Babies for Dummies, Dummies for Babies

Dummies (or pacifiers) are a point of great contention, or at least they seem to have been down the years. Nowadays the stories of teeth being pushed out of shape seem to have been discounted, but they are still frowned on by many in a quite judgmental way.

We have been trying to avoid giving Oliver a dummy, mostly because we might be storing up trouble for later when we have to take it off him and because we don't want him to need it at night when his losing it is likely to result in crying for him and yet more broken sleep for us.

I don't have experience of many babies against whom to compare Oliver, but even Hayley who has nannied several babies thinks he's perhaps on the grouchy side. Sadly, this seems to manifest itself more in the evenings.... just when Daddy comes home!

It's Saturday today and he has been quite content all morning. But last night he exercised his right to whinge at length. He wasn't wailing for ages (unlike a few nights ago) but was generally grouchy, veering between grumbly and crying. We tried all the usual options. Hungry? Windy? Nappy dirty? Needs attention? Needs to be left alone? Wants to play? Wants his swing? Wants to sleep.....? Nothing seemed to work. He was sucking his hands like he does when he's hungry, but he didn't want food.

So finally we thought we'd try it. We got out a dummy, sterilised it, then offered it to him. He took it and was content. What's more, we could converse for a few minutes at a normal volume. I can see why they are so popular!

We don't want to get into the habit of using it and we took it off him before he went to sleep. But it's another tool in the armory as we try to find the happy medium between the ideal "text book" handling of our baby and a way that will give him happy attentive parents who can do more for him than simply try to console.