Dummies

Thanks Nannapat. Btw, you're not the Nannapat from a much older forum elsewhere are you, where I was sc? Just a long shot really.......

When I first had children I was a bit of a dummy snob, then I had twins! A dummy can be a big help with a fractious baby (or two) but the only way to avoid having a toddler constantly walking around with a dummy is to restrict it's use to bedtime and not much else. It calls for steely resolve and self discipline on the parents' part, I managed it most, if not all, of the time. It's a whole lot easier to get rid of a dummy than to stop a child thumb sucking which can have a terrible impact on dental development. Dummies are much more commonly used now and while I'm glad to see the snobbish criticisms have diminished these days I'm sad to see so many toddlers who seem to have them all day long.

Yep, they are called pacifiers on this side of the pond. But we also have some weird names for them, such as "binky" and "nippy." I have to admit, ladies, I prefer any of those to "dummy." But I know people who are against them, regardless, and don't think that attitudes, either pro or con, are that much affected by the name.... ok, maybe a little, but not a lot.

One of my DSs had a dummy for sleeping. He was a very unhappy baby, and those dummies were worth their weight in gold. We had a little "ceremony" to get rid of it when he was about two. DS2 never needed one, and fortunately didn't suck his thumb either.

DGC didn't have them, but now we have a four-year-old DGS whose thumb is badly calloused from constant sucking, and who is so far totally resistant to all our efforts to break the habit. What makes it even worse is that proximity of hand to nose when thumb-sucking means that the free fingers on the hand end up there!!!
Three-year-old DGD has never been a thumb-sucker (though she went through a stage of trying it, because big brother does it and she wants to do everything he does), but bites her nails instead!

As others have said, it's horses for courses, and if used sensibly, dummies can be a great thing for both baby and parents, and far better than some of the alternatives, IMO.

I don't think we should really judge as all babies and toddlers are different. I was one of those mums who said 'never' and one of my children did have a dummy and the other didn't. I agree that they should be used sparingly.. Bedtime, nap time and shouldn't be used to 'shut them up. I also agree they can limit speech development but used appropriately, they do no harm. My granddaughter has a dummy but only for quiet sleepy times.

My daughter sucked her thumb which I would take out and put in a dummy which she would spit out. After a short while of doing this I gave up. Agree with previous posts, a dummy would have gone quite early on, but the thumb, however, went on for years. A baby with a dummy doesn't look great but neither does a 10 year old sucking their thumb. My son had a dummy for about 3 months, just long enough to get over the more difficult stage.

Both my DDs had a dummy to help soothe them to sleep. They associated them with cot/sleep. They didn't have them unless they were going to sleep.

Both have lovely teeth and were early , articulate speakers. DD1 gave hers up spontaneously at about 15-18 months. DD2 took to thumb sucking when I stopped giving her about 22-24 months.

Used as soothers for sleep rather than a way to keep kids quiet for convenience (dummy) of parents they are a really helpful tool for parents.

When at work I have had parents ask me if it ould be OK for their child to bring a dummy to school..I usually said no.

There was a really lovely book in our local library called 'The Last Noo-Noo' - about a baby monster who loved his noo-noo (dummy,) while Mummy and Granny Monster were trying to get him to give it up. He was very resourceful in hiding them all over the place, and finally planted one in the garden, to grow a Noo-Noo tree.
Not recommended for anyone very anti!
I love it.

Did any GN'er ever use a ' Dinky ' feeder for their baby. It was a tiny container, with a teat, that would hold approx. 1-2 tablespoons of water. Our eldest had one at night, and after rooting around the cot by his head, he would have a couple of sips and be off to sleep again. Our daughter sucked her thumb, but luckily gave it up quite early with no damage to teeth. Youngest son had a dummy at night, attached to his cot by a piece of ribbon. When I thought he was old enough to be without it, around two and a half, we ' gave' it to someone whose baby didn't have a dummy. Reading this through, it all sounds very non PC these days, but my eldest is 53, so perhaps counts as the dark ages.

There,s a girl of about 14 on "Gogglebox" who sucks her thumb with her finger round her nose and it drives me mad! Repulsive, too.

Ooh, yes wot I do so agree! Wouldn't you think she'd manage to not do it while being filmed...?

Mine were all thumb suckers, my eldest daughter used to suck her thumb pick fluff off her blanket and rub her nose with the fluff.. who knows what that was about she eventually picked holes in her blankets, no duvets in those days.

AuntieFlo I remember sister-IL using those dinky feeders for the DN.
She used to put diluted rosehip syrup in them (frowned upon now).
tanith I knew another little girl who did that (friend's daughter) and I used to worry that the fluff would go up her nose! One of mine used to rub the sheet or pillow between thumb and finger.

Only today an ex-dentist friend was saying what awful damage RIbena does to children's teeth. I realised that the Rosehip syrup I loved must have contributed to the extractions I also had as a child. When did that pink sticky delight disappear?

Sucking her 14 year old thumb seems to have made her put on a LOT of weight!?