Dummies during up time?

[singa06]

Usually my 4 week old DS will settle to sleep really well without the dummy, but sometimes he needs it. Just depends.
However I find that he is 'up' from a sleep, but it is not time to feed yet (bottle every 3 hours), he is wingy and cries unless I give him the dummy to settle him (either in my arms, sling or pram).
Does this seem normal? When he is older and having play time under his gym etc, will he rely on the dummy?

[JiminyCricket]

Every baby is different but they all like to suck for comfort so I would not worry too much just try and make sure you don't substitute the dummy for yourself IYKWIM.
I think its fine to use as long as he is still getting rocked and carried around being close to you at times as well.

My baby would not take a dummy until about he was about 4 months old and he used it untill he was about 10 months and decided he did not want it anymore.

Sometimes you just have to do what works for you and your baby regardless of what other people or books tell you.

[Aries7]

In their first 6 months of life, babies use the sucking reflex as a way to self soothe. My DD loved her dummy for first few months. It's only now that she just uses it when she's going to sleep or is a bit grizzly.

[moozle]

He he, I don't think there is any "normal". They just get used to whatever you deide to do. Personally, we wanted to use the dummy as a sleep cue so we never gave it to him unless we wanted him to sleep. It just helped him learn when was sleep time. But if you find that it works for you to give him during play time then that's your deision. There were a few rough times (usually in the car) when I'd give it to him just to make him stop crying but that was very rare..

[singa06]

OK! It seems that it can self settle to sleep without it! It is used more for him when he is unsettled or waiting for feed (he is a sleep, 'up' (to young for play), feed boy!)

[Cordelia]

At that age they wouldn't worry

At 6 months they start to lose their need to suck and you can start restricting it then. At 8 months DD didnt even need it for sleeps... DS is that age now so I was oping to do the same but he's much more of a sucker!!

[mum2bubba]

He's only 4 weeks old so don't worry about it. My girls had dummies when they were babies, so does Nathan. Hayley had hers til she was 2 and a half years but after just a few times of using a dummy as a newborn Skye wasn't interested anymore. All babies have the need to suck, if it settles him down then give him one. When he gets older you can always take it off him and just limit his use to bedtime or if/when he he really needs it.

[Jaspat24]

My DS only gets his dummy for sleep times. The only other times he's allowed it in up time is when he's at daycare or with other caregivers and he's meant to be asleep but is too unsetlled to sleep. He goes in a bouncer and has his dummy and has quiet time. He also gets it when he's due for a feed and is grumbling, but i'm on my way home to breatfeed him IYKWIM. (i have trouble expressing enough to leave enough for him)

[Cordelia]

Sorry!! just wanted to add:

if you are breastfeeding I would NOT want my baby to have a dummy in it's mouth a lot of the time. It's better that he's sucking on you (charming choice of words there!!) I think that breastfeeding didn't work out with my 2nd because I let him have the dummy a lot and also fed him expressed milk from a bottle early on

[Boobycino]

I used a dummy during up times with bub, though I had to be holding him and holding it in, to delay feeds.

Before anyone jumps on me, i mean so that I was ONLY feeding him every single 2 hours around the clock. He wanted to be sucking in between times, so I'd give him a dummy. Otherwise he'd be feeding hourly and that was fine by me, but it upset his tummy feeding so often. So the dummy was a :thumbsup: in my mind.

And also for settling him to sleep when he didnt feed to sleep -- I preferred to feed him to sleep, but if his tummy was full I didn't want to keep topping him up and upset his tummy.

I have a very sucky boy though. He's 10 months old and has just slept through 1 sleep cycle for his afternoon nap and he's demanded a feed to sleep for another 45 minutes.

I wish... wish wish wish wish wish, he'd take a dummy now!