When to Take Away Pacifier.

I'd say don't over think this. I OBSESSED over whether or not I was letting my daughter keep hers too long. She is 14 months and still uses it, but like you, only for naps and sleep.
I think as long as she is an independant sleeper with the paci, then its no big deal. Now when I ask for the Paci's after she is done with her nap, she will just hand them over.
I did just read in a book that 13-14 months is a window of opportunity because they may get more attached to a Lovey. I've found that she doesn't look for them for naps any more after she got into her lovey. I just hand it to her, she hugs it, and she goes off to bed. We're trying to get away from it at night too, but if she asks for it, I just give it to her.
I think you'll know when it's the right time.

Don't know that I would take away yet - she is young and doesn't have it all the time. My suggestion would be to start with nap (take it away). Try something else she can cling to. When my daughter was older and we had to break her, she picked a shirt from my closet (t-shirt) and started sleeping with it. That is a secirity for them. The other thing I have done, she would fall asleep and I would remove nuk from the area and my youngest has been sleeping all night without it. Soon, she will have to pick something else to fall asleep with and there will be no nuk.

Since your baby is already transitioning from bottle to sippy cup I think that you will be able to take the pacifier away at the same time you take the bottle away. My daughter began by cutting the tip of the pacifier away. A very small snip at first, watch for her reaction and then the next day snip it some more until she doesn't want it anymore. It might take a few snips and a few pacifiers to do the trick. My granddaughter left the pacifier in one week. Good luck!

When my son was 11 months I took the pacifier from him slowly. The method I used was I lay him down and put him to sleep with out it. He tossed for a couple of nights reaching for it, but eventually he stopped. Take him a warm bath before bed to calm him down and then put him down for bed. That seem to help a lot also. Hope it works out for you. Let me know how it turns out.

You are totally over thinking this! She is soothing herself. She's a baby...let her be a baby.

I would say between around 6 months and not after 1 year. You don't want to ruin her teeth. You want her to be able to sleep on her own and if you cut the pacifier cold turkey, she will forget about it. This worked for my first 2.

I feel that taking away a pacifier is different with each child. It is a security issue for many children. And if you take it away to soon the child may start sucking his or her thumb. that is worse because of the child's teeth. If you are ready to try it you are the parent and should go head.

S.

the earlier the better. now is a good time. it just gets harder and harder the older they get- they get more had strong.

I think between the ages of 2-3 yrs. Because after you take the bottle away there is nothing to pacify them.

Hi - you are smart to think about this now. My son is 19 months old, and he's been using his passy at naptime and bedtime only since about 13 months. We just went cold turkey on that too 3 days ago, and so far so good. But he did become quite attached to his passy, and for the past couple of weeks he started getting upset when we put it away in the morning when he would wake up. That's when I knew for sure we let him have it for too long! I think every child is different, so I'm not going to give you an exact age, but I'd say the sooner the better so she doesn't become too dependent on it. Best of luck!

I will look forward to hearing the advice you received! I have heard a wide range of philosophies on this one. I mean anywhere from 4 mo to 2 years. I believe the 4 mo belief is that there are changes in the sucking reflex? On the 2 year end, there may be some concern about delaying speech development?

As the mother of 5, I do know that waiting too long will be a big problem. My first finally gave her pacifiers up between the age of 4 and 5--but I have to admit that this was more of a parental problem. The pacifier became a crutch--hence, the name pacifier. It did it's job. However, my lack of consistency drug the process on. One big sabotage was that on at least two occasions after some good weaning, my daughter found a pacifier we misplaced around the house. She finally gave it all up when we found all of the pacifiers together, collected them and "gave them to the babies who needed them."

On another note, children 2 and 3 never had the chance to get hooked. My second took one pacifier for a short time and gave it up when it broke. She used it, but was never really fond of it like my first. My third, he is only 4 now but I really can't remember if he ever used it. I know we tried and he didn't really seem to like it.

I just know that the pacifier can help sooth, but I would just say to be careful how you are use it. I feel like I really have to use it for my youngest twins at this point. They have to have some comfort while I am busy trying to meet the needs of the other little ones. At the point you are at, it is not too late to think about that. AND, probably most important--I have found that with any change for children gradual transitions are best. When you deem appropriate, start giving it less and less until you stop. Have a plan though--that really helps me.

Best of luck in whatever you decide! My apologies for being so long winded...

I'm one that will let my kids keep it 'til around 2. Afterall, they're only using it a bed and naptime. My son was a little over 2 when I snipped the tip off. He put it in his mouth and said "paci's broken" and that was that. We never used it again. We didn't even really have any rough nights or naps. But as someone else said, all kids are different. My second is 14 months and I plan on trying the same thing. He's a tough cookie though and I probably won't have it that easy. I just found it better that my son understood that it was broken. At 10 months, they have no idea why paci isn't there anymore.

As soon as she's ready for a sippy cup. When trained on sippy she can have a small drink before bed instead of paci. She'll be easier to potty train also.

I am surprised that you haven't gotten more responses on this request yet, so I will add my 2 cents. My daughter's daycare told me that they prefer the pacifier be taken away at 12 months when I asked them to not let her have it except at naps at 15 months. I think it may have been easier to have taken it away at 12 months. However we were working on taking away the bottle at that time and I didn't think I could deal with both. So at 15 months we started allowing her to have the pacifier only at nap time and bed time. We had one issue where she tried to take another child's pacifier at daycare at that time, but I believe it only happened once. I don't remember the exact timing, but around 17 months she stopped taking the pacifier at daycare for nap time. At 18 months I was forced to take the pacifier away completely because my daughter got a skin infection near her mouth so the doctor said no pacifier. Our doctor also said that he felt there was no need for a child to have a pacifier after turning a year old, that after that it is just a habit. It took my daughter about 3 nights to stop crying for the pacifier and about 5 nights to stop asking for it. We were not so bright and left the pacifiers in a drawer in the kitchen. She did see them some time after we had taken the pacifier away and she had a bit of a fit screaming for them. After we through the bag of pacifiers away she has never asked for them again.

So, if we have to go through this with a second child, I am going to try and force myself to do it at 12 months (at least that is what I say now). BTW, my dentist told me that I would have to do it at 2 years to make sure it didn't cause dental problems.

Good Luck,
D.

Our Dentist said that it needed to go by the age of 3. Our first one we struggled with more. Our second child knocked her tooth out and immediately quit because it was uncomfortable at that point. The bad part is she doesn't go down as easily to bed. Good luck

Your baby is soothing herself, I would let it be. Babies cannot express themselves when something bothers them like we can, so the pacifier gives them an outlet. Hope this helps.