and her teeth are fine. But I would rather do it sooner than later.
"Advice welcome..."
And lastly mum Chloe Mountifield revealed her method of saying goodbye to the dummy - and it was actually all down to her daughter.
Her toddler Willow decided she was ‘too big’ for her dummy - all by herself!
The proud mum wrote: “My big girl; day 3 of her deciding she’s too big for a ‘dodo’ and she’s smashed it! Always on her terms and always in her own time.”
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