Breaking the Pacifier Habit

We used the Pacifier Fairy who came one night and took all of them and left goodies. Lame but it worked.

I just dealt with this with my 2.5 year old son. I started telling him a made up story about the binky (or whatever you call it) fairy. She comes at night when the child is ready to give up their binkies, and she leaves them a special present in return for the binky. She then takes the binky and gives it to the new babies that are being born. This worked great for my son. I had to tell him the story almost every night for about 2 weeks, and when I was done with the story I would ask him if he was ready to give his binky to the Binky Fairy. When he told me yes, we made a place in the living room to place all the binkies, and when he woke up in the morning there was a special toy in that place and all the binkies were gone. When he asked for a binky I just reminded him that we gave them to the Binky Fairy and that she took them for the new babies and left him his Buzz Lightyear. He doesn't ask for them anymore.

Hi Amanda, my daughter who is now 10 was a passy girl and let me tell you she loved it every minute, she used her passy until she was 3 and it did affect her front teeth so if you do want her to let go you might have to break her little heart, I wish I did earlyer in her toddler days because her front teeth do stick out and so does her cousins who used her passy until age 3 almost 4,they say it doesn't affect their teeth but it does maybe this will help you find a way to just say we have to let it go for the sake of your teeth, I know it seems mean but it will save you money on a Orthodontist one day, spend a lot of time with her and give plenty of love while she tries to let the passy go. Good luck I hope this helps a little.

I read in a magazine that if you poke a hole in the pacifier, you are taking away the one thing that makes them so soothing and pleasurable to children. Instead of it expanding and filling their mouths, it collapses. Maybe if she tries it one day, and find that all of them are "broken", then she wont like it anymore.

Another method you could try is to put food coloring on it, and show it to her that it's dirty. Then throw them away infront of her so that she knows that they are no good. My cousin used to have his pacifier in his mouth all the time, but one day he dropped it in a bowl of pepper juice by accident, and from that day on, he never picked one up again... so maybe not something that will be hot, but something that doesn't taste so good could work too. Good luck!

i have heard with great success to cut the tip off the paci. it's no fun then. hope this helps

My 2 oldest were pacifier lovers. Had it every where and like you said talked with it. I was fortunate for both of them that I just took it from them and said I was throwing it away because it is no good. Showed them to the trash can and let them see me throwing it away. Of cours for the first few days it was none stop asking and crying for it but after that it was gone.

Amanda,

I recommend cutting the tip of the pacifier. This prevents them from being able to get the suction on it they are used to. We did this with my son and within 48 hours he had NO interest in having it.

Good luck!

At that age we made it just for sleep - so it had to stay in the bed and if he talked with it in I'll tell him I can't understand him.

Hello Amanda,
I to just posted a question like this about a week ago, my son is 15 months old and someone sent a response to my post that said to cut the tip off, well i cut it about half way and everytime he put it in his mouth he would take it back out and loose interest in it. It became more work for him to try to suck on it and it took all of 2 days and he didn't want it no more. good luck
kimmy

I loved the "Binky Fairy" idea from Cherissa B. That is a very comforting approach. It's amazing how a little story-telling and imagination can get a message through to little ones.

Along those same lines, I kept a special can of "Monster Spray" to get rid of nightmares. It was nothing more than Baby powder scented air freshener, but that worked like a charm for my son. I told him that "monsters" reeeally don't like things that smell good. When he'd have a bad dream, I'd spray the room so he could smell the nice fragrance. He was OK then, knowing that monsters would not like it and stay out of the room, and he'd go right back to sleep.

It was pretty cool when I found the spray can in his room one morning and I knew that he had gotten it himself and handled a bad dream on his own.

i cut the tips off my four year olds. and gave him the base. the first night was bad. He took it to bed with him and told his dad how mean I was but after that he just through them all away

Amanda,
I saw the method that Cherissa recommended on Supper Nanny. I thought it was a great idea. Let us know if you try it out. I had one binky baby and he broke himself one day. I found them in the fridge, the drawer below the stove and in the dryer. It was like he played hide and seek with them and never went to seek. LOL. Good luck!