No More Pacifier

My daughter was the same way and we just didn't give it to her one night and she was fine. But, every child is different. I have heard of people cutting the end of it and then they don't want it anymore. Also, replacing it with a toy or a different lovey like a small animal blanket or stuffed animal to sleep with. Just try different things. He is still so young so you have time to play around with different ways to get rid of it.

At 14 months old he is still a baby. If it gives him comfort (and he only needs it to go to sleep anyway), what's the big deal. Eventually, he'll go to sleep without it, but for now, give him his comfort.

Some children require the suck sensation longer than others. But if he is only using it to go to sleep at 14 months--you go girl! If you take it away too early he will suck his thumb which you cannot take away from him--so be careful. When you go to the crib and he is not using it take it out, then ever so often try to make him real tired and put him to bed without it. do this several times BUT you must keep the pacifer OUT OF SIGHT.

Mother of 7

If that is the extent of his use of the pacifier, I wouldn't worry about it. (And I hate it when older children walk around with pacifiers or bottles.) I would wait for an opportunity to get rid of it personally - like he loses it or it gets too old/messed up, or a birthday (he's too old), etc. Or just tell him he can't have it anymore. But, when you do take it away, it has to be AWAY. Let him see you throw it in the trash so that he knows you're not hiding it from him. Stick to your guns. He'll eventually get over it. It's probably good to do it before the baby arrives. By the way, my kids still put up a fight at bedtime.

dear L.,
almost all kids will eventually go without. i have a particularly stubborn little girl, and even she gives in when she sees i wont budge. if you take his pacifier away, he will eventually use his thumb. they say that children dont lose the desire to suck until at least 2 years old.
M.

See if you can make a change of the passy to a blanket stuffed animal. Tell him that as a big boy that is what big boys do. Say this several times a day for awhile and then do it. Work on him being a BIG boy. You never know, it work's sometimes with our husbands. (right)HAHAHA

I agree. If your going to take the pacifier away do it cold turkey and dont tease him by having others laying around the house. Get rid of all of them and yes he might fuss but its better for him, obviously he can allready selfsooth so I dont think he will miss it for long. Be strong and patient he doesnt need it its just something he uses as a soother. If he has a hard time going to sleep try this website www.sleepsense.net it worked for me when my daughter had sleep problems due to her using the bottle as a soother. Good Luck No worries kids are resilient and adjust pretty well you just have to give them time.

Cut the tip of the pacifier. Explain to him that it is broker. He will not get the same soothing effect and he will stop using it.
I did this for my son and I know many people that this has worked for.
Hope it works for you!

Good Luck!

The way we got rid of the pacifier with my daughter is we threw away all pacifiers except for 2 and we cut the tips off of those 2. They don't have the same effect when they suck on them, almost like it's broken....therefore, the child gets upset with the pacifier for "not working", instead of getting upset with YOU for taking it away. A pediatrician recommended this and it was a super easy transition for us...and it is a gentle way to break the habit.
A little history, my daughter was 2 and slept with 3 pacifiers in her bed...one in her mouth and one in each hand. She LOVED them. She would wake up at night and cry out to us if she couldn't find her paci... It was exhausting for us since we already had a newborn waking us up at night.
She got rid of her "broken pacifiers" in less than a week, with no problem.
Hope this helps! OH, and the reason you throw the other one's away is so that you cannot go backwards in your progress.

I vote to let him keep it for the time being. If it's just in the crib, what does it matter--you say he doesn't use it all the time. It's his security blanket and it works. He'll toss it out pretty soon. Don't worry about it. My son looovvveeeddd his pacifier.

my son was OBSESSED with his passy also and we tried a gradual approach that a friend suggested. first you use a pin to prick a tiny hole, then every two nights or so you enlarge the hole slightly, until you're cutting the tip with scissors. my son noticed the difference but didn't mind as long as he was able to have it with him, and then finally after like 2-3 weeks he was down to just the plastic part. after a few days of that, we had a passy farewell party. we helped him gather all of his passies, took him to HEB to pick out his favorite color balloons (a lot), read a balloon book and watched a balloon movie, tied the passies to the group of balloons, he let them all go, we watched them into the distance, then we ate a balloon cake. we took pics of each step and made a little book out of it to remind him of what happened to his passies whenever he asked (and he asked for about a month afterwards then gave it up.) there was amazingly no crying, but then we waited till he turned two so maybe he was old enough to get the logic of it being gone forever? another friend is trying the same approach and her daughter has been crying for a week at just the slightest hole in her passy (and they're just letting her cry it out), so i guess every child is different. anyways, hope this helps.

Let him have it. It is his comfort, it will not affect him if that is the only amount of time he uses it. Mine did the same thing until he was 2 1/2. NO dental problems or anything else , he just one day gave it up.

We did a countdown with our boys. We started with '5 days until no more passy' and counted down every day until it was D-Day. On that day they did ask, but when we reminded them that we had finished our countdown and passy was gone, they were both fine because they expected it and were prepared.

We took my daughter's pacifier at around 14-15 months old and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. She cried for about 30-40 minutes the first night, 15 the second night and just for a minute or so the third night. After that, she didn't even care anymore. I think it's so much easier to take it now than when they're older and they know to look for it (at, say, 2 years old). My pediatrician recommended taking it at that age and it worked great for us. Just do it cold turkey and don't look back. He will get over it in a couple of days. I actually threw them all away so that I wouldn't be tempted to give in and give it back, but really, it wasn't that big of a deal. She had a small blanket that she slept with too (still does) and that was enough for her. Good luck!

I have 2 boys ages 5 (almost 6)and 2 years 4 months. My oldest never took a pacifier. My youngest was never without it. I was not as smart as you to limit pacifier use to bedtime only so early on. I didn't limit it to bedtime until the last month he used it. A few weeks before he turned 2 I told him that on his 2nd birthday he was going to be a big boy and he would give up all the pacifiers. I collected them all with his help and we never went back. May you have many blessings with this baby boy and a healthy pregnancy.

It has been years since I brought my children from a pacifier but I had read a book written by a Dr. Lyndon Smith many years ago that said to break them of this habit just cut a little off the tip of the pacifier and each day a little more until they don't want it anymore because it is broke and they can't get that same sucking feeling. I was very impatient so just cut it in half. My daughter took it and said it was broken. I looked at it and said WOW it is broken and I guess it needs to go into the trash. She held on to it for about an hour and then it was so sad but she walked it over to the trash can and put it in there herself and even told it goodbye. I never had another problem after that, but the child has to realize it is broken, accept it and that there are no more pacifiers and let them throw it away. It worked great for me and I had tried everything prior to that.
Good Luck.

Hi L.,

I had to respond with the cutest thing I heard from another mom. She took her son to Build a Bear and let him pick out an animal. Then when they put the heart in, they also put the paci in too! So it got sewn up in the bear and now he sleeps with that content to know his paci is inside. They can make the animals as hard or soft as your child likes.
Good luck!

My son was also very attached to his pacifier. He also only used it at night time. I believe that he used it for comfort. He didn't have a blanket or stuffed animal. I didn't want to take away his only comfort item. He gave it up himself when he was about 2. He just quit asking for it and I didn't offer it.

I am going through the same process with my daughter. She just turned 2 and she also only uses it at night. She has been sick so I have not pushed the issue with her. I know she will give it up when she is secure by herself.

My opinion is that if your son is only using it at night, why take it away when he still seems to need it? I believe that he will give it up himself when he is ready.

If you are going to do it though then I think you should go cold turkey. Throw them all away so that you can't be tempted to give in. Just let him cry it out until he gets used to the change in the routine.

Good luck with the pacifier and with baby #2!

My eldest, now 6 years old, was 14 months when we discontinued his pacifier. He was still using it off and on during the day and at night. We had three days of fussing and then he never mentioned it again. We just went cold turkey and he did fine. Throw them away so you don't have the urge to pull it back out when he starts fussing.

I would say, don't sweat it. Obviously this is still a part of his sleep-time ritual and taking it away is causing more problems than it's worth. Just let him keep the pacifier for now and work on easing it away in another month or two. My 23 month old still uses hers to sleep at night and it's not a problem.

Whenever you're ready to wean him (now or later), I've collected a few different ideas from friends about how they've weaned their kiddos on my blog here:
http://www.themommyjournal.com/archive/weaning-off-of-a-p...

Good luck!! :)
K.
TheMommyJournal.com

I vote let him keep having it. (14 months he is still just a lil' guy) I also have a 14 month old son and he loves his binkys. I plan to wean him off of it when he can understand my words and then we can give them to needy babies or something like that, or he can get a new toy and turn in his binkys. Its a blessing he goes down at 7:00 with his paci w/o a problem. Mine goes down around 9:00 and I am drained by then.

Hi! If you are ready to get rid of the paci's, then I suggest you just throw them all away at once. He will fuss for awhile, but he'll get better and he'll learn to soothe himself to sleep without it. He probably will wake up a couple of times looking for it, but he'll be ok. And I say throw them all away at once, don't hold on to a spare, because you don't want to do it one night and then give in the next, because it's really not fair to do that to your little guy. Well Best of Luck and wishing you lots of sleepful nights!

I was having major problems with my son's binky use; well actually it was more along the lines of a binky addiction!! My friend absolutely raved about the cut method, and all of the psychology behind it. She found it on www.bye-bye-binky.com , which is great that it was also free. We went with it and OMGosh... worked so beautifully for my son with NO tantrums, not even one! Thank you God. Five days later he did not want anything to do with his binky. What a relief it was to all of us to finally be done with those darn binkies. Highly recommended! I am also interested in others experiences.... B.

If he is not using it to suck on, I don't see the harm in hius having it. It is a comfort item and when he is close to 2 you could have a pacifier goodbye party and "give" it away to a baby your family knows, since he will be such a big boy them. Good luck.

One "trick" that has worked for me in the past is to take a needle and poke a couple of holes in the pacifier....this makes it less pleasurable for your child to suck on...takes the pressure out of it so it doesn't "hug" the mouth so much and your child may well give it up on his own just because it doesn't satisfy his sucking urge anymore.....it worked for me!
L.

Hi L.,
Absolutely do not take it away from him. It is not hurting him and he likes it. He is still very young. Worry when he is 5 years old. It is more than an accessory, it is a security thing. If you take it away it will hurt him more.
W.

Have you tried snipping off the end and telling him that it is "broken"? Obviously if it bothers you then by all means wean him from the paci, but really what's the big deal? If he is only using it while in his crib for comfort what is the harm? You are in the privacy of your own home afterall, and 14 months is nothing. He is still a baby! Its not as if he is going to take it to highschool with him.I say pick your battles. This is nothing compared to the sleep issues that you could be facing. Count your blessings!

We took away our son's pacifier at the exact same age (14 mos).

My OB/GYN actually told me how she'd cut a tiny hole in the paci so the "suck" factor was gone for both of her kids. Then, every 2 days cut the hole in the tip a little bigger.

That helped a bit, but after 2 weeks I had to just get rid of them. He would often lose them anyway.........one day we just "noticed" we couldn't find anymore pacifiers in the house :). He did cry it out for about 45 minutes for a week in bed, but after about 7 days he was just done.

I have noticed he is TOTALLY attatched to his yellow blanket now & a monkey - it's like he transferred from the paci to the blanky/monkey to give him comfort. He's 3 1/2 yrs old now & fine......except when we can't find blanky for bedtime :)