Many babies cannot get themselves to sleep without a soother. The real problem is when your baby wakes up the soother has fallen out and they can’t find it. What many people do is attach a chain to the soother, although many others have concerns about the soother chain getting caught around the baby’s neck. The best thing to do is teach your baby to sleep without a soother.
Weaning a baby off a soother is never easy. You’ll need to prepare yourself!!! With persistence it is possible though. Try following these steps and see if they help:-
Weaning Baby Off Soother Step 1:
As your baby is falling asleep, but before she actually falls asleep, remove the soother from her mouth. Then place your finger under her chin and press firmly to stop the sucking movement of her tongue. If she awakes just say shhh, shhh gently to her. If she really starts to search for her soother give it back to her. Then again as she really starts to fall asleep remove the soother from her mouth and press firmly under her chin. Removing the soother needs to be repeated until she actually falls asleep without it. Be prepared this can take a while but it is very important she falls asleep without the soother.
Weaning Baby Off Soother Step 2:
After a few days as your baby starts to fall asleep quicker without her soother (don’t worry this will happen eventually!), stop giving her the soother going to bed. Just sit beside her and say shhh, shh and maybe rub her gently (but always stop rubbing before she goes asleep as you do not want to replace the soother with rubbing).
Weaning Baby Off Soother Step 3:
When your baby wakes up at night while being weaned off the soother, enter the room and say shh, shh. It may be a good idea to rub her hand or temple. If this does not get her back to sleep, give her the soother but always remove it before she goes to sleep.
In a recent case with a client in Cork I used this method and within a few days the baby was sleeping through the night without the soother. While this does take time and persistence it does work in most cases and does not involve using crying techniques.
How old does your baby need to be for this to be effective? Also do you recommend working on this during both naps and bedtime or just tackle it during bedtime first?
Hi Alyssa,
Thank you for your comment. This works best for babies under 4 months of age. I recommend starting at night time first and then work on the naps the following day. This does take lots of time and patience. If your baby is between 6-10 months I recommend introducing a gentle sleep training technique if s/he is wakening frequently during the night. Soothers usually aren’t much of a sleep issue once your baby turns 1 and has developed sufficient hand-eye co-ordination to be able to replace it for themselves.
Best Regards
Edel
Hi Edel,
Sounds like a good method I’ve a 6 weeks old who is very oral sensitive meaning that she is mouthing all the time and want s to suck all the time. she has suffered silent reflux too and found comfort in sucking after feeds…reflux improved greatly but she still wants to suck and cries for soother. She is beginning to have more short periods during the day with no soother when I can distract her on play mat, bathing or looking out window. For day naps she wants soother but at nite she takes her last bottle at 9 and sleeps. She doesn’t look for soother…This is same pattern for rest of nite feeds. She sleeps 3-4 hrs after each feed. She’s in a deep enough sleep goin bk into basket too.
She sleeps between moses basket and bouncer during the day I let her sleep on me with soother then I remove it and put her in basket or bouncer. Sometimes she sleeps 2 hrs but mostly wakes up after 20min looking for soother. I’ve tried to start her naps during day in bedroom but my method to date hasn’t worked . Should I try your method with naps I’m afraid of introducing the soother to crib in bedroom incase she then starts to look for it at nite then too. Any advice would be great thank you
Hi Sinead,
It is very common in he early weeks for babies to continually want to suck, as they get older the need usually subsides. For this I recommend doing what you need to do for the first few weeks, often by 8-10 weeks babies begin to settle and at this stage you can then try encouraging her to settle without the use of the soother of bottle. At the moment she is using the bottle as a soother in the evening time and as she is getting feeds during the night this is meeting her suck to sleep need. Currently at 6 weeks her sleep cycles haven’t developed therefore she is only wakening when she is hungry or in discomfort. When she is about 4 months her sleep cycles will develop and it is at this stage the suck to sleep need may cause problems as she will naturally rouse at various times during the night and will most likely need something to suck on to help her transition to the next sleep phase. Because of this I find using this method at about the 10 weeks can work well as it encourages your baby to settle without anything in her mouth. You should apply the technique also in the evening time to help your baby learn to settle without sucking on a bottle. By the time she is reaches 4 months she should have mastered how to settle herself thus avoiding lots of night time wakening.
Best Regards
Edel