Losing the Paci-won't Be Hard Until Bed Time

I'm a big fan of kids sleeping through the night, so my feeling is, if she's sleeping well right now with the paci, why even consider doing something that may change that? Why do you feel like you have to get rid of it now? My son slept with one (or two) til he was 2 1/2, and when he gave it up he was old enough to understand what was happening and didn't even ask for it once it was gone. It was a very easy transition.
My pediatrician and pediatric dentist both said that as long as the paci was only used for sleeping and was gone by age 3 they were okay with it.
I would wait.

I'd keep the paci as long as you're ok with it. I let my kids have them until they were about 2 1/2. The dentist said their teeth are fine (they are now almost 6 and almost 4). When they were older we had them wrap up their paci and give it to a new baby. We then went to the store and they got to pick out a special big kid toy. Never had any problems after that. They still both sleep with their special blankets. I always felt that I'd rather have my kids sleep good - because then I slept good.

We got rid of my sons paci when he was only 4 months old - maybe even 3 months. We just took it away, he never knew the difference. He has a blanket now that he uses when he is sleeping, and he sucks his thumb.

We did the same thing with the bottle at 8 months and his crib at 15 months.

But every child is different, but my advice is to gradually introduce her to the new lovely for her to sleep with

My son just turned two, which was D-Day for the paci, and I have to admit, it's been a bit of a struggle in the sleep department, as now he seems to get up more frequently in the middle of the night and is more irritable when waking. We cut a hole on the end, which he figured out very quickly, and now refuses it because "its broken."

I guess my advice after the fact is to try to stop it sooner than later. The hole thing works really well, try it with one and see how she does.

Here is my experience, I waited.

My oldest was 18 months and I cut the end right off the paci. She found it said it was broke and threw it in the trash. She asked for it for a couple days but that was all. No crying, no trouble sleeping...nothing.

With my youngest she was 28 months, with her for some reason I dreaded it even more. (Maybe because I thought she was more attached than my oldest) It just happened by chance that she lost one in a grocery store one day, thought it was gone for good later that day and I just went with it. She had trouble falling asleep for a couple days, but never cried out for it. And now it still takes her time to fall asleep after the paci went away she started singing to herself to fall asleep.

Wait, she's young and sleeping great hence you are sleeping great. My son ditched his paci at 19 months and never looked back.

Wait. You can't explain why to her, and there's really no good explanation anyway. You can negotiate it when she's older.

we let our dd have a paci only at naps and night time and it was a breeze to take it away when she was about 2 1/2. She was mostly just chewing on it by that point, so I cut it and then later at nap time was like "oh, it's broken, we better throw it away" and since we only had one, that was that.

I've heard some 'experts' say that around 9m-12m is the time kids develop attachments and if you are going to drop the paci, this is the best time. I tried this with my son, but g'ma was babysitting and it was hard to get her to enforce the rule (hey, when the sitter is free, you pick your battles!) He didn't get rid of it until almost 3!!!

My plan is to try to transition the paci out for my daughter soon before the attachment starts. Good luck!!

I took my son's paci away when he was 13 months. By then he was saying a couple words and would do a little sign language so I knew he could understand me when I said "all gone." He didn't even notice at naptime; when bedtime came around he cried a little, but never more than a half hour and by the third night he'd forgotten about it all together. He never woke up in the middle of the night crying about it; I don't think it affected his sleep at all.

You could always try one night w/out it and see what happens. If she sleeps okay, then great, it's gone! If not, give it back and wait a while. You've still got time. :)

Personally, if she likes to have it when she sleeps and she is sleeping great, I'd count my blessings and leave things be. Sleep is so important.

My daughter used a paci day and night, and by herself began to use it just at night because after she could walk, she was busy busy busy during the day. Soon enough, she got the idea she was being given the paci at bedtime, got ANGRY at bed time, so started throwing the paci to the floor (maybe she thought there would be no bedtime without the paci? lol.) We didn't give it back to her when she threw it out of her crib. But she soon got over that as well, and just went to sleep - sans paci.

So, she solved the problem rather naturally while still a toddler.

toss it now, the longer you wait the more she will be attached. Our doc told us that babies start to become attached to things at age 6 mos and just stronger each month after. You think it is hard now b/c you can't explain it...wait till they can SCREAM at you and climb out of that crib and come get you! Do it now!

We took away my older daughter's binkie when she was 17 months old, cold turkey. I would have to say that it was probably a good 2 weeks of complaining, crying and fussing at naptime and at bedtime. Since then she has been fine and even during the initial "withdrawal phase" it didn't disrupt her overall sleep, just when putting her down for nap and at night. My second daughter is 20 months now and I am thinking about doing it soon. (The only reason I waited longer is because I also had a third baby in March, we moved, bought another house and moved again, so with all that going on, I decided to wait and not disrupt her world more than it already was!) I do think that 9 months old may be a little young to get rid of it, but that is up to you. With our older daughter, the reason I did it then was because it seemed that her two front teeth were not coming in properly. Good luck!