Need Advice on How to Break the Binky Habit

We never used a pacifier, as my son always liked his thumb better, however I have a friend whose daughter would not sleep without a pacifier. One day my friend cut the pacifier so that it had a big hole and yes, her daughter was upset at first, but seeing the broken pacifier made her loose interest and has not used it since. Good luck!

I have a 17 month old who is an addict, also. She only gets it at sleep times, though. You could just confine the passy to the crib. My plan to get rid of it later (what harm is it doing for sleeping??) is to have the passy fairy take it and leave her a special treat. I think she is too young now to understand the reason behind giving it up. Once she is 2 or so, I think she will understand being a big girl. (I liked the idea of mailing it to the babies...but I don't think she'd get it at 17 mos.).
Good luck!

OH, I feel your pain! The anxiety over taking the binky away was worse than actually doing it, although we waited until she was a little over 2 because she never had it out of her bed or the carseat. Howeve, a good friend of mine used to sew a short piece of string to the crib sheet (per her pedi instructions she said) and attatch the binky to it, so that it could never leave the bed for sure. I tried snipping the tip of it a little at a time, as I have heard that works well, but I finally traded it in at build a bear, hoping to give her something new to sleep with. I have to say, it was not a problem for us, so I am not sure what to do if it gets bad! We tried to wait until Grace's 2 year molars were in, as sucking seemed to soothe tooth related pain, and we felt like she was old enough to reason with...well sort of:) I am sure that no matter what you decide, you will get through it, but also know that if she screams for it for days, she may not be ready to give it up, and you could try again a little later. I would encourage the idea of keeping it in the bed. Maybe if everytime she wants it, you make her go lay in bed with it, she will get bored, and be ready to stay out with her toys instead after a few tries. Good luck!!

Hi Jamie!
We did it in phases. First I only let him have it at naptimes and bedtimes (since it seemed like he still needed it to soothe himself to sleep) so I would immediately take the pacificer out of his mouth when I picked him up from his naptime or in the morning...and I placed it in a high, out of reach area -- on top of his tall dresser, which is bolted to the wall. (and I only had 2-3 in the house, but he only saw 1 at a time -- the others were emergency ones if i ever lost one.) so throw all the extras away and look all over the house because sometimes the child remembers where they stashed them away.
The first time i did this it did cause some crying and some fit throwing but it didn't last long once he realized that I was standing my ground and not going to give in. And every time, he asked for it... I'd tell him "no. it's only for night-night time." in a firm voice.

Then ...once that was established...I slowly took it away at naptime and only made it available at bedtime. Again, he'd ask for it but I'd say only at night time -- tonight - you can have it. It got the point that he'd hand it over to me when he woke up in the mornings, etc. I didn't have to pull it out of his mouth anymore. He'd willingly hand it over.

By this point, it was such a small part of his life...he didn't have a big attachment to it anymore. But it was still part of his bedtime routine. So it was a little difficult to completely take it away. The first night, he didn't cry for it... but i kept telling him that they were "gone gone" they went bye bye. no more pacis. they're all gone gone. So go night-night.

He still has some other things that help soothe him to sleep that he had back then too so it helped with the transition... I play soothing nature sounds/music on his cd player; and he has his 3 favorite blankets. (he's 3 yr old now - he stopped using a paci when he was about 19 or 20 months old)...
Good luck!
I think doing it in phases works best for everyone in the house!

This is what I did with both my kiddos! I weaned them down to nap and nighttime and then nightime, then we cut off the tip of the binky, laid it somewhere they would find it and luckily mine both just said "oh, binky broken" after sucking on it a minute and then they just accepted it and went on. They did ask for it for a few days and we just discussed how it was broken. Also, make sure you gather all of them from around the house so they can't find them! Good luck!

I was anxious at the thought of getting rid of the paci, but when my daughter was 11 months old we decided it was time. Other moms at daycare suggested cutting off the tip of the paci, so I cut it in half and gave it to Anna. She gladly put it in her mouth, and promptly took it out to look at it. She tried sucking on it again and then threw it down. I never let her have a "real" paci again. She had access to the broken one, and she would try it out and then remember it was broken. It took several days for her to get used to naps and bedtime without it, but it really wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Good luck with your little one!

A.

We are trying to do the same with our just tunred 2 little boy. He was a preemie and needed a special passy to learn how to suckle after being fed through a tube for 2 weeks. He was just so weak that the docs in the NICU reccommended it. Then he was hooked.

We have narrowed it down to naps and night time sleeping only. We had 6 passys for him and we are down to 3. We are working up the "you are a BIG boy and don't need that thing anymore" conversations with him. He is understanding because if he acts like a big boy he is treated like a big boy and if he acts like a baby we ignore him. We narrowed the passys down to 3 by leeting him throw them away himself in the BIG trashcan that goes out for pick up. He likes to help daddy take out the trash and we talked to him about throwing away his passy so he can be a BIG BOY. It has slowly worked so far. The one time we let him throw it away himself in the house he dug it out of the trash can and we had trash all over the kitchen. We let him count down how many he has and keep telling him when he throws the last one away there will be no more and he will always be a big boy then.

Good Luck! If you find something that works better, please let me know.

Jamie,
We did the suggestion by Stacy two nights ago and it worked like a charm. Our daughter was very concerned about her "pacy" and we said "Oh, it is broken, Oh No" She seemed a little said at first, but refused to take it after that. Now she says, "pacy broken". WOW, I can't believe it. Hope it is working for you.

K.

I've heard if you poke or cut a hole in the tip of the binkie it will lose it's suction power and the child will lose interest.

I wouldn't stress too much about it. Just have it disappear during the day and let her have it at night and nap time. I don't think it is a problem unless it goes beyond 3yrs. Some children just need more sucking for their own sucurity feelings. Usually if they don't see it during the day, they can be distracted by getting them interested in something.
This is a lot like potty training. I don't remember seeing a five year old sucking on a pacifier, so they do outgrow it. There is more of a need there rather than a habit.
If there is a move, or some kind of trouble at home, or something that would cause insecurities, then this might be their way of coping.

Two of our kiddos were attached to their pacifiers. When we decided to wean them off it, we started by snipping a little off the end. We continued snipping a little more every few days until each of our children decided that the pacificer was "nasty" and threw it away themselves. It was truly one of the easiest transitions we'd ever done. Each of the darlings was around 15 - 18 months old at the time (they are now 16 & 19).

I just waited for a long weekend when it would just be us (no visitors) & just took it away. I cut them up so I wouldn't be tempted to give him one. After the first day it really wasn't so bad.

We let our daughter be a part of getting rid of them. We put them in an envelope, addressed it to "The babies" and let her put in our mailbox. Then when she wasn't looking, and before the mail carrier came, we removed and destroyed the binkies. Then when she would ask for it, we just reminded her that she sent it to the babies because she was a big girl and didn't need it anymore. It worked for us.

Hi Jamie!
My kids are much older now but my daughter was so attached to her "P". All my pictures of her when she was little have her sucking on that thing! We would drive all over the metroplex looking for this one specific type too that they stopped making to make sure we had plenty...It was crazy! She was my first and I just didn't have the heart to take it away from her and was just dreading having to do it. Her dad was the one that actually took the initiative. He was on vacation for a week, decided it was time, got rid of all of them and that was it. It was hard for about 3 days and then she was just fine! Just make the decision to do it and stick to it. It really wasn't a big deal at all! Good Luck!

We did what a couple of the other moms said, just bit the bullet and took it away. I did it when my little guy was 4 months old though because I got tired of getting up every 45 minutes during the night to look for it. We took it away the night before Thanksgiving last year and I will confess the child screamed most of the night. He slept all day on Thanksgiving from pure exhaustion I guess but to my surprise that same night he went right to bed and slept all night and the pacifier was never a problem again. Ok I confess, within a week he was sucking his thumb - LOL - but at least I'm not looking for it in the middle of the night. Best wishes to you, this mommy thing is not for sissys!

You took the question right out of my mouth! We're facing this too with my 18 month old. I've heard from other moms that it was easier than they thought it would be, but I'm still nervous!
He also went from using it only at nap and bed time to wanting it during the day. I decided not to deal with it at first, but I just recently decided to start limiting it to nap and bedtime again to prepare for quitting completely. First thing in the morning I say "bye bye paci" and ask him to put it on his bed. At first I took it out of his mouth for him. He fussed a bit the first couple times, but I kept up the routine and he quickly caught on. He will take it out and say "bye" on his own now. After we moved him to a toddler bed we put it on the top of his chest of drawers so that he can't go back and get it later.
The funny thing is that he's unearthed some "extra" paci's and now goes to bed with 2 or 3!! One for his mouth and one for each hand! ack! He's been sick so I have indulged him. He literally asks for "paci" and "two paci" at bed time.
As soon as we've kicked this sinus infection (we've dealt with it off and on for a full month) I'm getting out the scissors! Our pediatrician said to wait until after the holidays, but that seems a bit much -- and I'm afraid he'll start comandeering paci's from his sister's baby dolls!
Thanks to you for asking and thanks to all the others for the tips.