Dum da dah, Dum Dum! (Boots Newborn Soothers)

Member Name: biffer

Product:	Boots Newborn Soothers
Date:	23/03/01 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It does soothe them

Disadvantages: They look awful, child may not want to give them up

Dummies, soothers, whatever you want to call them seems to have the nation split down the middle, you either approve of them or you don't.

Whilst pregnant with my first child everyone you meet has an opinion on how you should bring up your forthcoming baby, and believe me that includes dummies.

One of my joys of being pregnant was going out and buying a little something for the baby every week, be it bottles, bibs or dummies.

There was no doubt in my mind that I would give my baby a dummy, none at all. And why is that? Well, when I was a baby (along with my sister before me) I wasn't given a dummy. Therefore I sucked my thumb instead, and here I am a married mother of 1 and a ½ (pregnant again!) who stills sucks my thumb when I'm feeling down, ill or tired! My teeth are also not the best in the world due to thumb-sucking although not bad enough for me to want a brace.

Back to my son, I can remember wondering whether to pack the dummies in my hospital bag - I did. Then in hospital I was worried about actually giving him a dummy incase one of the midwives came up to me and conducted a sermon on the evils of them.

In the end I decided that he was my baby and if I saw fit to give him a dummy then I would do so.

I will admit that he became very attached to them and would have it in his mouth 24hrs a day if possible. However, by the time he started babbling I decided that it was time he had them no more. Having a dummy in your mouth whilst learning to talk doesn't help your speech much.

So one night my husband and I agreed that we would hide his dummies (just in case he wouldn't settle) when we put him to bed. Josh asked for it, but I told him that it had gone. He cried for about 10 minutes then went to sleep. The next day he tried it on with his Nanna, but she too had been prepped only to give it to him if he wouldn't settle down for sleep. Again she told him it was lost. That wa
s it, no more dummies and very pain free on both sides.

Now I know that not all children will make this change so easily, but given the choice of a dummy (which you can dispose of) and a thumb (which, lets face it, you can't) I would choose a dummy everytime.

Summary: