How Old Was Your Kid When You Took His Pacifier

My oldest gave hers up at about 10 months, my second was 12 months, and my third was broken from it at 14 months. My third was extremely attached to hers so it took us a while to break her from it.

Neither of mine liked pacifiers, but I don't see why it is a problem to let him have one at bedtime/naptime or if he is sick.

My 24 year old, I tried giving one and thankfully he didn't like them. My 16 year old I didn't give one so he never got dependent on one. My triplets we used briefly as newborns but as we saw them getting dependent we took them right away and they learned quickly to soothe themselves.

Age 2? Take it away now. A stuffed animal can be more soothing... to have a friend in bed with them to talk to. Replace it with a special stuffed animal they pick out. Cold turkey is the way to go. Remember, you're the parent so you make the rules. They follow.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

The binky was the O. thing I did by the book--6 months & it was GONE!

Mine is 2, not sure when to take it away. I am scared she won't nap anymore!

you should have taken it away a very very long time ago. just take it now, he will have a hard time but after a few days he wont even care anymore. this is why we never pushed it on our children, we never let them get hooked. I think you should just take them away, and make sure not to replace it with something. so many parents make that mistake as well and then thats just another thing you'll have to take away.

I took it at 12 months. I don't have anything against them, I just wanted to avoid future battles.

My son was the same way as yours. He loved his binky at night but we explained that he was a big boy and didn't need it any more. He just turned two when we took it. He learned to hug stuffed animals to go to bed or get his comfort. He still loves his stuffed animals and he is eight.

Mine was almost 3 when I finally took it away. she liked it, only used it for bed so we didn't see the problem. Doctor wasn't worried. When she was 1.5 I got pregnant with our second, and didn't want to take it from her when things in our life would be changing. when she was 2 months from turning 3, my sister was being induced to have our neice, so we packed it up for the binky fairy and 'gave' them to my neice. She asked about it for a few days here and there, but that was it. Been almost a year now and it was much easier than I thought it would have been.

In hindsight, I would have done it sooner knowing how easy it ended up being, but... it worked for us:) follow his cues... just make sure you aren't doing other big changes in his life at the time (potty training, going into a bed, etc). they really need to conquer one life changing thing at a time... IMO

I wish I had waited until my daughter was older but she fell off a couch at about 12 months and broke off a front tooth. She went cold turkey off the bottle and off anything to suck.

So she discovered her fingers and sucked them until she was in elementary school. She has a shorter jaw bone and when you look at her from the side you can put your hand over her chin and it is almost the right depth for her to look normal

So if he still needs it let him keep it.

Our girl started on a binky when she was just a few weeks old--she had a bad cold and the only way we could get her to sleep was with one!! Until 1, she was allowed to have it "any time" she needed to soothe (bedtime, naptime, when sick, when hurt, etc). After 1, she wasn't allowed to have it at daycare, so we only let her have it at home for bedtime & naptime. I decided that I didn't want to have "one of those kids" who was sucking on a binky at age 5! So, about 2 months before her 2nd birthday, we started taking it away after she fell asleep--she could use it at bedtime, but once asleep, it was gone. Within 2 weeks she stopped looking for it altogether. Although I must say, those were a couple of rough weeks! P.S. It never interefered with our breastfeeding, either.

We are all over the place with it. Our oldest was done with it by 8/9 months, no big deal. Our second son had one break (the nipple got a hole in it from teeth I'm sure) and he said 'oops, broken!' and threw it away, and that was that. He was about 13 months old. He was still nursing and didn't even miss the pacifier.

our daughter... well she's another story. :) She came home from Ukraine at 3yrs old and was a vehement thumb sucker. HEr mouth was so shaped from the sideways way she sucked her thumb that we couldn't see the roof of her mouth. she also made this weird snorting noise while sucking her thumb and also sucked her thumb all.night.long. We let her have her thumb for about 6/7 months after coming home, then we put the yucky stuff on it and she stopped, but we replaced it with a pacifier. While she was 3, she was also pretty delayed (she has CP), and she wasn't ready to give up the soothing of sucking yet. So now she's 4.5 and uses the pacifer to go to sleep at night. I take it from her and put it up once she's asleep, but its really made our nights calm and helped with bonding as well.

When will we take it from her? I don't know. Her situation is totally different. But if he's only using it to fall asleep i don't see the problem. My boys both nursed until they were 2+, using nursing to fall asleep.

I wouldn't stress about it, but it soudns like you've already limited it and thats good.

The pacifier was gone when we weaned from bottle/breast to cup. Each child is different and has different needs in this area.

We have 2 dd. Our first used her pacifier (also only for bed/nap) until she was 3.5. Our second never used one.

With the first, we never took it. We snipped off the end little by little, starting when she was around 3 yo. After a couple of weeks, she would mostly just hold it for comfort. It took her around 6 months before she didn't need to hold it anymore, and it eventually became lost. (We only had one pacifier by this time.)

Her dentist was not at all concerned about the pacifier use, so we didn't feel the need to push it. Some kids have more difficultly than others at self-soothing, which describes our first to a tee. If it comforts your son, let him keep it for a while. It's not going to hurt him.

My son stopped using his before he was a year old. My daughter still uses hers at age 6 to go to sleep, and in the car. So my older child uses one, while the 4 year old has not used one in over 3 years. They all have different needs. At age 2 I knew she already would need braces, so at age 4 she started seeing the orthodontist. He will not do anything until she is 7 but sees her every few months to see how her teeth are forming, etc. My son will probably not need anything for his teeth. I had braces and sucked a paci til I was almost 3. I think once they get past age 2 and still use it, they will probably need the braces and the orthodontist said it doesn't make a whole of difference when they stop once they already have teeth. It is best to stop it before a year old, but if they are a real sucker(need for sucking), then resign your self to either braces, or a battle and possibly still braces if they start sucking their thumb to replace the paci. So the best answer I can think of at this point is to take it away when he stops needing it. If he is hardly using it, go ahead and try stopping it. If he is okay with that, do a little dance. My son didn't care at all when I stopped his paci. But my daughter shrieked and woke all night and cried and sucked on her fingers, even chewed on her fingers and thumb. It was horrible. You will know if he is ready when you try it. Try it and see, maybe he will be fine.

My little guy was 13 months, he was only using it for naps and bedtime, too. That night as I got him ready for bed I couldn't find it, it was also his first day of no bottles. He fussed and cried a while then went to sleep. The next day he had no problems at naptime, asked for it at bedtime, looked sad that I didn't have it but didn't cry and went to sleep. I found it that night and threw it away, we weren't going back. He asked for it the 3rd day at nap and bedtime, accepted that he wasn't getting it and we haven't looked back, and in retrospect he fussed more about it than his bottles which he seemed to care less about as long as he got his milk in a cup.

I asked the dr that question when our son was 2 and dr. said son would give it up himself when ready...well..he hit 4 and still wasn't ready...it was pretty hard then...wish I had done it when he was 2.

My son was 2 when we took his away. We started by doing what you do only at bed or nap time. Then we slowly took it away at naptime and the following week we took it away for bedtime. The 1st couple days each time was a little difficult but didnt take him long to get used to it. Easter was a couple weeks away when we did this so we had him put them all into a basket for the Easter bunny to take them away for other kids.

Dont let others that say its a bad thing for them to have them. My dd refused to use one but pick her thumb. The pacifier is alot easier to take away than a finger that is always attached! She is 4 and we still are trying to get her to quit sucking her thumb.