Pacifier Addiction - Denton,TX

Hello,

I was the same with my daughter but before her 1st bday she fell asleep without it and i never gave it to her again.

My son is 20 months old too...we took the paci away this past Friday. My husband pretended to throwing the paci down the toliet & told my son that the paci was yucky & he's a big boy now. My son took it in good. He tried looking for it but found no paci (he now imates how my husband threw it down the toliet...cute to watch). My son did ask for the paci a few times but I reminded him that he is a big boy now & doesn't need the paci anymore. So far he has been ok without it...he has slept thru the nights great but his naps has been cut short without his paci. I kept the paci just in case but I'm thinking about throwing it away this week. We tired cutting the tips off many times but it didn't work for us. Good luck!

why are you worried so soon? he is still a baby! If you only allow it to sleep, then you know he is not that dependant upon it anyway. Will he not sleep without it? If so, he will probably cry himself to sleep for about three nights and then no more. What my pedi told me was that he will not take it to highschool, so stop fussing about it, you making a big deal about it is what makes him want it more, so I stopped fretting and he gave it up on his own at three, when he saw that others his age did not use one. Hope this helps, but really, let him be a baby for a little while longer, it won't hurt a thing.

Just tell him Easter we will be cutting up the pacifier and it will go bye bye. This way he can plan for it or any occassion or date. I friend did Halloween. But the little girl was 3. It may still be to early. Funny but none now of my day care kids have any and it is nice. One sucks thumb and I would rather have a paci because you can throw that away. Also their is a bite out or thumb in a bottle like nail polish and you can paint it on. He will hate it. I would do that to his boys thumb if he were mine. He seems to use it to have an excuse not to talk a lot. Funny thing is he throws fits when asked to do anything and I have another little girl that is very vocal. The mom of the babish child observed the other noise one and said she does not have enough words, is why she is noisy. I think it is because she is a strong willed child. She talks way beyond her peers and just wants what she wants and makes lots of noise for attention, Yet interesting the mom who has the child who can't talk observe the one and diagnose what her child needs.The noisy one resites Twinkle little star all the way through and almost knows her ABC's and every thing we say to her she repeats. The other one does not even do complete sentences and both just turn 2 a couple months ago. G. W

I have to agree with the Paci- Fairy!!

You can do it lots of ways, but the way that was sucessfull for us was we had talked about it for weeks, and gave him a date to look forward to ( it was a random date, but we made it Paci-Fairy day). We went to the store and I let him pic out a special bag that has a drawstring top to make sure it would close, and it could be any fabric or design that he wanted. The night of our special day, we gathered all of our pacis and put them into his special bag. We took them out side to a tree in our back yard and hung it on a lower limb. The next morning (becuase you know fairies of any kind dont come unless you are asleep) we went out to check if she had come, and sure enough the special bag was gone, but it was replaced buy another bag with a brand new toy in it and a note from the Paci-Fairy that thanked him for his pasis and told him that he was such a big boy and didnt need them any more, and that she would be giving them to other babies around the world that needed them. He actualy felt good about helping out other kids! He asked for a paci one time after that, and when I reminded him that the paci fairy had taken them to other babies becuase he was a big boy and didnt need them any more, he never asked again.

We did the paci fairy, but not until my son was 4. You said you are adopting your son. Maybe you should wait until all that is over and done before you remove a comfort object. He is still so young. I wouldn't worry about it for a while. I have a 19 month old and am not even considering taking away paci for a couple of years.

Hi G.,

I have twin boys so it was REALLY hard for us to break them both of their pacies!!! They were big time addicted up until 2 1/2. I know it's crazy, but we tried everything, even cold turkey, but nothing would work. I know everyone thought I was crazy for my kids having them that long.

Finally, we did try the "pacie fairy" that we had seen an episode of on Super Nanny. We put all their pacies in a special spot and explained to them that the pacie fairy will get them when they are sleeping and will take them to other babies and for being good boys, she's going to leave you a special surprise. Well, the next day they saw their surprises and of course were mad almost 2 days because they kept asking for their pacies, but they finally gave up :) I had actually tried this when they were 2, but we didn't have any luck.

I'm sure someone out there will have better stories and successes than mine :) Good Luck!!! Trust me, it will pass!!

I think 20 months is still pretty young. Even our dentist said to not even worry about it until sometime after 2. When you do decide to do it I would be very specific and explain that he is a big boy and does not need his paci anymore, they are going bye bye. Go cold turkey. If not you will just confuse and frustrate him. It will be one heck of a night and he might need a few reminders but it will be over in a day. Don't forget to reward him for beign a big boy. You can even plan a "big boy, don't need a paci anymore" party.

My eldest didn't give hers up until she was nearly four; by then it was used only at bedtime. It was super easy for her to give it up when the time came, as she was old enough then to understand what was going on. We made a chart & for each night she didn't use a paci, she got to open a door the next morning; when all doors on the chart were opened to reveal a picture of Scooby Doo (her favorite then), she was able to get a prize. So we allowed her to choose each night: paci or open another piece of the chart? Before all the doors were opened, the paci was long gone. No tears, no fighting, no trouble at all.

We snipped the end of our child's pacifier but still gave it to her. She would NOT put it in her mouth...she just held onto it for a couple of nights and then I threw it away because it was 'broken' as she put it. When the end is cut off, it does not give them the same feeling; that was it...not a big deal for us.

Cut just the tip of the pacifier off. It makes it lose it's "suck"...that will help. Then after a while 3 weeks or so, see if you can get HIM to throw them in the trash one morning. Talk about how yucky they are...then that night just remind him what he did that morning. We did 5 of our 6 children that way. They didn't even really cry much the first night...we just said, but you threw them away!
:)
MaryDean

My son was a big paci baby. It was clipped to his clothing at all times until he was 2. Then we went to nap and bedtime only. About 3 or 4 months before he turned 3, we started prepping him for losing the paci. We talked, daily, about the fact that he was a big boy (potty trianed at 27 months) and was turning 3. We told him that when big boys turn 3, pacis just quit working. It was a daily conversation, but a fun one. He was looking forward to turning 3, and just accepted the paci thing as part of it. On the day of his birthday party, he gathered the pacis and brought them to me. We had decided a few weeks before what to do with them all, he was part of that decision. We put them in a large envelope and walked them to the mailbox, to be sent to his baby cousin. The next day at naptime, he asked for his paci and I gently reminded him that he was 3 and that we had sent them away. He said "okay" and that was it. I have had several friends who have used some version of this plan and all have been successful and almost stress free. It helps to make it a long planning process so they can wrap their little brains around the concept of losing something so special.

I also had a great pediatrician who never rushed me to get rid of his pacifier and told me "he won't go to kindergarten with it, so take your time".

Good luck.

we just made our son switch his paci out for another toy... so if he wanted his car he had to give us his paci. I would also tell him that those were for babies, especially if he got a hold of one that was a 0 to 3 month size)
It worked only after a day, he didn't care about the paci... he did become attached to the cars in the same way but only for a little bit. not sucking on it but just had to have it.
Good Luck!

I cut the end off the paci too. He would try to suck on it and couldn't so he decided he didn't want it anymore. No problems at all.

Here's the link to a recent discussion on this same subject:
http://www.mamasource.com/request/13396064645228265473

My vote is to let him keep it for awhile longer.

Diane

We took our daughter's away at 19 months (2 months ago)- (our pediatric dentist says never start, but definitely get rid of them by 2 if you do). I just cut of a tiny bit off the ends of all of them. She didn't like it, but tolerated it... so I cut more off a little bit at a time every couple days. Finally there was nothing left to suck on and she began carrying them around and just hugging them. After about 2 weeks of that she abandoned it altogether and we were finished with the pacifier. It took a bit over a month but there were no tears and it was easy. Before starting the process and throughout it I checked out books on getting rid of pacifiers and read them to her. She still likes those and likes to point out the "big kids- no paci!" on each page when we check them out. I was really scared because she was totally addicted to the pacifier but after the first initial cutting it was easy. Whenever she commented on it I'd shrug my shoulders and say "oh, paci's broke but you can have it" So in the long run SHE gave up the paci, I didn't take it from her. By the way, she began sleeping more soundly once the paci was gone... no more searching for it in the night! Be sure you take it away before moving to a toddler bed if you can... the opposite way will be more difficult.