I’m an Earth Mother, so I had the utopian notion that my babies were never going to use dummies.
When I brought Miss Z home, she wouldn’t stop crying when I put her to sleep unless I put my finger in her mouth. My dummy philosophy ended in 2 days (I very much like my finger). Now, I am a fan of dummies, but not all the time, and definitely not for a long time.
All my babies had reflux so the dummy was a useful tool to keep some milk from coming out. After 6 months, the reflux went way (when they started solids) so the dummy was confined to the cot for sleep time, or the car seat for when we were going out at nap time.
I wasn’t sure when would be a good time to get rid of it altogether. So I looked it up on the Supernanny book. She recommended 18 months at the latest, and so that’s what I did.
For me, eighteen months was a good age because she was weaned off breastfeeding altogether, eating and sleeping routines were well established and her life was stable.
The first few days were tough – she was very used to finding the dummy when she dropped it and putting it back in her mouth – even in her sleepy state.
But it only lasted a few days. I think by this age she knew that Mommy meant business. And her memory was not so strong to remember the dummy for long.
I did the same thing with Mr A – same timings as with Miss Z and it all went smoothly as well.
I think the earliest you can “send your child’s dummy to Santa” the better. Because the older they are, the more attached they get to it, and the stronger their memory of it as a comfort prop.
As usual I make no judgements either way, so if your child is 4 and still walking around with a dummy, that’s totally up to you.