Breastfeeding and dummys

[helsbels]

Hey guys!
Well here I am with my little girl Harriet, we finally made it beyond third tri and I have my first BF question. First of many I suspect!
Do any of you have experiences of using a dummy in a VERY limited way whilst breastfeeding? Hattie is 9 days old now and we have sort of cracked BF (and my nipples repeatedly!). My problelm is that she is totally unsetttled at night, she just wants to suck all night and I am getting about an hours kip and also my boobs are suffering. What do you think sbout popping a dummy in when she won't settle? ONly to get her off to sleep then i would remove it. A midwife and the NCT BF support suggested it but I was after some real experiences if you have any? I don't want her to get that confusion thingy but would 10 mins exposure to a dummy a day cause this?
Many thanks for any pearls of wisdom
XXHels

 

[NICCI]

hey hun i was dead against it, but my boobs got sooooo sore and i got hardly any sleep so my MW suggested a dummy and honestly its the best thing we have done!!!! xxxx

 

[Bee]

I used nipple shields, a dummy and a bottle (occasionaly till I had to switch to bottles) and we didn't have any nipple confusion

I starting with a dummy due to constant sucking and colic

 

[ASD123456]

Rudy is breastfed and has had a dummy since he was 2 weeks old- no nipple confusion at all. We've got nipple shaped/ flat bottomed dummys- the teat looks odd but it's supposed to mimic a nipple. Tommy Tippee do some new ones and the ones I use are Nuk. They both have the teat I was talking about.

I wouldn't be without mine TBH, I started using one for the same reasons your thinking of using one and it did help.

Alex xxx

 

[Urchin]

Hiya

I don't have experience of it so young, I started trying Riley with a dummy about a month ago and TBH it didn't really help him sleep better

I just wanted to say congratulations and well done with the BFing

 

[flowergirl]

My LO took a dummy with some persuasion at 3 weeks old- by that point I was cracking under the strain of her marathon night feeding sessions and was unable to make the simplest decision due to exhaustion- the dummy really was a lifesaver even though I had planned not to use one.

LO did not suffer from any form of nipple confusion. I find the dummy has been an effective way for my LO to settle herself to sleep and as a result she has far better daytime sleep habits than many of her non-dummy sucking friends. They rely upon other ways to settle to sleep during the day- walk in pushchair, drive in the car and breastfeeding! I would hate to have to plan to go on a walk or a drive just to get LO to nap so there again a dummy seems a positive!

It can have its neative points too- repeatedly putting the dummy back in when she's trying to fight sleep but wants to sleep but is too cross to, was frustrating at the 3-4 month mark before she was able to direct the dummy towards her mouth on her own. Now she has the dexterity to take the dummy from me and put it into her own mouth the right way around!

I know Sherlock often advises on the use of dummies and she advocates using the NUK dummy (I think) if you are breastfeeding. She also recommends losing the dummy at around 4 months if you don;t want your LO to continue to use it . After 4 months they remember it and it will be harder to stop using it. Personally I'm letting my LO keep hers until she's around a year old.

 

[helsbels]

Rudy is breastfed and has had a dummy since he was 2 weeks old- no nipple confusion at all. We've got nipple shaped/ flat bottomed dummys- the teat looks odd but it's supposed to mimic a nipple. Tommy Tippee do some new ones and the ones I use are Nuk. They both have the teat I was talking about.

I wouldn't be without mine TBH, I started using one for the same reasons your thinking of using one and it did help.

Alex xxx

Thanks Alex (and everyone!) When do you give it to him? Do you leave it with him overnight or just get hi off to sleep with it??
Many thanks!

 

[ASD123456]

Before bed and at nap times mainly, during the day it will stay in whilst he naps (30 mins at most ) and when he goes to bed at night it falls out once he's asleep and I only put it in again once he has had his middle of the night feed and he needs to fall asleep again.

x

 

[millylillyrose]

India is mad about sucking, she wants her thumb but cant find it, so from the night we first had her in hospital, she was waking herself constantly! the nurse gave her a dummy and it was heavenly. she never got nipple confusion. she only uses it at night. Breastfeeding has gone amazingly for us, perhaps if your having any trouble establishing feeding then a dummy may not be so good. but you'll probably do a lot better if your getting plenty of rest.

im still secretly hoping she finds her thumb eventually.

 

[Sherlock]

I know Sherlock often advises on the use of dummies and she advocates using the NUK dummy (I think) if you are breastfeeding. She also recommends losing the dummy at around 4 months if you don;t want your LO to continue to use it . After 4 months they remember it and it will be harder to stop using it. Personally I'm letting my LO keep hers until she's around a year old.

Hehe I do. Someone reads what I write anyways

And in reply to the original post....

I always recommened the nipple shaped ones over flat ones for breastfed babies yes. And NUK sell those. Someone else makes them but I always stuck with NUK.

And yup, 4-5 months if you don't want your LO to get really attached. After that they will have longer term memory of it and it can be much harder to ditch. Not always but often. I'd get brave and ditch it one morning, have 24 hours or so of fussing and be done with them. Or hopefully your LO will self wean off the dummy before then.

FWIW Galen no longer uses his at all. And the one thing we did at night was to only use it when he first went to sleep but never to settle him back in the middle of the night. I'd have been in and out of bed endlessly if I had done that. Also in the first few weeks I never used one and so had very little sleep at night as like all new babies, Galen just wanted to comfort suck and be near me. That good old breastfeeding supply building. We used one very carefully om 3 weeks onwards and for relief of colic and to help ease off the comfort sucking in the day. As babies adjust to day and night and start sleeping better at night they have less need to comfort suck. So we never went with a dummy then. Galen settled himself off at night from about 6 weeks old.

 

[Bee]

Oh forgot to say I used the Mam ones cos they didn't have a ring thing

 

[maybebaby]

Austin had a dummy from about 10 days old, and never had a problem with nipple confusion.

 

[DebbieM]

We waited til about 3 1/2 weeks until we gave Luke a dummy incase of nipple confusion.

 

[Tadpole]

I also went with Sherlock's recommendations of NUK dummies. I gave Olivia one at about 3 weeks and she is already using it less and less as she has found her thumb. (Not sure if thumb-sucking is better or worse but it looks darn cute!!! )

 

[helsbels]

Hey all
Just wanted to say thanks for all the replies! Much appreciated. Tried Hattie with the dummy but she didn't take to it, am going to keep trying though! She did however sleep a little longer last night but am not counting my chickens just yet!
Thanks again
love H xxxx