A UK mother has shared her very simple trick for helping her toddler daughter sleep through the night – and it seems other parents love it too.
Laura Gerson, of Canvey, Essex, revealed how she puts her 11-month-old daughter Amelia to sleep, surrounded by nearly a dozen dummies, which allows the toddler to reach out and find one herself when she wakes up crying through the night.
It means that Laura does not need to go through to her daughter’s room during the night to help her settle.
Laura shared the ‘weird bedtime routine’ on The Motherload Facebook group with a photo of Amelia in her cot with her dummies, writing: ‘Since my little one was about 3 months old she’s gone to bed with roughly 10 dummies in with her.
‘Found that when she cried of a night all she wanted was a dummy then she’d go back off. Realised that if she had one to hand then she would just find it of a night, trial and error with her losing a few down the side but 99 per cent of the time she feels around, finds a dummy, sticks it in and she’s sorted!
‘Haven’t had to go into her of a night for about 8 months now… WINNING!! [sic]’.
The post received an overwhelming response from parents praising the ‘genius’ idea.
One person posted: ‘Winner winner chicken dinner!!! I’m going to start doing this!’
Another agreed: ‘Why why why did I not think of this?! My little one loves his dummy and I am always getting up to put it back in.’
Despite the success of her parenting hack, Laura admitted she was worried about eventually weaning Amelia off the dummy, adding: ‘I don’t even wanna think about the time when the “Dummy Fairy” comes to take them away though!’