Good practice in the use of dummies

Use of dummies

Speech and language therapy advice and guidance from Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust.

Why do we give our babies a dummy?

Because:

• They need a soother
• It shuts them up
• He/she is used to it
• Habit - I didn't want him/her to have it for this long but I can't get it off him/her

As babies get older they need to learn to move their mouths in different ways, to smile, to blow bubbles, to make sounds, to chew food and eventually to talk. As babies move their mouths and experiment with babbling sounds they are learning to make the quick mouth movements needed for speech. The more practice they get the better their awareness of their mouths and the better their speech will be.

How do you get rid of a Dummy?

• Wean them off - gradually decrease its use
• Only give the dummy at certain times - bedtime or when they are not well
• Tell them that big boys/girls put their dummies on the dummy tree
• Persuade them to give (all) their dummies to their nursery teacher
• Give rewards (but not sweets)
• Use a star chart to motivate them

The Last Noo-noo, by Jill Murphy (Walker Books, paperback 2003). This picture book was the winner of the 1995 Smarties Book prize in the 0-5 category. It features Marlon the monster who loves his dummies (his noo-noos) and struggles to give them up. He succeeds in the end and also manages to grow a noo-noo tree.

The dos and don'ts of dummies

During your baby's early months a dummy can help to soothe. This is understandable, as most babies have a strong sucking reflex and the dummy can, in many cases, help to settle the child.

However using the dummy too much can lead to the following problems:

Teeth:

• incorrect positioning of teeth so that the bottom and top teeth at the front don't meet properly
• tooth decay (especially the front teeth) if the dummy is dipped into sweet things
  

• your child may tend to breathe through their mouth rather than their nose. This is often linked to long-term dribbling

• your child may not use the full range of tongue movements that are necessary for making all the speech sound
• your child has fewer opportunities to babble and use sounds to communicate with you
  

Things you need to know about dummies and bottles

What you should know

• Not all babies need a dummy/bottle.
• Speech and language therapists recommend that children over 12 months old do not use a dummy/bottles.
• Dummies/bottles are not suitable for breast fed babies until feeding is established.
• If your child uses a dummy/bottle a lot, it may affect speech and language development by restricting tongue movements, making speech sound unclear or causing a gap in the front teeth that may lead to a lisp.
• Dummies/bottles may also make it more difficult for your child to swallow and may make your child more "dribbly"

What can you do if your child uses a dummy?

• Aim to get rid of the dummy/bottle around 12 months or sooner.
• Use a flat teat rather than a cherry teat as this has less effect on teeth.
• Try cuddling or reading to your child before bedtime instead of giving the dummy/bottle.
• Remove the dummy/bottle when your child is trying to talk.
• Praise your child if s/he will give up the dummy/bottle.
• Choose the right time to give up - not when you are under pressure.
• Once you have decided to give up the dummy/bottle, don't be tempted to give it back and make sure there are none left around!

Ideas that parents have tried

• Give the dummy/bottle to Santa.
• Swap the dummy/bottle for a gift/cuddly toy/new toothbrush.
• Pretend to give the dummy/bottle to a friend's baby.
• Get the child to throw the dummy/bottle in the bin.
• Hand the dummy/bottle to your local speech and language therapist who will give your child a sticker or picture to colour in.

Things parents have told us:

• It wasn't as bad as I thought, I just decided it had to go.
• He has started talking now so we have gotten rid of the dummy.
• After a couple of nights he stopped asking for the dummy.

Give the dummy a miss

"Give the Dummy a Miss" is the name of the advice leaflet produced by Sure Start Beaumont Leys and Stocking Farm, Leicester. It highlights the advantages of reducing/eliminating dummy use, and goes with a cartoon story book about a child who gives up his dummy, called Danny and his Dummy.

The leaflets and books are available to order on 0116 295 4550.

Weaning your baby off the dummy

Mother & Babies' Health Visitor, Jackie Welsh writes:
Soothers can prevent children from forming words correctly and may affect the position of the teeth. The success of weaning your little one off hers depends entirely on both you and your partner being determined not to give in. And while you may prefer the idea of weaning your child off her soother gradually, you'll just be prolonging the agony because you'll have to take it away eventually. The best thing to do is confiscate her dummies completely, and take it one step further by throwing them all away so you're not tempted to give in at any stage. It'll take a few nights for your child to accept that her dummy's gone, but if you give in, you'll have to start the whole process all over again. You need to accept that your child will get upset and want it back, but to deal with this you need to distract her and be reassuring. At bedtime, put her favourite cuddly toy in the cot so she has some comfort from that.

Alice Hunter, 38, a full-time mum, took Jackie's advice to wean her daughter Bronwyn, 14 months, off her dummy in just four days. Bronwyn had used a dummy since she was five months old because mum Alice found it soothed her when she was teething. Alice and her husband Steve decided to wean her off her dummy, as she was depending on it more and more.

Alice's thoughts:
"Bronwyn's now dummy-free but it was a difficult few days. You and your partner must be in total agreement about taking your child's soother away or you could end up making it worse by blaming each other when things get tough. It's a difficult thing to do, especially when your baby's distraught and can't be comforted, but it's only for a short period of time. Do it over a weekend so you can both take turns in distracting your baby. A few weeks on and I'm sure Bronwyn doesn't think about her dummy, so it was worth all the heartache and trauma."

Parent forum
The Times, 24 May 2004

Problem
" I need a foolproof way to persuade my stubborn daughter, 4, to give up her dummy."

Advice
Announce that she is now at an age to say goodbye to the dummy, because she is a big girl and ready for a pink handbag, special shoes, Barbie, a little diary - or any present that gives her the incentive to reach the next stage. Ask your daughter to choose a day when she is going to put her dummy in the bin - and have the present ready. At the time it seems like a big deal; she will have forgotten it before she has got the wrapping off the gift.
Stephanie Calman, mother and founder www.badmothersclub.co.uk

Engage your daughter in playing with dolls, one of which uses a dummy. You can be the voices of the dolls, with one doll discouraging the other from using a dummy. During these role-play activities, do not make fun but dwell on how grown-up the doll looks without the dummy. You could enlist the help of your daughter's teacher in reinforcing this during circle time at nursery. Nothing is foolproof but rest assured that she will grow out of it, if only because she realises that her friends don't use dummies. Peer pressure is a powerful thing.
Kathy Sumpter, mother and early years teacher, Bishop's Stortford

The answer is: don't try. I forced my equally stubborn four-year-old to give up the dummy and he sucked everything else available: the cord of his jacket, the collar of his shirt, the strap of his bag and the neckline of his T-shirt. In fact, I still catch him sucking the T-shirt occasionally and he is 12 now. My daughter, on the other hand, reduced her dummy dependency gradually, as she became embarrassed if anyone else saw her with it, and so used it only for bedtimes. She voluntarily binned her dummy the night before she started school and has never sucked anything else.
Eileen McCallum, mother, Glasgow

Use of dummies condemned for breast-fed babies

Dummies, the controversial accessories that divide parents and professionals, are bad for babies who breastfeed and should be avoided, a comprehensive study has concluded. Experts who reviewed 10 years of research found that the pacifier reduced or even eliminated a baby's desire to suck on its mother's breast.

That meant that parents should be advised against the use of a dummy, said researchers at the Joanna Briggs Institute in South Australia. The popularity of pacifiers was revived last year by a study that suggested they cut the risk of cot death. Researchers in California said the bulky handle of the dummy could keep bedding away from the baby's face and reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (Sids).

The latest review, published in this week's Nursing Standard, also found that dummies reduced the risk of Sids, as incidence among babies who did not use a dummy were up to five times that of babies who did. But it concluded that because the overall risk of the condition was low, dummies should still be avoided. It added: "The innate sucking reflex of the infant is satisfied by the pacifier, decreasing or eliminating the desire for contact with the nipple and breast."

The likelihood of babies developing dental problems could not be established because not enough research had been done, it said. Although dummies are unpopular with speech and language therapists, the British Dental Association said they could be better than thumb-sucking because they were eventually thrown away, while children might continue to suck their thumbs until much later.

Colin Brook, a spokesman for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, said: "There is no reason why babies should be given a dummy, but [if they must be] dummies should not be introduced until babies are at least a month old."

An Italian study published in 2004 found that babies who were bottle-fed, who sucked their thumb or a dummy, were twice as likely to have crooked teeth as breast-fed infants.

(By Amy Iggulden, The Telegraph, 02.06.06)