Taking Away the Pacifier Please Help!!

My little girl thinks her daddy can fix anything so we cut the nipple off of her pacifier and told her that was the one thing daddy couldn't fix. If daddy can't fix it, it had to be thrown away. We did that around her 2nd b-day and she will be 3 in March. She will see a pacifier in the store and say "My paci broke." The first couple of nights were a little rough, but it didn't take long for her to get used to not having it. Hope this helps. Good luck!

D.

Neither one of my children took a paci, they just wouldn't take it and I tried. BUT apparently I was addicted to it and my mom told me one day that the dog ate it, she said that she let me scold him about it and then I was fine with it after that.

My 2 year old son at the time was really attached to his paci.
He even started daycare with it. Since me and my husband worked monday thru friday. we first started just giving it to him at night. then we picked a weekend to just completely get him off of it. He whinned a lot. But by monday he was over it. We also kept him busy by playing his V-smile games and playing outside. Good luck.

I noticced you mentioned speecd apraxia. What are the symptoms?

My daughter was almost 4 before we got her to give up her pacifier.I tried several times to break her from and my parents would always give it back to her when she was with them.Then her daddy up and decides to leave us without so much as a good bye,moves 1800 miles away and never looked back.So it was even harder for me to break her from her "MI MI".But when my cousin had her brand new baby boy and we went to visit him we asked my daughter if the baby could have her "MI MI" and she let him have it.Of course he did not actually use it,it was just what we used to get it away from her.She fussed a little bit for it but not too much.She is now 15 and getting braces...I am sure atleast partially because she had her pacifier too long.Good Luck!!

My daughter was on the bottle til she was three. It was mostly at night to go to sleep, but of course people make comments. Anyway, about a month before she turned 3, I told her on her birthday, we would have a "toss the bottles" party. On her birthday, she was gonna be too big for bottles, so we would toss them together. So before her party started, we got all the bottles and threw them away. She was about to get presents, it didn't seem to bother her too much. When she asked for one, I said, "remember, you threw them away b/c you're a big girl now." We also went and let her pick out a special stuffed dog, for a lovey. She is almost 11, and still sleeps with it.It may also affect your child's teeth. Mine had to have caps. So, the sooner, the better.

I have read in the magazines that seems to work is the pacifier fairy. In the morning you child gets a card from the pacifier fairy saying it's time to be a big girl and that she needs the pacifiers for all the other babies. So you and your child gather all the pacifiers and leave them in a tree or at the door and leave and when you come back the fairy has taken the pacifiers and left a toy in it's place.

I would advise waiting until Easter time. I always took things away from my children around holidays. I took away pacifiers and bottles around holidays...

For example: Baby, I know you love your pacifier, but the Easter Bunny will leave you something extra special if you leave him your pacifier on Easter Eve...

It has always worked like a charm... The difficulty is finding that something extra special from the Easter Bunny...

Good Luck

I had read about this idea and used it on one of my daughters. Take your daughter to Build A Bear. Have her choose her favorite stuffed animal and then let her drop it in to the bear (or whatever she chooses) and help stuff it. She will still have the pacifier with her...just not in her mouth!! Hope this helps you as much as it did me!

Our answer to our kids' pacifier phase was relayed to us and we love to share how we were able to break the habit. Jacob (now 4) and Rachel (now 3) called thier pacifier a "bai" (bye)so the 'Bai Ferry' made a visit to our house one night. The Bai Ferry takes all of the bais and gives them to the babies who really need them and in their place leaves a GREAT BIG TOY. It worked!

Thanks,

Jim and D.

We moved here to ar RIGHT after my daughters 2nd birthday from NH. So all was new for her. She use to only use Binki at night since she was around year and 1/2. But after we moved she started to relying on that binki for everything. So, when she turned 2 1/2 what we did was this. 2 weeks before she turned 2 1/2 we counted down the days on the calendar till she was going to give up her binki's to give them to babies that needed them. So on that day we gathered ALL the binki's she put them in the bag and we went outside and hung them on the tree for the BINKI FAIRY to come and take them away for the babies. We left to go out and talked about how the BINKI FAIRY should of came and left her a gift. So when we returned home. The same bag was there - but the binkis where gone and a cool toy was there. (FERBIE) She wimped for a sec saying BINKI and I reminder her again. About and hour later was bed time. I was a little worried. She took her Ferbie and laid it in her bed with her and put a cover on it and tucked it all in. She has never asked for a binki again and she'll be 3 in APRIL....Best of Luck.

J.,
You've gotten a lot of good advice, but I'll just add what worked for us. I put a small cut in the bottom of the pacifier for the first week. It didn't allow my daughter to suck as tight, but still let her have something in her mouth. It was obvious that she didn't like it as well, but was still reluctant to give it up. We just explained that we were sorry, but it was just broken and we couldn't fix it. The 2nd week, I put a bigger hole in it, so it was even less satisfying, and she finally threw it away herself, in disgust. It worked great, b/c she got to make the decision herself (with a little help from a sneaky parent). Good luck and God bless!

M. B

What worked well with our kids is we planned to get rid of the pacifiers around when a new cousin or friend's baby was born and we "gave" the pacifiers to the new babies. I have also heard of giving them to baby unit at a hospitol. My kids were not excited to give them up but were more than happy to share them with another baby that needed it.
H. this helps.

I took my son's pacifier away when he was around 18 months old and it was SO hard! It took a total of 2 months. I had to slowly ween him off of it. We started taking it away during the day, and he could only have it at naps and for sleeping at night. And we only did this starting 3-4 days a week. The other days he had it all the time. The crying and fits for it lasted about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. Then we took it away for naps and he just had it at night time. That fit lasted about 2 weeks or so. Sometimes we'd give in during the day if he was really sick or something. We definitely had to hide it from him because we found that if he never saw it, he never asked for it. Eventually he just forgot about it and never wanted it again. I think its more traumatizing for the parents to watch the kids crying for it than it is for the child. Honestly, do you want your child to have to have "something" to soothe herself with rather than learning to soothe herself on her own? That something will be a pacifier now, and might be something worse later on in life. (sorry, we're seeing a behavior specialist for my son's ADHD and that's what she told me last week) :) I know you can do it! Just be strong, don't give in, and your daughter (and you) will be better for it in the end! Good luck.

We told our little girl that we were putting the pacifier under her pillow for the tooth fairy to take to her palace or use for other children. We left her a little "gift" under her pillow and never had a problem...Hope this helps.

Hello, I'm not sure what other advice you may have recieved already, but I went through this with my son who is now 6. He gave up the binky at 4 but it was slow going. Try to restrict her to just using it for sleeping. Dont take it to the store with you, get rid of the ones in the car. Tell her she is a big girl now and people think she looks silly. (Vanity works well with my 3 yr old daughter, I had to tell her princess do not suck their thumb to break her of that habit) After you have gone a full day without her asking for the binky reward her with something, mabye a popsicle or getting to stay up a little later. I was afraid bringing up the subject would make him want it, but he seemed proud that he had gone all day as a big boy. After a couple weeks of not using it during the day the binky "got lost" and he had to try sleeping without it cuz "it's to late to go to the store right now" The 1st 2 nights were rough, I had to stay by his bed till he was asleep, but after that he was just fine. Good luck to you

Just do it!! My middle child, at 3 1/2, just let the "binky" go about 2 or 3 months ago. I just told her that she was a big girl now, and she really didn't need it anymore. I am sure it helped that I told her we could give him to baby jimbo. (that's my new nephew) but she didn't seem to concerned about giving them to him at all. It was WAY easier than I thought it would be.......so just try it. Maybe go buy her a "big" girl purse, or new sheets for her bed, or something like that may make her feel like a "big" girl. It could turn out easier than you think. Don't make a big issue out of it, just be casual like it's not that big of deal!!!
Good luck!!!!
april

I just love the way you describe your family! I can tell they are precious to you!

Start by telling her that she can only have it for nap/bed time. This may take some real effort to keep her busy in other ways for a few days. Then, let her use it only at these times for a few weeks. The following worked for us, as well as many friends: Start to tell her that she is getting to be such a big girl, and that paci's taste yucky to big girls. (Tell her this for a week or so.) Then, try dipping it in vinegar (without her seeing). And, when you see her reaction (yucky), tell her that she must be such a big girl because it tastes yucky. Give her lots of extra cuddles. For the next few days, you may have to let her try again to see if it is still yucky, etc. I think the way to get her off of it is a gentle weaning. Maybe if you take her to the store to buy a new Teddy bear or something, that would be good. I also got a toy that my kids would love and put it on the top of the fridge. When they were "big" and had no more paci for 1 week (we checked off the days), then they got the "big" toy. We had a big kid party, etc. Hope this helps!

We went out of town around my daughters 3rd birthday. I told her that we forgot it at home. Then when we were there I talked about how big she was without it and how she was such a big girl ect. Then when we got home, she just forgot about it and was used to not having it.

You can try "putting paci to bed"! I have a 14 month old that I am already doing this with. She gets it at bedtime and on car trips right now, and then our next step will be at bedtime only. It seems to be far less traumatic and very effective. She knows that if she needs her paci, all she has to do is go take a nap. I got this advice from my sister in law, who is a physical/occupational therapist for children. That is what she did with her own kids! Good luck!!

Hi J.,
Lots of luck with figuring out the best path for your family! If it were me, I would just allow her to continue using it. But I know many moms, when deciding to wean their babies or even older toddlers, would limit the usage or nursing (or in your case the pacifier)for example "the paci only comes out at night" *or* morning, nap and night the paci comes out.. other times its put away. The idea is that once the child gets really really comfortable with that level, you would take away the morning one, wait until really comfortable and then take away the afternoon one etc until weaned from the paci altogether. Other people feel like its less traumatic to just "lose it"! I dont know! But I do wish you well in figuring it out!
A.

My friend let her daughter have her pacifier until she was about 3 1/2 years old and tried all different ways to take it away from her but nothing worked. I told her to talk to her daughter and tell her that there are alot of babies in heaven that don't have pacifiers and it would be very nice of her to give her pacifiers to all the little babies. Well, about a week later my friends nephew died at 3 months old and her daughter would always ask questions about where he went and she would tell her that he went to heaven to be with the other babies up there. Her daughter said that she wanted to send her pacifiers to her baby cousin. So they tied all of her pacifiers to balloons and sent them off into the sky. And everytime she would cry for her pacifier her mom would remind her that her little cousin is using them and she would be alright with it. So you could tell her to send them to the babies in heaven or you could put them in a basket and help her put them into a tree and tell her that the baby fairy is going to come get them and give them to the babies. And when she goes to bed you can go out there and take the basket and put a little present in its place. But after you do that do not have any pacifiers in the house. If she cries for one do not give in. She will soon get used to it and stop crying for it. It might take awhile for her to get used to not having one. My kids were upset for a few weeks and then was fine and didn't ask for them again. Good Luck, I just thought these two ideas were cute and the child can also get involved and knows where they are going.

Well i went through the same thing with my oldest son. I finally just stopped buying them and threw them all away so that I wouldnt be tempted to give them to him when he asked. It will not be tramatizing to take them away from her. It will be a hard three days of fit throwing but you can do it I promise. It should only be a three or four day battle for you and then she will forget all about it. Please do it now or her teeth will be affected from this my sons was. I hope that things go well for you. Let me know If I helped at all.

My sister told my niece that santa took her pacifier and left her a gift. Of course that was during Christmas time. You can try it on Easter...

Be glad that it is a pacifier....something that you CAN take away. My daughter will be 3yo in April and she is a thumb sucker. She was a thumb sucker in the womb as well! She really only does it when she is scared (in an unfamiliar place) or when she is really tired and going to bed. I am not sure how we are going to break that habbit because you can't take her thumb away. My friend's son used a pacifier for quite some time....I think he was almost 4yo before he stopped using it. It was a slow process but she explained to him that he is a big boy now and he needed to start leaving his pacifier at home when they went out. She would limit his time with it. Pretty soon she told him it was time to get rid of it. They could keep it in a drawer so he could see it now and then but he did not use it. It worked out pretty well. Just an idea. Again, no pacifier here so others who have actually dealt with this same issue may be of better help. Good Luck!