If your child falls asleep with a comforter, such as a dummy, it may fall out or get lost as your child sleeps. For dummies, there are a number of approaches to dealing with this, for breast or bottle, only number 2 would be appropriate:
- Wean off the comforter
- Remove the dummy, breast, or bottle just before your child falls asleep. (Steps for doing this are detailed in the The No Cry Sleep Solution, which is reviewed here: https://www.practicalresearchparenting.com/2014/04/26/no-cry-sleep-solution-review/)
- Keep a number of comforters in the cot. Teach your child to return comforter to a pot in the cot, and take comforters from the pot. Alternatively, hang multiple dummies on glow in the dark hooks around the cot (without strings as these could be a choking hazard). This depends on your child’s age and development.
Please add your experiences with these approaches in the comments below. Please provide the age of your child when you tried it, and how long you tried it for. If it helped with sleep, please share the effects you saw. If it didn’t help, why do you think it didn’t help in your case?