Giving up your dummy with the dummy fairy

  • L. Griffiths
Silo Publishing £14.99 (+p&p) www.thedummyfairy.co.uk 9780323064019 | ISBN: 978-0-3230-6401-9
Guides children through their dummy rehab.

If, like me, you are a parent who has succumbed to giving your child a dummy, you may have reached a time when you know that the dummy really has got to go but you can see no way of conning your clever little one out of it. Help is at hand with the ‘Dummy Fairy’.

I loved the “Dummy Garden” page where lots of different coloured Dummy Fairies work to wash various dummies in a giant dummy-shaped washing machine, and then peg them out to dry on a washing line; the clean dummies are then given to new babies.

This is a popular concept at the moment with various similar products out there. The book comes with a Dummy Fairy doll which is wonderfully soft and velvety with a pocket like a kangaroo's pouch to hold your child's dummy.

The book itself has a page of tips on using the Dummy Fairy pack successfully, then a short story with large, bold print ideal for early readers. It explains to the child in simple, colourful illustration what will happen to their dummy once the Dummy Fairy has taken it. I loved the ‘Dummy Garden’ page where lots of different coloured Dummy Fairies work to wash various dummies in a giant dummy-shaped washing machine, and then peg them out to dry on a washing line; the clean dummies are then given to new babies. The story gives a magical touch to the process of giving up the dummy.

A nice idea included on the last page of the book is a cut-out certificate for the little one from the Dummy Fairy.

Nicola Sherlock and Noah

I really like the idea of encouraging the child to leave the dummy with the Dummy Fairy during the day - we tried a similar strategy with our little one: his dummy stayed on the bed with his comforter ‘Miss Ellie’ and apart from days when he was poorly or feeling a little clingy, we generally had no problem with this.

Our present for my son giving up his dummy was a sandpit, which one would struggle to fit in the Dummy Fairy's pocket – but perhaps she could have been perched on top of the gift. I do think care should be taken to ensure the child realises they can't keep (and in turn get attached to) the Dummy Fairy afterwards - she should be an elusive character much the same as Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy - there to do a job but then off to guide other little boys and girls through their dummy rehab.