Getting My Neice to Give up the Bink

Just take it away! I am a firm believer in the whole 'who are the parents' thing. We have alwyas taken away our childrens pacifier at 6-8 months, because the older they get, the harder it is to take it away. I really don't know how to take it away from a child that old.

We took away my daughters pacifier at 7 months, she found one under a bed when we were moving and she was 2 yrs old, she still put it in her mouth! Of course, I took it away and told her that was for babies. It seems that at the age of 2, they really DON't want to be babies.

Apparently it doesn't matter how young you take them away, if they like pacifiers, they like pacifiers :)

When my second child was 18 months old, I decided enough was enough. I found every single nuk he had in the house and I took a pair of scissors to every one. I cut little holes in different places on every nuk and gave them all back. For about six hours, he went from one to another to another over and over, trying to get some relief. At the end of the six hours, he finally decided they were all worthless to him and he walked away from them. And that was the end of that. Now if blankies were only so easy...

I wanted my son to get over it on his own, rather than me being a meanie and forcing him to separate from the nuk. i didnt want to end up with a child who sucked his thumb or bit his nails or some other bad habit to ease anxiety and replace the nuk. By letting him decide on his own that he was getting nothing out of the nuk, it left the decision in his hands (at least in his mind).

With all three of my children, I "forced" the nuk from day one, because you can throw a pacifier away but not a thumb. My daughter is 5 and she never took to the pacifier, but she STILL suks her thumb and I cant get her to stop. Both of my boys used the pacifiers and I used the same method to break both boys of using them. Worked fabulously.

As for the thumbsucker, Ive tried everything and have given up.

Take them all away and don't keep any in the house. My boys never took binkys but it worked with the bottle!

There are several 'tricks' you can try that I've heard from friends as being successful.

You could tell her that another baby somewhere far away was just born and doesn't have a binky of his/her own and if some big girl would let that baby have her binky he would be very happy. Sometimes the idea of being a 'big girl' is more desired than the binky, especially if she's about to be a big sister.

You could also tell her about the Binky Fairy. Sort of the tooth fairy idea here...you tell her the story of the binky fairy who comes to visit with big boys and girls decide they aren't babies anymore and don't need those binkies. The child can chose a spot in her room to leave her binky for the binky fairy and when she wakes up in the morning she'll have a new book or toy or treat of some kind.

Even if she is totally ready and just hadn't thought of it herself, there is always a chance she'll use her thumb as a replacement in times of self soothing. My son personally never took the binky. He would suck so hard on it when he was a month old that it would come shooting out of his mouth and would scream and scream until one day he found his thumb. That thumb had saved our sanity and now that he's 15 months the only time that he really sucks his thumb is when he's getting tired or super hungry. In fact, he only sucked on it once when the vacuum cleaner scared him and then he stopped.

It's not the end of the world if she chooses something else to suck or chomp on. Let me put this question out there...how many moms on here would confess to chewing on pen caps or hair or biting there nails? That oral fixation doesn't go away with the binky! Try everyone's suggestions and if she says no then wait a while. Good luck to you!

After my son turned two he was chewing holes in them because he was teething with his two year molars. I showed him how they were broken and told him they needed to be thrown away. He walked over to the garbage can and tossed it in. He "asked" for it at times and I reminded him that he threw it away. It wasn't an issue for us after that. Oh, and he found one about 4 months later, came up to me with it in his mouth with that silly grin on his face like "look what I found". I just old him it needed to be thrown away, he said "yah" and tossed it in the garbage.

Good Luck to your friend.

This may not be the kind of advice you are looking for, but it might be better to wait. I know alot of people feel differently that's understandable. The good news is that this is not a war and peace type of issue.

What you have to consider is with the baby coming your niece might regress. She will see a baby and want to be a baby too and you will end up with a little girl stealing baby's binks. Plus a wise woman once told me that if you take the bink away before they are ready they will find something else to suck that you can't throw away . . . their thumb. She was a Ph.D. in early childhood education and I trusted her opinion.

My daughter was 3 1/2 yrs. old when she finally was ready to let go, but when she did there was no crying or sleeplessnes or suffering. It was kinder to her and to us.

I just started letting my son have his in bed only at 18mths, then right around 2 I cut the rubber part in two. When he put it in his mouth, he immediately took it out and never wanted it again. I was surprised how easy it was, but he did really well.