I never offered by daughter (now 3) a dummy because I had heard lots of stories of babies waking in the night needing mum to put the dummy back in. My daughter found her own comfort in sucking her thumb. I wish I had offered her a dummy as I can't take her thumb away. She still sucks her thumb now! With my second (now 10 months) I did offer him a dummy but he never really took to it so in the end I stopped offering it to him! He thankfully does not suck his thumb :). OP I thought I read somewhere that 6 months is a good time to get rid of the dummy but I cannot remember why! Ha ha. Most of my friends got rid of the dummy at around 2 or 3 years of age :)
My little girl is almost 4 months old and i've never given her a dummy and im glad for it. The first 2 nights in hopsital after i delivered her i was totally exhausted and asked the doctor if i should give her a dummy. He said people only give babies dummies to shut them up and that's no good because if a baby is crying it's for a reason and it should be found out and sorted, not shut the baby up for peace (his words not mine). my sis in law's 11 month old wouldn't be seen without his dummy and God forbid he drops it - he screams blue murder! It's only a bad habit and my girl is fantastic without it.
My son enjoyed his dummy 'til a bit over one then just decided he didn't want it any more (about the same time as he decided, he didn't want any soft toys in the cot!). My second son, never took to it at all.
My son gave his day dummy up at age 1 and when he was 2 we asked him to put his night dummys in the bin, which he did and it took 2 nights of him waking occasionally and he was back to normal after that.
I would definitely give a dummy to my second child if it helped.
Both of my DD's wrapped theirs up for Santa when they were about 2.
I kept a couple back just in case, but I think due to all the Christmas excitement, they were forgotten about by the time New Year came. I did ensure that they got a special present from Santa in exchange :)
My son still has his, I have been waiting for him to self wean but he is approaching 3 and still can't fall asleep without it so we are going to "exchange" the dummy for his birthday gifts, wish me luck, its not going to be easy :(. (he has perfect teeth though which has been my main concern). I was so against dummies when my son was born, but the dummy ended up being such an amazing sleep cue that I actually tried desperately to get my second baby to take one, but she refused.
I gave my son his when he was born and took it away when he started sleeping through the night at 8 months and he didn't look for it once. My daughter who was colicky for the first 4 months and is now 8 months has it but uses it randomly. I think once she starts drinking cows milk at a year I'll take it away if not sooner.