Seeking Advice on How to Get Rid of the Pacifier

All three of my boys were extrememly attached to their pacifiers. My youngest son, now 6, went through the house and helped me gather all of his pacifiers. We boxed them up and left them under the Christmas tree for Santa Claus. Santa Claus traded his pacifiers for toys. He never gave us a problem going without one after that. He even found one after Christmas and brought it to me to "mail" to Santa Claus. I was so proud of him!

my son is 17 months and refuses to go to bed without a bottle! he will go down for a nap at daycare without one, but not at home. i have tried with the sippy cup, putting just water in the bottle, etc. he does not care what is in the bottle as long as he has TWO with something in them. he has never taken to a pacifier. i would love to know if you find something that works!

We are getting ready to wean our 22 month-old off of the binky. First off, what we have left in the house is what we have left. When they are gone, they are gone. No more buying them. For my two older kids, we first did a search through the house in all their "binky stashing places" and we would allow the binky only for naps and sleep for a short while. Later, we did cut the tips off closer to when they were 2. When they grab the binky and try to suck on it and then get mad, tell them to take it to the trash and throw it away themselves. As I said, we are getting ready to do that so that it will be gone when he is 2. Hopefully you will get a variety of responses so you can find the right approach. Each child is different and every mom will have their own approach. I will suggest that if he is aware that you are trying to get rid of it, he would be more likely to try to hang on to it. Good luck!

Does he understand the concepts of "trash" and "all gone"?
I have taken several children off pacifiers. Tell them to throw it away. and when they ask for it Remind them that it is trash now and all gone. You may have a day or two of tantrums, but you will not tramitize them by sticking to newly set boundries and rules, like " no more pacifiers"

You can do this!

I did it in steps. First, the pacifier could only be in the bed. We said "your paci is going night night." If my daughter wanted it, she had to be in bed. That seemed to work well. I honestly can't remember when we did the next step of taking it away. We did it with two of our three - I remember finally taking it completely away and it wasn't too traumatic. I've had friends do the "paci fairy" thing. They had the child put all of their pacifiers in the crib and were told that the paci fairy would come take them to a new baby that needed them and leave a very special toy for the child. Also, I never bought a size bigger than newborn. I figured, why make it more comfortable for them? Good luck!

do the binky fairy take it and replace it with a gift from the fairy wrap it all up and let him know the fairy come and took it and gave him this gift instead

We did steps as well, we decided only at naptime, bedtime and in the car (b/c she was going thru something at the time when she cried a lot in the car.) Then just at nap at bedtime, then just bedtime and finally not at all-she took it very well, she was under 18 mos at the time. I have a 2 1/2 year old who never would take a paci-she prefers her fingers-those are more difficult to get rid of!

I have three kids. All have taken pacifiers. The first two, I used the Farmers Almanac wean dates. Example: If the wean date is September 12th, take them all away when they get up that morning. I have never had any problems. I will use this same method for my third child. Here's the website: www.almanac.com/astrology/index.php
You can just copy and paste it to your browser. Try it. Mine never fussed, cried, or asked for them back ever again. Good luck.

Hi, T.. I'm a 47yr mom of 6. I have never used a pacifier. Some times I worked and some times I didn't. At this point in your sons life you will have to ween him off the pacifier. Since you work you should try this at home. I am old school. I've used this on getting the bottle away.
By coating the nipple with lemon or lime or another taste he does not like, will make him think, train him so to speak, to think he does not like it. You have trained his mind to want the pacifier now you have to train it to not want it. Be prepared to do this many times in a session, the flavor will disapate and if you allow it he will get use to waiting. Its like dip, and let him taste it, he will spit it out, dip it again, over and over. You are a teacher you understand training we train ourselves and others. It takes time, as you do this at home and give it to him only when you have to he will relent and get used to not having it. Good luck.

My first one had open-heart surgery when she was 2, so I didnt want to take hers away before then. But by the time we hit 3 1/2 and her teeth were being affected, I'd said enough. We managed to get her to leave it on her pillow when she got out of bed. At first she'd run in and grab it when we werent looking, but that soon slacked off. The hardest part was that she had a younger sister, so we had to wean her at the same time. Then it was just a matter of never using the word "binky" in front of her. :]

It won't really be true trauma. He won't even remember it after a few months. It will just be some long days for you. Sorry. I took my boys paci's away before they were one as kids memories only get better the older they get. lol. I had only a couple of nights of crying and I just rocked and sang them to sleep. Just be prepared when the pacifiers are all gone. He may cry and you will have to be strong to get over this. You might get lucky and it will be easy. Good Luck.

If he's as attached as you say to his paci, it really sounds like he'll need to be given some more time with it. It really doesn't hurt anything to let him have it. Don't rush this, relax and enjoy all those little things. They sure won't last long and he'll give it up easier when he's more mature. Our little girl was between 2-3 before we knew it was time for "her" to feel alright about parting with it. Before then it was about us. Just give him a little more time ...

I don't have any advice really but wanted to say I am in the same boat! My daughter will be 2 in November and over the past 6 months has become atached to her pacifier. We try to only let her have it at nap/bed times but she is getting to where she is sneaking it! I think I'm going to wait a few more months and try to wean her from it during a long weekend (I work full-time) when we've gotten back from a mom and dad vacation (our first time away from her). I think I'll start with nap time weaning and then bed time. I keep hoping she lose intrest in it!

Good luck and I'm interested to hear ideas too!

T.,
Hello. I strongly suggest trying to do it in stages. I think it's easier on the child and parent and doesn't traumatize them. Actually, we gave our daughter a small stuffed animal to help replace that comfort item. We begin by saying "Paci stays in bed" and she only got it at nap & bedtime in the beginning. So, before I would pick her up out of the crib, I would say, Where does paci go? She would pop it out and throw it in her crib and we went about our day. And I didn't carry any with me, so if she was looking for it, I would just say Paci stays in bed. Then, after about a month of doing that, we started to only use it at nighttime, calling it a night-time paci. We did that for about a month and I was ready to try for no more paci the next week, but she decided she was done with it, and started throwing it out of her crib. So, she basically finished that last step all on her own. This is possibly rare, but I think I made it easy on her and she was just done. I will say she was 18 months when she was totally done with it, so being younger probably helped too. Every child is different and you have to figure out what's best for you and your child. Best of luck to you and this process.
Take Care,
J.

I would show him that he is a big boy now and that big boys don't need pacifiers. Tell him that its time to throw it away and give him a sippy cup or something to replace it. Throw it away in front of him and don't buy anymore. He is old enough to understand. It may take a couple days to get used to it but that is the best way. I know when my friends kid wouldnt let go of it. I just threw it away for her and told him he was a big boy. Now he goes to sleep with a sippy cup. It didnt take that long for him to get used to not having it. Good luck.

S. Thorne
Helping mothers work at home!
www.always4myfamily.com

When my daughter was 2 we went on a family snow ski trip. We were pretty good about keeping up with pacifiers, so we only took one with us. The first night there, she lost it! Everybody searched the whole place & we never did find it before we left 3 days later! My daughter understood "all gone" and "lost" so we just had to keep telling her she lost it & it was gone. I was not about to go out and buy her a new one! So when we got home, we threw out others we had stored for her.

You could try throwing away all but one of your son's and once he loses that one, it's gone!

Hi T.,
All 4 of my kids loved their pacis and I let them keep them until they were 3 on a limited basis. I've used 2 methods but with both we still used stages of cutting down on paci use. Only at nap and bedtime and we also allowed it in the car for awhile. But we had to take them away as soon as they got up in places they couldn't reach or didn't know where they were. My oldest two we cut the end off and explained that paci was broken...a concept easy for kids to understand. My younger twins we did the paci fairy and it really was alot more fun for all of us. They put the pacis in a box and when they woke up the paci fairy had taken the pacis to new babies and left them a toy they really wanted. We talked for weeks ahead of time that this was going to happen so they were ready (mostly lol!) when the day came. Good luck and have patience!