How to Breack the Pacifier Habit in My Toddler??? Help!

This probably sounds mean but one weekend when my mother in law visited (she didn't like that my kids had their pacifiers anyways) after she left I told my kids grandma took their binkies home. No tears, no nothing. Probably not the best thing to do but I finally got rid of those binkies:)

I'm having the same problems so I was curious as to the answer you were getting.

I had the same trouble with my daughter when she was 2. She had it only at nap and bedtime. I let her keep it that way until a few months after her brother was born. She had just turned 2 when he was born and I did not want to upset too many things at once. I know this may sound a little harsh, but I just took it away. She went off it cold turkey. I took it away at bedtime one night and she never had it again. She was quite upset and cried for a few minutes and it took her longer to go to sleep that night. The next day at nap was bad too, but she made it through. It took 2 days of whining and a little crying and then she was done. After that she stopped asking for it and went to bed and nap just fine without it. I hope this helps a little bit. Good luck with your daughter.

My kids were a little younger when we did it, but we went cold turkey.

Jaime,
Hi! We had the same problem, about 2-3 months before our daughters 3rd birthday we started to tell her when she turned 3 she was going to have to give up her paci. I told her we were going to give them to the paci fairy. she would come and pick them up and give them to other "little" babies that needed them. We talked about this every day at least once. On the night of her third birthday, I made out an envelope that said to the paci fairy from aliza please give these to any baby that needs them. She happily collected them and put them in the envelope we hung the envelope on our mailbox and the paci fairy came and got them. She was alittle sad when we went to bed, but i reminded her how helpful she was and she was such a big girl. She went to bed and slept normally that night. I think that I slept worse, I kept thinking she was going to wake up screaming but she didnt. That was in April and we are still paci free and she will still talk about how she helped babies with her pacis. Hope it helps and good luck.
H.

We had our daughter give up her passy when she was 2.5 years old. We put them all in a bag and gave them to Santa Claus when we had a picture taken with him. She was a little fussy when it came to bed time (she only had it while she slept or in the car), but we went on and on about how proud of her we were for giving her passys to Santa. When she asked for it again, we printed out a clip art picture and colored it together. It still hangs on her wall so she can see its picture. Her nap times were shortened significantly but at least her passy is gone. She rarely to never mentions it, even though her brother still uses one. Good luck!

Put the pacifier in a pocket of the child's clothing. Start setting boundaries/limits - amount of time down to the number of times (not the clock) they can suck on it. This allows THEM some control in the process of getting off the pacifier. I've witnessed three year olds in my class actually take out the pacifier from the pocket, suck on it two or three times and put it back in. They're fine and "that's all they needed". At some point, "ooops, we forgot to put the pacifier in your pocket." You'll know. They won't use it as much and pretty much forget about it. Talk about getting rid of it and not "you need to"...they could care less. They WANT that security and have some control over it. Set some "agreeable" boundaries and go from there. IT WORKS.

I just broke my daughter of hers. We talked with her about giving up her paci's alot before hand. When she turned 3, on the night before her birthday we put all her paci's on a ribbon and hung them on a tree, then the paci fairy could come and take them for other babies. In turn the paci fariy left my daughter a surprise she had been really wanting. We have had no problems and it was almost a month ago. Hope that helps:)

See if you can make a deal with her. Does she have a blanky or favorite stuffed animal? If not, see if she would be willing to give mommy her paci for a new blanky/animal to take to bed with her. If she does give you her paci, be sure there are none laying around the house or under things, she will find them. This worked with my youngest son. At about 3, he gave up his paci for a blanky. My oldest son was a different story, I eventually had to take it away, and yes he cried for a while but it didn't take long for him to be ok without it. I did leave a blanky and stuffed animal in his bed with him so he had options too. If it means you might have to go through a bit of crying for a few days or a week, its worth it, trust me. You will be so happy when the goal is reached and the hard part is over.

I had a friend suggest we let the "binky fairy" (or "paci fairy") do it. She saw it on the show "The Nanny". She suggested we hang a pic of a fairy on the wall and tell her she's a big girl now and it's time to let the binky fairy take it so she can get a new toy or a prize. The idea is to tell her to put it under her pillow (which it probably won't stay there), and then you take it while she is asleep and replace it with a doll or toy or stuffed animal, etc. Don't forget to take down the picture of the fairy too.

We tried this, except my husband was more bold than me. He put her to bed and took the binky and said he was going to give it to the binky fairy since she was a big girl now. I would've taken it while she was sleeping. I guess i was taking to long to find a pic of a fairy, as I kept putting it off another day because I was dreading the sleepless nights from her crying for it. Well, there was no picture of any fairies and no toy to give her in place of taking the binky, but let me tell you....it still worked. We blamed the binky fairy for it all. She asked me to tell her to bring it back and I told her I would try to call her(the fairy) to get it back, but since she's a big girl now the fairy probably won't. i got her a little doll the next day and gave it to her saying it was from the fairy. Anyway, she only cried 2 nights as she was falling asleep, but slept through the night just fine without it. We were very careful to try to keep her busy to keep her mind off of it and didn't bring up the subject at all. We just kept telling her how proud we were of her when she would ask about it.

Another tip...don't let her take a nap those days so she falls asleep easily at bedtime to minimize the crying. Also, give lots of hugs and reassurance of what a big girl she is. I was shocked at how easy it all really was. Only a few days and it was all worth it to save her teeth!! I truly expected it to involve way more crying. She was about 2 1/2 at the time.

My sister recently did this with her daughter and it worked very well. The thing is your daughter needs to be familiar with Dora for it to be successful. She kept taking off a bit at a time. ( cut the tip) She told her Swiper was taking pieces of it. It ended up that Swiper swiped the binky for a new baby! Sounds kinda silly and deceiving but it worked. No one at the house lost any sleep and it made sence to her child. After all, Swiper does swipe things. :) If you guys are Dora fans it might work for you well. Hope this is somewhat helpful. Good luck with whatever you try!

I don't have advice...just our story. The speech therapist said that she didn't think the pacifier was the problem, but it wasn't helping either. We should stop sippy cups and pacifiers. So, we took the pacifier and talked our son into not using it, did a sticker chart and at the end he got a "boo dum tuck!!!". He asked for it a few times and whined a little, but gave it up pretty quickly.
So, problem? Now he sucks his thumb:( While he used to only use the pacifier to sleep during naps, night, and really cranky car rides (not around town, but we have family 3 and 4 hours away), now he spends most of his time in the car with his thumb in his mouth.

If I had it to do all over again, I would let him keep it and try again after he was three. Definitely watch to make sure he's not using his thumb instead!!!

I just read a friend's blog last night about how she broke her nearly 2-yr-old daughter! She cut the tip off the paci but didn't make it readily available. She made her daughter ask for it. When she did, that's the one mom gave her but didn't make a big deal about it. Her daughter put it in her mouth and didn't like it one bit! She took it out and looked at it a couple times and then handed it back to mom and continued playing. She asked for it again at naptime with the same results and then again at bedtime and that was that! She sucked her thumb a little instead of using the paci but my friend said she can't suck her thumb while playing so she's not really worried about that.
They also made a really big deal the first time she gave it back about being a big girl now (she has an older brother).
Whatever you do, stick with your decision.
Good luck!

We were exactly where you are now with our 2 yr old. I cut a couple of slits in her binkies with a knife and when she went to use it at night she sucked on it, made a face, pulled it out of her mouth looked at it and said it was broke. The next day she threw it out on her own.

Our 2 year old fell and split his lip open and the dr. said after stitching it up that he couldn't have the binkie. That worked for him. I don't want your little one to split her lip, but you could tell her that the dr. said she couldn't have it anymore. Just a thought.