My Daughter is 17months old and still takes her pacifier. I have been reading up on good ideas to get rid of it. However, all these ideas are for children older then her. Like having her collect them all and tell her we are giving them away to other babies who need them and then giving her a special toy in place of the pacifier. Also everyone talks about cutting down slowly the use of her pacifier for naps or only sleeping. Well pretty much she has only gotten it when she goes to bed or takes a nap. She has never had it any other time. Except when she is in her carseat or stroller for naptime. So she basically uses it to sooth herself to sleep. People have been telling me if that is the only time she uses it then why cant she keep it. Well every night we put her to bed and we have to make at least 3 trips in her room because she has thrown her covers, her pillow and her pacifier on the floor. We know she cant sleep with out it. So help any moms have any good ideas about how to get across to her before we put her to sleep no mor pacifier tonight??? We relize we may have a couple nights of screaming before she is wheened of it....but if anyone has any tricks or ideas that maybe a 1.5 year old might understand!!!
Thanks for all your great Advice! Its funny about the 1 response I got about my daughter not being secure and thats why she needed a pacifier! Well just to let her know she is very secure I was not the one who introduced the pacifer to her it was the hospital they gave it to her the first night to sleep and she slept 4 straight hours, so yes indeed I thought anything to help both of sleep would be great. So we used them and they worked great until she started throwing them out! I still would recommend them to anyone because yes they did help my baby sleep. Anyway to let all the rest of you great mothers out there know....I am BINKY FREE!!! We started monday night she cried for about 30 minutes 10 of them loud the other 20 just wimpers and off to sleep, she woke up a couple times that night I went in told her no more BINKY the Binky is all gone rubbed her cheek and off to sleep she went. I had her out all day yesterday which was hard in the stroller but ended up finally napping only for 1 hour but last night to bed at 8pm 5 minutes of fussing and slept through the night til 7:30 am.....I was so surprised and so happy! I know it may not be over yet she may have some bad nights ahead but I am so glad I did it!! Thanks again for all your great comments, I really appreciate them I now know she was ready to get rid of it and so was I....now the next task is potty training!
My daughter still likes her pacifier at night...and she's 20 months old. She's starting to refuse it occasionally but I don't think we are ready to give it up completely yet. I read some advice here once on snipping the tip of the nipple off the pacifier and keep snipping until the baby decides it's no longer desirable. :0)
Hi M.
You have gotten some good advice I would just like to add something that I did with my own little girl. At 13 months I weened her from the bottle which she was only getting at bedtime and in the morning anyway. The pacifier was another story. She too was around 17 - 18 months when I finally won the pacifier battle.
What I did with her was that I would let her have the pacifier when I put her down for a nap. As soon as she was asleep, and the pacifier fell out of her mouth, I would take the pacifier out of her crib. At first if she moved around looking for the pacifier in the middle of her sleep, she would whimper a bit, but go right back to sleep. I did this for a few days, then I started putting her down for her nap without the pacifier at all. Don't get me wrong, I had to learn how to just let her cry a bit. If she didn't stop crying after about 5 minutes, then I would go in give her hugs, and lay her back down without the pacifier. After a while she was napping without the pacifier. Once she no longer needed the pacifier at nap time I tried the same process at night. After a few weeks, she was pacifier free and did not change into a thumb sucker.
I did not replace the pacifier with a special toy or a "lovee" simply because it irritates me when I see older children walking around like Linus plus I believe that this replacement encourages habits that last through "toddlerhood". She is 3 1/2 now, and is pacifier and "lovee" free.
I really hope this helps. Good luck
L.
I have not tried this because I have two thumb suckers (comes from a long line of thumb sucking in our family) but...a friend of mine told me when she went to take away her kids' (3 kids)pacifiers she poked a hole in the tip of the pacifier. She slowly made the holes bigger- I guess what happens is once there is a hole, the sensation of sucking it goes away because it becomes flat. Her kids just gave up sucking after that. Makes it easier then trying to explain "giving them away" and since your child is younger it is better than pacifiers just "disappearing." Good luck! We just started the stopping thumb sucking process so long nights ahead...but so far one night down and we were successful!!!
My daughter was 19 mos when we stopped using the pacifier. We told her about the Binky Fairy. The Binky Fairy comes to take the pacifier when your child is done using it so that a new baby can have one. Your child leaves the pacifier on the windowsill overnight then the Binky Fairy takes it to a new baby. (The Binky Fairy can leave a small gift if you want...) She was excited to leave the binky. (it did take a couple of days before SHE left the binky on the windowsill)
The first night she forgot and we reminded her that the Binky Fairy came the night before. I then told her, "Well, maybe she didn't come and we just lost your binky... let's look for it together!" So we looked all over her room, in her drawers, under her bed etc. When we didn't find it I said "I guess the Binky Fairy DID come last night when we were all sleeping. I am so glad that a new baby has a binky". It worked. Give it a try!
We had a very similar situation with bedtime and sippycups of water. I was getting up every night to retrieve and refill the cup. We tried to do a gradual transition, but it wasn't very successful. So, we stopped the night time sippycups cold turkey. It took about 3 nights of screaming and crying but in the end it was worth it. once the sippycup was gone he started sleeping through the night, which meant I was getting to sleep through the night. Oh, my son was 19 months old when we did this and my daughter was 17 months old. I would also try to do this while things are relatively calm in the house (no holidays, no new addition to the family, etc.). Good luck.
Hi M.
Wow! CAn I just say to throw out Julie L's advise. This woman is crass and rude. In the past, she wrote me some rude advise. She likes to make you feel like you are a bad parent. This woman should be banned form this site. She is a grandmother..Times have changed woman. Look into your heart to what you feel is right for your baby. If you are having a hard time going into her room every night to put it back in her mouth, than maybe ween her off of it. My 5 month old does the same thing. I have to go in his room all night to put it back in his mouth. I think we are going to try to break him of it starting tonight. The lack of sleep is killing us! lol. One more thing. It has NOTHING TO DO with your child NOT feeling safe and secure with you, that is why she needs a pacifier. That is such nonsense! I can't believe anyone would make such a judgement on someone they know nothing about! I know you must be a great mom...or else you would not be seeking advise about your baby!
I had a similar situation with my daughter. She was also very attached to her pacifier. But once when I discovered a hole in one of them, I told her that we needed to throw it away because it was broken. At first she was a little sad to see it go but she understand that when something was broken, it needed to go in the trash. So I took that and ran with it. I cut a hole into each of them, one by one (with some time between of course) and told her they were broken. She threw them away herself and we never replaced them. So she knew where they were, why they were there and that she couldn't have them anymore. I can't believe it worked but it did.
It may or may not work with yours, but it's another suggestion. And just ignore Julie L. She's from a different generation.
Good luck!
Hi M.:
I've said this before,and i'll say it again. Its a whole lot easier getting rid of a pacifier than A Thumb. Thumb suckers are very hard to break,and thumb sucking is the primary cause of (over-bites). Toddlers run their thumbs against their front teeth,with each suck. Try it yourself. You'll see what I mean.There is not a thing wrong with a child having something to soothe them to sleep.It has absolutely nothing to do with wether or not they recieve enough love and attention,but you are well aware of that already.My son didn't have a favorite blanket,or stuffed animal,but he soothed himself to sleep with a pacifier. The only reason,that I even considered taking it from him at 2,was because of the ignorant,comments that were made by others,whose personal opinions,really meant nothing to me.My son, only used it at bed time,and soon after his second birthday,he gave them to me.If your like me, you take what advice you think benificial,and toss out that,which you don't. If your only reason,for taking,what soothes her at night,is because she looses it or it winds up on the floor,then I'd get a clip,to help her hang onto it.The pacifier,wasn't developed for its stylish look,or its widely acceptable use as a vice.The idea,here is to make your child feel comfortable and safe,and if she feels secure in soothing herself with a pacifier,who is she harming,or offending here? I wish you and your darlin daughter the best.
My little guys were about a year and a half old when I decided to take the pacifiers away - concerns about their teeth, etc. So I just told them that the binkeys were only for little babies and they were going to be big boys from now on. They weren't taking the bottle at that time either - sippy cups which also helped with weaning off the binkeys. I did have them sleeping with their stuffed animals at that time (a bunny for one and a little dog for the other - and they stil sleep with them). That might be an idea for your little one - maybe swap out the binkey with a stuffed animal or try to dovetail the two.
Good luck! It's always an adventure!
A.
Hi M., No tricks, just parenting, take the pacifires and throw them away. You said the ideas you read about were for kids older than her, are you kidding me? Children should have enough security within their home and their parents to not need a pacifire to go to sleep. I know it's just my opinion but I have never believed in pacifires, raised 3 kids with out them, I feel they are not necessary, and it's one more thing you have to break them from. Take it throw it way, Try rocking her to sleep, sing her to sleep, I rocked and sang my babies/children to sleep, never needed objects to make my kids feel safeand secure, just good parenting, love and nurthring. J.
Hello. Same thing happened with my son. He would always throw his pacifier on the floor knowing that me or my husband would come in and pick it up for him. When he did we would tell him that the next time he would throw it on the floor we were NOT going to come in and pick it up and he would have to be without it. He was about 18 months at the time so he did understand what we were saying. How about a paicifer clip? That may work for you.
Good luck
