Ditch or Keep the Dummy? How to Decide What’s Right for Your Baby
If you’ve been wondering whether it’s time to ditch your baby’s dummy, you’re definitely not alone. It’s something many families think about—usually when sleep starts to feel a little trickier than usual. Before you make the call, it’s worth taking a moment to understand how dummies fit into different developmental stages and what role they’re playing in your little one’s sleep.
Why Dummies Can Be Helpful
For newborns, dummies can be a wonderful settling tool. Sucking is incredibly soothing for tiny babies, and a dummy often helps them calm, regulate, and drift off to sleep more easily.
For older babies—around 8–10 months and up—dummies also tend to be low-maintenance. By this age, most babies can find and replace their dummy independently, which means it usually becomes a non-issue for sleep. They wake, pop it back in, and carry on snoozing.
The Murky Middle Stage: 4–8 Months
Where things can get a bit complicated is the 4–8 month window. This is the age where many babies aren’t yet able to reliably replace the dummy on their own. So when it falls out during a nap or overnight, they need your help—which can lead to the famous dummy runs.
If you’re pacing back and forth during the night putting that dummy back in (over and over again), you’re not imagining it… this stage can feel relentless.
How to Know Whether to Keep or Ditch the Dummy
Instead of guessing or going with what everyone else seems to be doing, I recommend asking yourself two key questions:
Is my baby waking frequently during naps or overnight and needing my help to replace the dummy?
Is this becoming an issue for me? Does it bother me enough that I want to make a change?
If the answer is YES to both, then it may be the right time to think about phasing out the dummy.
If the answer is NO to either one—your baby isn’t waking for it, or it’s not bothering you—then there is absolutely no pressure to ditch it. Keep doing what’s working for your family.
If You Do Decide to Ditch It… Have a Plan
Removing the dummy is a change, and like any change in your baby’s sleep, it goes most smoothly when you have a clear plan in place. Since your baby currently relies on the dummy to settle, you’ll want to support them with a responsive settling method as they learn a new way to get to sleep.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach here. The best method is the one that aligns with your parenting style and your baby’s temperament.
Final Thoughts
There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to dummies—only what feels manageable and sustainable for your family. Whether you keep it, ditch it, or simply wait and see, trust that you know your baby best.
And if you ever want personalised support, reassurance, or a tailored plan, I’m here to help. Little Kippers exists to make sleep feel less stressful and more supported for the whole family. Book a free 15 minute discovery call here.
