From being a newborn baby Harry always had a dummy and he (we) became dependent on it to soothe him and help him sleep.Now I’m going to put my hands up and say that hubby & I never tried very hard to get rid of ‘bobo’ as it was the one thing that could calm our very active child in the evening. We made the decision 12 months ago that as Harry would be going to school ‘BoBo’ had to go. Here I will tell you how we said ‘Bye,Bye to BoBo’ once and for all.
I read lots of blogs and articles of how to start the process of dummy removal and the best tip I found was one that said to use an event such as moving house, Birthday, Christmas to distract the child and offer the dummy removal in reward for a present. Last year was the 1st time Harry got excited about Christmas so I sat him down and explained that Father Christmas had called me and the Baby Elf’s needed his ‘bobo’ but in return Father Christmas had given me £5 to buy him a toy. I produced a large envelope that I then got Harry to decorate and placed the 4 dummy’s we had inside it .While we were on a roll we walked straight to the post box and I then got Harry to post the package.We stood for a moment at the post box to discuss what a good boy Harry was for giving the baby Elf’s his ‘bobo’ and went straight to the toy shop to collect his reward.
The first 2 hours were fine but when Harry started getting tired he did get upset. He looked a bit cross at me but (and this is the hard/genius bit) I reminded him that he was the one that posted them in the box and not me. It was going to be a 50/50 if he would go into a full-scale tantrum but he didn’t and just accepted it and went to bed no problem. 3 days later a rogue dummy was found under the sofa by Harry and instead of putting it in his mouth he wanted to post it to Father Christmas. Harry still talks about the Baby Elf’s who have his ‘bobo’ and is rather proud of himself for his charity donation.
There is never going to be a perfect time to take away a much-loved item from your child but making it into a game or offering a reward can take the string out of the process. This was a great success for us and when the time comes I will probably follow the same steps with removing Charley’s dummy from the house. For this year anyway, the Baby Elf’s will have to make do with Harry’s postal donation.
How did you finally get rid of your child’s dummy? Have they still got one they refuse to give it up? Comment below
What a great idea! My son is 17m and people keep complaining to me about him still using a dummy! I’m going to wait until he’s a bit older so that I can explain to him what’s happening, and hopefully get him to “get rid of it” himself as you have! #EatSleepBlogRT
What a brilliant idea! This is definitely a mummy win, especially getting him to post them himself, well done. In Holland kids put out their shoes for Sinterklaas. My son left his dummy in his shoe for SInterklaas and got a present in return. He never made any fuss at all it worked a treat! Thank you for linking up to #EatSleepBlogRT 🌟
Well done on getting through it! We got rid of our little boy’s comforters in a similar way – and we had one major night of meltdowns, one medium sized night, and that was it. Never go back! The main thing is to be ready mentally I think, then you can stay strong.
Kimberly x #MarvMondays
Great idea. My daughter is two now and although she only ever uses it for sleep I really want to get rid of it soon. I tried broaching the idea of sending it to Santa but to be honest I think she s still a bit too young to really understand so I’m going to give it a bit longer yet x
I have heard so many horrible stories about leaving it so I am trying to use it less and less with Baba. I am hoping the separation will be less difficult haha. you have some great ideas here x hope the little on will be ok without it
Oh this is such a wonderful idea and definitely seems to have worked well for your son, think I may try something similar with my daughter and her ‘nu-nu’ (muslin cloth!) Thank you for sharing with #bigpinklink x
I love this idea of including them in the decision, and letting them feel like it is their choice to give up their dummies. Sounds like he coped really well bless him! x #TheList
Wow, I am so impressed that this worked so well! I’ve heard other parents talk about dummy fairies etc and have never really been sure how effective they really were. We went down the cold turkey route with our first which was surprisingly easy. No meltdowns, no tantrums, just a little bit of whining and some questions for the first 2 -3 days and after that she simply accepted that they had gone. I suspect that we may have had it easy/been quite lucky though! We’ll see when we have to do the same with number two in another year or so… Thanks for sharing this on #MarvMondays. Emily