Pacifiers - Canton, GA

Hi!,
Yep, my son loved his too. At 3.5, I started by poking a hole in the end of it. Then I snipped just a tiny hole, then slowly, I snipped a little more and a little more. I would tell him that it was getting old and he was too big a boy to have new ones. I told him he could keep this one as long as it stayed safe, but I could not buy new ones. He was older though. At 2.5, you may want to wait until three. The teeth concern is already too late (which mine were both fine even with very late paci's). The battle might be easier when they are a little more able to understand "old".
Eventually, it got too short to keep in his teeth and he said "Just throw it away, it is too small to hold onto anymore". It took about 6 months, but it was easy without tears and battle.
good luck, J.

I took my daughter to Build a bear, let her pick the animal of her choice and had her place the binky in the stuffed animal before they stiched it closed. After that, when she wanted her binky she could cuddle with her new bear. Hope this helps!

We raised two very happy pacifier babies. We did the same thing with both kids (boy and girl) and gave them the pacifier constantly as a baby, at 2 it stayed in the bed, only for nap time and bed time. At 3, we worked with our Pediatrician, and she was very helpful to play her part. The Dr. took the pacifier (we coached our kids) at the 3 yr old check up to give to a new baby. It was all very clinical. We talked to our kids about it ahead of time, she even gave them a certificate I think, or at least she did with my son (our first) It worked very well, as there is no going back. They both (3 yrs apart by the way) were very sad and missed their poppy as they called it, but got over it in time and did not resort to thumb sucking which I feared. I wish you luck, my kids did ask for it when they were sick or upset and it is hard to not to cave, but with the Dr method it was not an option. Obviously, we probably still had one hiding somewhere in the house, but we got rid of all of them. Best of luck.
C.

My son, who only got his pacifier at nap and bedtime, lost it when he was 2. We had been debating for a while on how to break the habit. When it got lost, we decided that now was the time. It was hard for a couple of weeks (stay out of the pacifier isle at the grocery store) but he got over it and is fine now. Of course we had to go through the house and find all of the lost ones before he did.

This worked for our daughter... Cut a little bit of the tip of the pacifier off at a time. Still give it to him at the times you normally do. He will decide he doesn't like it or want it anymore. It only took a couple times before our daughter stopped wanting it. You just have to be persistent & if you have more than one pacifier in the house do it to all of them. We just told her it was broken. Good Luck : )

My daughter is 18 months and has taken her paci at naptime and bedtime only for 6 months or so. I decided it was definitely time to take it away. I snipped off a tiny bit of it and continued to do so every day or so. At first she kept taking it out of her mouth and looking at it, but she has done just fine. She is now down to just a tiny bit of paci left and she seems to chew on the hard plastic more than suck the paci now. When I check on her after she has gone to sleep she is sleeping just fine and it is lying in the bed. It's been gradual but easier than taking it away all at once. I've also been telling her she is a big girl now and doesn't need a paci and that it is going bye bye. Good luck!

My son was the same way. I have two suggestions. You can either have them "disappear" one by one over a period of time. And by "disappear" I mean throw them away! If you keep them, you will use them.

Secondly, the passy ferry. You can explain that it is time for the passy ferry to come and take all passies away. You put them in a bag and leave them out at night. The passy ferry takes them all away and leaves a big boy toy in there place.

Both worked for us and even though he really wanted the passy, he fell asleep anyway.

I have been there! My two daughters each loved their pacifiers and I tried taking it from them, but it was just too hard. They, too, only used it for naps and night time. Well, they both finally gave it up the night before they turned 4! By this time I was able to completely reason with them and they knew that other children did not need them. If I remember, we just talked about it the week before and it was so easy. I was worried about it changing the shape of their mouths (the roof), but they are now almost 12 and 10 and no problems. Now, I also have a son that is 5 1/2 and only had a pacifier briefly because I didn't want to go through the whole thing again...my middle daughter was 4ys 4mos when he was born so not much time without a pacifier in the home! All my children had a strong sucking desire and I breastfeed each of them. In hindsight, my son was never a very good napper and I always had to lay down with him or he had to have a bottle to fall asleep. The worst was if he woke up in the middle of a nap and you could tell that he was still tired, but he didn't have anything to soothe him. Yea, he didn't have one, but it probably would have been easier if he had. Thank goodness I am through it all. Don't give into peer pressure or any of that stuff. If it helps him sleep, hallelujia! They grow so fast, don't put any extra pressure on yourself if it isn't necessary. Or him if he is gleeming with anticipation. Hope this helps.
Take care and enjoy him...they grow so fast!

We were in the same perdicament with our daughter now 3.5. I waited until her 3rd birthday mostly because she was going through a lot of changes in her life(moving to another state potty training, mommy very sick with pregnancy). I just wanted to pick a time where there wasn't slit of other stress in her life. I told her the pacifier fairy was coming to take away her pacifiers to give them to little babies who needed them on her 3rd b-day. We talked it up for a few weeks before and she seemed excited that she was such a big girl and that a fairy was visiting her. She didn't cry at all when her pacifiers were gone. The only trouble we had is a week or two were it took longer for her to fall asleep because she didn't have her pacifier. I didn't even connect of at first.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask for any more details.
Beth

What worked for us was running hot water on pacifier. Often. It got to tasting so bad, my son wouldn't have it.

Super Nanny has dealt with this a few times. One time, a party was thrown for the child. The point was to mark the child growing up and becoming a big boy/ big girl. At one point, the child was asked to help tie the pacifier to a balloon. Then, the child let go of the balloon and said goodbye to the pacifier.

Her other way of dealing with it was to have a pacifier fairy come visit. The child was told that the fairy needed to take the pacifier(s) to children who had need of them. That night, the "fairy" left with the pacifiers and left a present for the child--similar to the tooth fairy.

In both cases, the kids ended up ok. There was some initial upset but it didn't last long at all.

Good luck!

When I was ready to get rid of the paci, I slight bit the tip of it day by day. When a hole is there its not suckable anymore. Then convince him to through is in the the trash because it doesn't work anymore. Allowing him put the pacifier in trash will let him know 'no more pacifier'. I hope it works for you.

my third child was the only one to take a pacifier and I was also very concerned about how to take it away b/c she loved it so much! Right after she turned two, the Easter Bunny came and took the pacis for the babies. He also left her a baby doll in place of the pacis. She was excited to get the doll and was proud to tell everybody that the easter bunny gave her pacis to the babies. We talked with her for two weeks prior so that she understood. She had no problem sleeping without it...I think the mistake most parents make is underestimating their child. At 2 1/2 and 3, they are capable of understanding and if you let it go on too long, it will become a battle and a habit that is harder to break. Good luck!

I read this and had to respond. Don't feel bad for your 2 1/2 yr old still having a pacifier. I wouldn't have dreamt of taking it away at 9 months as another respondent stated. Wow...what's the big deal!! Anyways, my son LOVES his pacifier too. And when he is tired or sleepy, he too wants it. Sometimes would have it during the day but we'd take it and put it up. Well, Friday night was the end of the paci. I'll tell you how...we saw on Nanny 911 where Jo did a Passie Pirate. Make a poster that's a calendar...each day that goes by have your son put an X on it. At the end...at the bottom of the calendar for the last day write Passie Pirate. On this day he knows that the Pirate is coming to take the Passies...but in place of them he's left a treasure. In our son's case, we left him a Tonka truck. He did cry at first when he realized they were gone...but once he saw his treasure he was just fine. Hasn't mentioned them all weekend! And believe me...my son is as stubborn as they come. So if he can do it..any child can do it!!! lol...Give it a try and let me know how it works!!!

2 1/2 and still using a pacifier????? I took the pacifiers away from my children when they started walking(9-10 months). They only had it at night and then I gradually took it away. I substituted the pacifier with a bottle (bad idea) but I gradually took the bottle and relaced it with a cup, so by 18 months there were no pacifiers and no bottles.
You may want to replace the pacifier with a soft comfort toy. You may have to lay with him at first to comfort him and gradually leave out, staying longer and longer. It seems like he's using the pacifier as a comfort toy.

There are many different ways to do this and each child responds differently. For my daughter we just cut the tip off and when the pacifier didn't produce the desired result she gave it up. We had absolutely no issues with this method. She just looked at her pacifier after trying it and handed it back too me and didn't want it any more.

A few months before my son turned 3 I started telling him when kids turn 3 the Paci Fairy comes to the kids house and gets all their pacis and leaves them a present. A couple of months before his birthday he came to me and said he knew what he wanted the Paci Fairy to bring him and did I think she would come early. I told him I thought she would. Unfortunately the Paci Fairy couldn't find what he wanted and had to leave an IOU and where we could get it. We went down and got it and in the process realized DS was sick. He did fine without the pacis even sick, but I was worried when we first realised it.

Ours happened by luck...one day we couldn't find her pacifiers...she looked, as well as we all did. So, she had to go to bed without them that night....I took advantage of that. I did find them the next day, but threw them away because she did pretty good, so I knew if she was able to go through one night, she could do it. (She was 2 years old.) She did ask from time to time, but we told her that we couldn't find them and that they were gone. She asked about once a day for a week or two and then just every few days, until it phased out.

If he's only getting it when he sleeps, I wouldn't be too terribly worried about it. We recently went through this, (my oldest just turned 3 in March), and starting last fall we began telling him that when he turned 3, his pacifier wouldn't work any more -that they stopped working when children turn 3. We planned to cut the tips off of all of them because we heard this was a good way to break them of the habit, and we were also going to let him round up all of his to give to "younger boys and girls who needed them" (also heard this was a good thing to tell the child). However, in January we honestly lost the one we had left -we felt there were a few more floating around which we finally found and threw away -and he told us he was a big boy and knew he didn't need it as long as he had his froggie (his lovey stuffed frog). This actually made me cry because he was so dejected but so mature about it! I told him he could keep froggie as long as he wanted! Anyway -what I told you first was what we were planning to do, so hope that helps. I think his giving up so easily had a lot to do with our preparing him far in advance for the fact that the pacifier was no longer going to work anyway.

For my son, after his 2nd birthday, we cut the ends off all the paci's one day & gave them to him at naptime & bedtime like normal. The sucking pleasure is gone, so he didn't want them anymore after a few days. Very painless way to get rid of them!

Is there a reason you are wanting to stop it right now? If he is only using it at nap time I personally wouldn't be too worried about it. If you do feel it is important for him to stop, I would just be sure to do it slowly. My suggestion would be to talk to him about it and maybe present it as something you will "just try" to start with. You can then see how he does...if it is a big problem, I would probably wait a little longer until he is ready or better able to comfort himself without it. I would just follow your intution and your son's...don't worry about outside pressures...every child does things at their own pace and if he isn't ready I think you are fine to go a little longer!

We donated the pacifier to Santa, who took them to the poor babies with no pacies. In its place, Santa brouht extra surprises. My sons asked for them for about three days and forgot all about them. Since he is such a good toddler, you might have an easy time of it as we did. Good luck!

when my oldest turned 2 we took it cold turkey.. and he never asked for it at all.. and when my baby was born he has one and my oldest never takes it n puts it in his mouth so i think cold turkey worked best for us