1) how and how often to you clean paci's?
2) I try to limit to carseat and sleep, however my DD has started signing for the paci around 4:30 to dinner and 8-9a and is otherwise very cranky, whiny unless I pick her up and hold her/carry her around as I try to do morning clean up and prepare dinner. This morning, I let her have it and she played happily. Thoughts?
My son is 15 months old and I clean his binky's about once a month, maybe 2x. I boil them on the stove.
I think around this age is when I started to limit my daughter's to bed and in the car as well, but there are times when he's cranky or needs some additional soothing so I do not mind letting him have it. I wouldn't worry about it. Just try to keep her occupied first and if that doesn't work, let her have it for awhile :)
Honestly, I seldom clean mine unless they are really gross.
I just run them under water if they are dusty, or throw them in the dishwasher if someone's been sick. Given the other stuff that goes in my kid's mouths, I'm not worried about paci's being gross.
As for limiting...I'm a bad example. I let DS have his until 2 months ago (he's 2.5). It was a complete crutch for him. One day, when he had developed eczema around his mouth form the moisture, I told him that "binks were all done". And he was totally fine with it, which tells me that he was ready to get rid of long before.
I personally would suggest cold turkey, rather than here or there for letting them have it. Rules get bent that way, and pretty soon there aren't any.
I rinsed them off with some frequency and tried to boil them abotu once a week or msaybe every other week. But I took them all away at about 9 months - she LOVED them for naps and sleeping but we started with naps then to bedtime. We were lucky and it was easy. GOod luck!
We usually limited pacifier use to napping and sleeping. She rarely got it in the car unless it was a really long trip. We weaned our daughter right after her 2nd birthday. We didn't intend to let her have it that long but she slept so good with it. We only had a couple of days where she asked for it but after that she forgot all about it. We cut the end of the nipple off and told her it broke and had her throw it in the trash...worked like a charm.
I would rinse the pacifier as needed. I cleaned them like crazy in the beginning but thats just a new mom thing. I would always check around the nipple for crud. If you look closely and use your fingernail, fuzz and what nots get stuck around there. I would make sure to clean that out then rinse it off. I would buy new pacifiers every other month or so just to be safe. And if she happened to get sick or have a fever or cold I would toss it out and get a new one.
The pacifier will keep most kids from trying to talk much or make it not clear speech so I would start to take it in the daytime while playing soon. I don't get all upset about them myself but would limit it like that or it becomes a crutch. I think nap time, bedtime, etc. is fine but remember the more they have it the harder it will be to break in the end. I cleaned my kids often as they drop them, if they go places with them they get very dirty, so I just washed them off in the sink with hot water and sometime dish soap IF you rinse it very well. You could boil it but I didn't boil their cups or other things they put in the mouth so I didn't do it after they got this old.
only a year old, i would definatly limit paci to sleep time or feel bad time only, but just put it in a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes, then let cool and dry :)
