I have a little boy who just turned 4 and a little girl who is 2. Unforuntelly BOTH children still use a binki. About 3 weeks before my sons 4th Bday we started telling him that once he turned 4 he was going to be a big boy and big boys dont use binki's. He was ok with this idea, I would say even a little excited about it.
Well, the day of his 4th Bday has come and gone and he is still using a binki. He did great without it the first couple days/night. Infact I was so impressed, there was no crying - no fuss - I couldnt belive it...then I come to realize that he was sneaking binki's. I found a stash of abot 5 binkis in his bed.
When I took them and hid all binkis he tried taking his sisters. He only uses his binki at bed and nap time. If he doesnt have one in the afternoon, he just wont nap. I am in no way ready for him to stop napping. At night time he will eventually cry himself to sleep..but I feel bad doing that to him as well..and he doesnt sleep well without it either.
Is there an easier way to get my son to stop using a binki?
Do I need to take away his sisters binki too?
Any and all advice would be much appreciated!
THANK YOU all for you advice and tips. My son has been "binki free" for a couple weeks now!
Hi T.!
We had the "paci fairy" come and take away all the pacis from under the pillow, and leave a special toy that my children asked for. This worked great for us, I hope it can work for you as well!
GL:)
First I am surprised that at 4 your child still naps! But that really wasn't your question........
I wouldn't take the 2 year olds away from her, after all the only reason you are thinking of it is because you want to take away the four year olds, not really fair. What I would do is limit his use of it to only bed and nap time, at no other time can he have it. This is how I weaned my know 6 year old, I found that by not saying an outright no to it that I had less fits and slowly he just quit needing it. If by the age of 5 he still needs it I would then go cold turkey. Until then limit the use and lots of luck.
Sometimes we have to resort to bribery....it's ok so long as it isn't our only way of getting them to do what we want, I just gave my 6 year old $.50 cents to do his homework, not proud of it but I didn't want our normal fight over it. So if it works you have done good :).
what we did was I cut off the rubber part of the binki and gave it to my daughter- once she realized it was not longer fun to suck on it was over. She did sleep holding the plastic part for a couple of days but that too was gone pretty quick.
S.
I would help him remember all the things he gets to do that his little sister doesn't,to help alleviate his need to take from her, simple things like structures he can build with legos and blocks, how he can eat all by himself,etc... and then I would stick firm to him not getting binkies anymore, treat it like it is a special thing to give up because he is older, and then for sure at night and at nap times I would let him choose something else that he can feel secure with, such as a toy or blanket or book, it isn't easy, but just like all the quirky little phases of growing up this too will pass, and this way you have given him a sense of power with some choices but ultimately get the outcome you want, no more binkies....:)
I cut the tip off my son's binki and he told me it was "broken" so he wouldn't use it any more. I have the advantage of not having any younger children, so it might have been easier for me. If he's having trouble at night, try replacing the binki with a stuffed animal or blanket that he can pick out. Good luck!
I went "cold turkey" with all my boys at 8-9mo old when they had a few teeth. It was fairly easy to do. I just threw them all away the same way I did with the bottles. The big issue I still have is sippy at bedtime with the 18mo old. But, he's my baby and we are breaking that by going cold turkey as well this week.
My kids were never really attatched to pacifiers, but I've heard of people "sending them in the mail to new, little babies that need them." You could make a special package to send to the hospital for the babies that have been born that don't have any yet. You could tell the kids that they are getting too old for them, and that it's not fair to the little babies that don't have any. In turn, you could take them to the store and let them pick something new (for a big kid) that they could sleep with instead. This may be a dumb idea, but just a thought!
i have a three year old and one day she didn't want to take a nap and she threw it at me and i told that binki is gone. she never asked for it again
I gathered them all up and threw them in the trash. No crutch for me to fall back on when I didn't feel like dealing with it and I could honestly tell them I didn't have one when they cried and threw a fit for it. As far as nap time goes, I would just lay him down earlier than usual to give him time to cry it out before falling asleep so he still get s a nap, but without ruining bed time. We let our oldest son keep his too long and he ended up with a speech problem that we are still battling today. He developed a frontal lisp because of the way his mouth formed around the binki and sippy cups. We found that out at age 3 and the youngest was one. . .so I did them both at the same time to avoid the same problem with our youngest. The fits only lasted a few days.
I have a 2 almost 3yr old boy who we fought with about the binki too. He wouldn't sleep well without it either, he also was crabby all the time if he didn't have it. Then he too got to the point he would only have it at bedtime/naptime so that made it a little easier. So when I finally was ready to break down and take it and keep it away, my sister-in-law gave me the best advice that worked like a charm: cut the very tip of the binki nipple and it makes a hole so when they suck on it it causes it to flatten and they cannot stand that!! He told me it was broken and he wanted to throw them away by himself after that so i did it to all of his binkis! So i let him and every once in a great while he asks about them but I just tell him they broke and he is ok with that. I have four children and never had to deal with it before him and now i have a 15mth old who has a binki and my 2 yr old doesn't even bother trying with her binkis. Hope this helps cause it did for me and i will be doing it with my 15mth old.
What we did with my son (he was a little over two years old - he's now 2 1/2) is first of all to start we only let him have his binky for naps and bed time. Then one day he didn't ask for it for most the day and so from that point on we didn't offer it (we found we were the ones offering it most the time even when he didn't need it or ask) and any time we thought he might ask for it or if he did ask we did anything we could to divert his attention like start tickling him, color, read a book, etc. and yes there were some tough crying times but eventually he didn't need it anymore. We did this a month before we had our new baby and I thought that would break everything and he'd want her binky and we'd have to start all over but it really didn't, when we first brought her home and he tried to take her binky a couple times we'd just always say "eeew" and "that's gross" and when he saw us make a gross face he'd take it out of his mouth...for some reason it really worked for him and he never really took his sister's binky in fact now he gives it to her if she's crying. I don't know if this helps but I hope you can find something that works for you. Good luck!!
