MadeUpMilestones: The Deedee fairy with @ItsaTinkThing

It's time for another #madeupmilestones guest post, where I get the privilege of sharing a special moment for someone.  And today, it's from It's a Tink Thing about a milestone many of us will be able to relate to... finally getting rid of the dummy in the daytime!

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1. Who has achieved their #madeupmilestone? Tell us a bit about them

My daughter, Tink is 5. She was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. She's just started (special) school this September!

2. When and where did the #madeupmilestone happen?

Over the last week or so of the school holidays. It's something we've been attempting for a long, long time though!

3. The fab part... what happened?

She has stopped using her dummy in the daytime! Tink has always had a dummy ('deedee') since a baby and, like most parents, we've tried to take it away since around the age of one. She did quite well at one point, and only had it for naps and bedtime, but, around a year ago, Tink decided that the deedee was an essential bit of kit and must come everywhere with her - in her mouth.

We think that she was using it for oral sensory stimulation, so we tried to introduce chew toys as a replacement, as she was chewing her way through several dummies a week! She wasn't keen on the chews though, and the dummy stayed.

However, a couple of weeks ago, she lost her first tooth. She seemed to grasp the concept of the 'Tooth Fairy', so I thought I'd try to apply the same theory to the 'Deedee Fairy' and suggested that maybe she could put her dummy under her pillow for the fairy to take and perhaps leave a toy in its place. Tink seemed quite taken with the idea. However, I couldn't get the toy she wanted in time, and the idea went by the wayside.

Then, one morning, I suggested she put her dummy in the 'Deedee pot' - a special pot we had decorated and used on a few occasions for Tink to put her dummy in for a set amount of time in return for a reward (chocolate - always a winner!). She put it in the pot and went to play. Then I took it out and hid it. When she eventually remembered, we looked in the pot to see it had gone!  She was a little upset, but I explained that the Deedee fairy had taken it.

When it came to bedtime, she became quite distressed, so I decided to give it back, saying that the fairy was very pleased that Tink had not had her dummy all day and she thinks it's a good idea to have it for bed, as long as she can have it back in the morning.

And this is what now happens every day! I take the dummy, and if, she asks for it during the day, which isn't often, I tell her the Deedee fairy has it and will bring it back at bedtime. And it's working! She's now gone over a week with no dummy at all during the day, which is a huge step!

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Well done Tink and thank you It's a Tink Thing for sharing it with us!.  I'm right with you - with three in our house it took us 4 million minutes to be dummy free! 

You can follow more of Tink and her family's stories on Twitter @ItsaTinkThing and Facebook.

If you'd like to take part in my #madeupmilestone series, please do not hesitate to contact me, I'm interested in hearing about any special moment or event for anyone you care for.