Pacifier - Spooner,WI

A.,

When my son was little, he had a pacifier. When he was about one, I cut off the very tip of it. He still used it. A few days later, I cut off a little more.....a few days later, a little more....you get the idea. Soon, he didn't want it any more and it was HIS idea.

My son LOVED his "Miney"....first of all I recommend that she not have it in the store, or anywhere for that matter if she is satisfied and happy. When my son was happy his miney was in my pocket. I eventually weaned him down to naps and bedtime. By 20 months, he would talk about it a lot and we talked about it as if it were a toy. one day we couldn't find it...I mean really coundn't find it. I asked him if this other toy would do..(it actually was a motel key) and he said yes...He asked about miney a couple of times and I just told him it was lost...that was the end of it. Just keep having her put it up on the counter when she is busy and happy and eventually she'll be too busy talking to notice it is gone.

We limited use to naps and bedtime. Our son seemed to be using it more and more and tried talking with it and we couldn't understand him, plus I was tired of the "Where's the binky? Do we have a clean one?" etc. So we limited it to naps and bedtime, then just bedtime and then we just told him that he didn't need it anymore. He cried for about 3 nights and that was it. He was about 2 1/2 at the time.

I had another friend who slowly cut a bit of the tip off each day until there was basically nothing left and he gave it back to her. (However, I've since read that that can be a choking hazard.)

Another friend gathered them all up and had her daughter pick out a new toy and she had to use her pacifiers to "pay" for it and they gave them to the clerk at the store.

I also read about the Binky Fairy where you put the binkies in the window for the fairy to take to the new babies who need them and in the morning, the Fairy leaves a present in return for the binkies.

As for the blanket, I say let her have that. It's not harming her teeth or speech. My son also has a "lovey" and we only let him have it at home. He's not allowed to take it anywhere (so it doesn't get lost) unless we are traveling. It makes a world of difference to him if he has it at night. Even his younger sister will take it to him if she knows he's upset. It's very sweet.

Good luck in whatever you do.

DO NOT cut the rubber end off, it is a major Choking hazard!

My daughter is 14 months and she only gets either when in bed. She has learned that when we come to pick her up from a nap that she must take out the nuk before I'll pick her up. Sometimes she hands it to me and sometimes she throws it in the crib. I would like to start using it less, but I figure as long as it's only being used at bedtime and nap time it isn't hurting her. Good luck in what ever you do.

Cutting back is the first thing to do. I started to cut my kids down to only in their bed @ about 9 months old. When I would get them out of the crib I would take it out of thier mouth and say "bye-bye paci", soon they would even spit it out as soon as I came to the crib to pick them up.

If they were sad and wanted it during the day they had to lay in their crib, well that was no fun, so they didn't do that often!

As soon as they were 2 we had the "Paci Fairy" come and take all thier pacis that were under thier pillow and leave a special toy.

This worked wonderful, and we had no problems!

GL!

Another suggestion I read about in Parents...
If you know someone with a new baby, you can tell her that the new baby needs the pacifier now, and box them up with some pretty bows as a way for her to feel like a big girl (sis).

my daughter is 20 months and she only gets it for night night. she takes it out of her mouth and hands it to me as soon as she wakes up and gets out of bed. she also uses it for naps. personally this does not bother me. she calls hers a me me. her having her binki at night still reduces the risk of sids. eventually as soon as she is 2 i'll trade her something for it, since she will be old enough to understand what is going on! good luck

Around the age of 2, we allowed both of our daughters to have nuks only during naptime and at bedtime (once we started we never caved). After a couple of months, we eliminated the naptime nuk, and by 2-1/2 they were nuk-free at nighttime. With my oldest, we "forgot it" when we went to visit her grandparents - the first two nights she cried a little bit, and we reminded her that we forgot it at home, to which she replied "oh, that's right". After the 3rd night she never asked for it again. We did make sure the entire house and all diaper bags were nuk-free when she returned home! Surprisingly she never looked or asked for them. With my second daughter, it was easier (much to my surprise!). She liked to chew on them, and when she'd chew a hole in one, we'd make her throw it away so she knew it was gone. It also helped her to see that her "stash" was dwindling! When she threw the last one away, she said "bye bye nukies" and that was it....She too woke up crying the first couple of nights, but it was never a long time - we'd rub her back until she went back to sleep. We did allow both of them to pick out a new stuffed animal to replace the nuks as a comfort item. My biggest words of advice - once you either reduce the nuk time or eliminate all together, do not cave in; offer comfort and words of support at how well they're doing without it! Good luck!

As a speech pathologist, I want to encourage you in your quest to wean from the pacifier. You've probably gotten a lot of responses already, but here are my best pointers for parents in your situation. The most important is to Plan Ahead! Figure out your plan, including how you will respond to her various predictable protests. Then stand firm no matter what!
First decision is: cold-turkey, or gradual?
I have a soft heart for kids, so I don't like the idea of abruptly removing all security for mine. With my son, the first step was to limit the pacifier to the crib. I began to tell him, that's just for night time. I would "help" him throw it back into his crib. I pushed through his cries, and after a day or two he had the routine down. whew!
The next step is to get rid of it all together.
I got lucky. My son got a bad cold and couldn't breathe with it in his mouth, so he didn't want it. The hard part was not to give it back to him when he was better, because it was so much easier for him to fall asleep with the pacifier! I had to train myself to rock him, put him down partly asleep, pat his back, and keep telling myself that the pacifier was NOT an option. He's now almost two and we're done with it completely.
Some other ideas--see if they fit with your style:

1. let her "pay" for a new toy by giving her pacifier to the cashier. (you might want to prepare her for this ahead of time, especially if there is a toy she really wants, so that she knows shes made the decision)
2. let a pacifier fairy come and exchange it for a toy under her pillow on some designated night
oh, one last thought-- let her keep the blankie! Eventually, you may want to limit it to the crib. But, unlike pacifiers, blankies are not harmful to health or development in any way. And they help when she needs to have a nap at grandmas!

good luck!

My oldest two children would not take a nuk, and I did not offer it to my youngest. There are other posts about this on here, you may want to check those out. There are warnings about pacifiers causing problems with speech and even teeth. You may want to research that more. I have heard from family and friends, that is is more so the parents that are addicted to the Nuk. It is harder on you than the child to give it up. Don't get me wrong, the first few days may result in a lot of tears, but they do forget about it. Good Luck

let her have it for a little longer it won't hurt

As I just told anohter mom today, what we did with my daughter, after failing with other things, is I cut the rubber off the end of the pacifier and gave it back to her. After a couple of days she realized it was not the same and left it alone. We had a couple of long days and nights but it was worth it.

I have left her attached to her blanket- she is now 5. We did not make a big deal out of it and she likes to still have it but does not make a big issue about it. the only restriction on it is that we do not travel with it, Ducky stays home!

S.

I wouldn't worry about it at that age another mom posted the same Q ahead, but I don't see what the big deal is other then it can be annoying at times for the parents. It is just a form of comfort when everything around them is constantly changing. I have a pillow that I have been using for 15 years it started out lookin like a bear, I have cut out the stuffing every 2 years and make a new cover, and goes anywhere I am going if I am not going to be home at night, (I wash the stuffing regularly) and I am a perfectly normal and well adjusted person......most of the time Lol, my kids might not agree, but half are teenagers and don't always like me. I say relax she is only a year and a half, leave her be you will have other more challenging issue to deal with and a binkie and blankie are really minor.

My now three year old was about 27 months when I finally got her to give up her pacifer. I figured with all the new changes we had coming, plus the possibility of heart surgery that summer, she would need all the security she could get. At 2, we were able to reason with her better and we offered her a trade, a new purse for all her pacifers. Worked like a charm. However recently, she has start sucking her thumb, again she has had some major changes coming, including starting preschool, which was the start of the first time away from me. Its was tough at first for her, but now she loves it. As for language skills, she is in the top for her age group, in fact her preschool teacher is very happy with her skills and thinks she will really help out the other kids her age who might not have the same skills. She was only allowed her pacifer at nap and bed times, and it is the same with her thumb. Good Luck!

We had the same thing with our two kids. My mother in law recommended cutting a hole in the pacifier as it would not have the same texture as it caved in, and my nephews and nieces spit it out because of the change.

I didn't have as much luck, and after we left a pacifier at the beach in Florida and my youngest screamed the whole way back to the hotel (2 hours). I decided as soon as we returned from our trip it would be gone. It took about two painful weeks but it never came up again. We got home, threw every pacifier away, and ignoring and redirecting attention for almost exactly two weeks was what it took before he just realized he didn't need it. It is painful (for a very short time) but was smooth sailing after that.

My son is 12 1/2 months old and he loves his binky and bear blanket. There is nothing wrong with having a blanket for comfort while their whole world changes around them. Plus they are going through so many changes themselves and fall and get hurt ect. so having a blanket is so comforting to her that it is helping her now. You would like one to at that age. My son starts to cry and finds his blanket he stops crying.
As for the binky I guess I cant help you there were not there yet. Im in no hurry to get rid of that it helps him also. He uses it at naps and night time and he finds it during the day right now but like I said hes still very young so theres no rush. Good luck!

To get my daughter to stop using hers, we limited it like you had done with only nap/bedtime, then I made her watch me throw them all away and said "No more binkie, you're a big girl." We never had a problem after that. I think having her watch me throw it away in the "yucky" trash helped. Also, you can time it to getting her a "big girl" bed or panties or something of that nature. Hope this helps.
As for the blankie, my daughter never fixated on any one thing. Maybe introducing something new every now and then would help. We also told my daughter that her other stuffed animals/blankets would be sad if she never slept with them.