The Dummy Fairy

Jackson had his dummy right from day 10 of his life. In the beginning, he would have it whenever he wanted. Then, as he got older, it turned into something we would only give him at nap times and night-time. I was in no rush to get rid of it and liked having it as an emergency comforter during the day. I always thought that we would use the 'Dummy Fairy' story, letting him post them off so he would understand the whole process of stopping using them.

However, due to the fact that Jackson is probably the dribbliest baby you will ever meet (to the point that means we change his dribble bib up to 4 times a day!!!), the dummy started to cause a rash around his mouth, which lead to eczema. After so much googling and discussions, Chris and I decided it was time for the dummy fairies to come a little early, at 9 months. I read loads of ways of how people had weaned their babies off their dummies, including poking holes in it! We chose just to stop 'cold turkey' and battle through, so we started by finding a few comforts for Jackson to have in his cot instead, which we thought would be good replacements. One was a sheep comforter with teething parts attached.

I was dreading it... we decided to do it on a Saturday, as that would mean Chris was off the next day and we knew we would be in for a long night. For the first nap of the day, I completely forgot and gave him his dummy as usual (great start)!!! For his afternoon one, I did remember and put him down without it. That time was really difficult - I settled him but as soon as I would leave the room, there was some serious crying. Every time I would leave him for a couple of minutes and then go back in and settle him, which went on for about 30 minutes and when he finally slept, it was only for 20 minutes. Not a great nap by Jackson's standards but better than nothing.

That night, Chris put him down to bed. We had set a plan of who was going to go to him between certain hours and who would get to sleep. I would take the first 3 hours and then Chris would take the next 3 and so on.

Well, luckily for us and to our amazement, we didn’t have to use the plan one little bit as he went straight to sleep and slept all the way through the night; we couldn't believe it!!

The next day, naps were a struggle again and we were having to settle him for up to 30 minutes each time. But, after 3 days of running up and down the stairs, he was used to napping without a dummy and went back to his normal sleeping routine. We have had a few rough patches since then but we have not given in and generally he doesn't seem to miss his beloved dummy at all.

His skin massively cleared up to almost no rash in no time, however, unfortunately his eczema has recently returned and seems to have spread over some of his body too but it's nothing a bit of cream from the doctors wont be able to clear up!

I have to admit, I do miss seeing him suck on his dummy when he is sleeping, it makes me realise that it's another sign he’s growing up!

Love Sophia xxx