I refused ever to give my daughter a dummy, you should have heard the tantrum I threw when I left my 4 week old with her grandmother for 20 minutes for the first time and came back to find a dummy sitting on the table (we were given bottles and dummies when she was born and I hadn't got around to throwing them in the bin yet knowing they would never have a place in my home).  I can't speak from experience with my children, but as a childcare worker in the Toddler Room (15 month to 3 year) I am asked almost every day to wean a child from the dummy.  I just simply stop giving the child one, and and we might have a couple of days where the child takes up to an hour to get to sleep, or skips the sleep entirely, but I tell the parents to give me a week and provided they do at home what I'm doing at daycare, I'll have their child off it within a week.  Doing what I do at daycare means simply not having the dummy sight at any time, ignoring any whinging for it, distracting the child with other activities, and putting in the extra time and effort in getting the child to sleep.  The hardest part for parents to do is to ignore the whinging! They usually give in and it takes more like a month than a week to get them off it, and even then I'm sure some still have it at home but the mother just doesn't tell us!  Persist with it, don't give in, and simply ignore the whinging for the dummy and you'll be fine.

if you can do it now then do it dosn't matter what age, i haven't taken my kids dummies of them until they were 2 and my youngest son loved his dummy you would not beleive how much ,sucking on one all the time and i just threw them in the bin it was hard for a couple of days then he forgot about it and never looked back and i thought it was going to take mths because he like them so much

so my advice is if you can get it of your baby now then do it

Hi emily123,

I saw a program on t.v. and it said that you should cut a piece off the end of the soother, because when they try to suck on it, it is different.  They don't like if it feels different and then they will get rid of it on their own and its not so hard on baby and the parents.  I tried this with my oldest daughter and it worked!  When she put the soother in her mouth, she putted it out as quickly as she put it in.  She did not like it and threw it on the floor and didn't bother with it ever again.

Hope that helps.   Michelle

In my opinion, if the dummy is being used at nap time and night time for bed, then why take it off her? She is only 9 months old and has yet to cut alot of teeth!
I can guarantee that you will regret taking it away from her, because once these teeth start coming through she will be needing it! Even if she gets sick it will help her to relieve some pain (chewing on the dummy for distraction)
But she is your daughter and you need to do what feels right for you....but do what is going to be better for her!

If you feel it is the righ time to take the dummy away then do it, she is your daughter. A child doesnt need a dummy, it is usually because mum/dad think they need it to keep them quiet (i must admit i am one of the biggest offenders on this one).
Good luck. I am still trying to get my son of his (16 months) we are down to bed time only but he just doesnt want to give it up.

We took the dummy off my grand-daughter really quickly because we saw them as a potential health risk. Have you ever noticed how children don't worry about whose dummy or bottle they place in their mouth?

This aside, we had a couple of 'wingy' nap times, which only lasted until she fell asleep. Providing there wasn't a dummy in sight, she was quite content without one fairly quickly.

We didn't ease it away we simply threw it out...& that was that.

Re: sucking the thumb, fact is if your bub is teething she's going to want to chew on something & perhaps a thumb is the safest thing Remember that thumb-sucking comes naturally & is a habit that disappears by itself between the ages of 3-6... providing parents don't pull the thumb away from the baby's mouth... believe it or not, ignoring it is the best way to go.