Okay mommas, I need to know when you finally decided to throw out the pacifier. I worked hard to have my son weaned by his first birthday, however my husband talked me into waiting because he was teething so bad and he really liked it with the pain. Since he was about 10 months old he has only gotten it for naps, and he hasn't gone to sleep with it since then. He isn't too attached to it, but it bothers me and I don't know why. I guess I think he should look more grown up, so I want it gone, but I admit that sometimes it is a lifesaver. My son is 14 months old with 4 teeth and no more in sight. So, I think we should have him off of it before the new year. I need some advice from those who have done this before. How long is too long with the pacifier?
We had a "ceremony" with Santa at Northpark and gave it to him. DD bday is right at Christmas time so that worked for us at age 2.
Susan
Both of my kids got rid of their bottles when they were one year old and the pacifier when they turned two and no later.
From the way it sounds your son is like my daughter- he likes his paci but is not too attached. I recenly broke my daughter at 16 months- COLD TURKEY. She wasn't taking it that much any more anyway so I just decided to try to put her to bed (the hardest time) without it. She cried for it a little the next morning and some evenings/mornings there after but nothing major and after about a week or two it was gone from our lives :) Anyway, you'll never know if you don't try- just stop using the paci's- put them away somewhere so if it's awful you can still give him one. But I'm really glad I broke her of the habit before she was 2- I read somewhere that the average age is 3.5- I think that is just crazy. The older they get the more stuborn they get- if he's not even that attached- take it now before it becomes a real ordeal. Give him teethers for the teething- the kind you put in the fridge- my daughter takes one of those to bed from time to time.
Good luck.
I am definitely all for cutting the end. It only took us 2 days for my daughter to be rid of the pacifier after cutting the tip. good luck!
We got rid of the pacis last week - my daughter was 26 months. We weren't in a hurry to take them away since she only used them for sleeping and because baby #2 is coming next month and I need at least one good sleeper in the house! But she had begun biting through the nipple so it was a safety issue - we considered weaning but I'd never forgive myself if she bit the nipple completely off and choked to death because I was too nervous to go cold turkey.
Thankfully she's old enough to understand that some broken things can't be fixed and have to be thrown away, but not old enough yet to suggest that we just buy her new ones! She cried hard one time and since then talks a lot more before falling asleep (sometimes we hear her in her room saying "purple paci broken, yellow paci broken, pink paci broken" like a toddler mantra). Anyway, I think it's fine to let him keep it for a while unless you have a really strong reason to break him of it, like we did.
My oldest son, who is 16 now, made it easy for me! He THREW his paci and his bottle the week he turned a year old! :) (I looked at my Grandma and Mom and said, "I guess we're done!")
My little guy, however, didn't get off his paci's until he was just over 2 (b-day in April, paci's gone in the middle of June). Well-meaning friends have told me I left him on it "too long", but if he didn't have one, *everything* else was going in his mouth, and that was NOT a good thing!) We have since found out that he has a developmental disorder in the autism spectrum, and are now looking for answers to help him. We are now down to a "teething" ring for him to use when he's going to bed, and most of the time, he's only sucking on it less than 5 minutes.
Your husband was right to not throw them out when your son is teething. The sucking on the paci really does help alleviate the pain without using as much medication. (What's your natural reaction to a tooth ache? Don't you find yourself "sucking" on your cheek on that side of your mouth? Babies don't have the ability to do that, yet.)
Remember, your son is STILL a BABY, and he will have PLENTY OF TIME TO BE GROWN UP, so why make him grown up before he is? (Just the perspective of an "older" mom. There's a song called "Let Them Be Little", and it speaks volumes.) I'm not being judgemental, just don't understand why we work so hard to have a baby, and then want them "grown up" before they're 2.
Ok, with all that said, I think your son will be fine with a paci as long as he still has teeth coming in, but he should be off one (and he will more than likely do it himself) by the time he's 2 1/2, if that old. For now, you can start offering him the paci only when you notice he's "cranky" and showing signs of teeth coming in.
I hope this helps!
My oldest was very easy to break from the paci. She was 15 months old. From the time she was a year, she only got it at nap time and at bed time. She pretty much just started "forgetting" to take it and we threw them all out with no problems.
I wasn't so lucky with my second child. She was VERY attached to her paci. At 18 months, we managed to wean her down to only nap and bed time. But to completely get rid of it, it took us until she was 24 months old. Ours too became a safety issue with her biting through them, but she just wasn't ready to give them up. She would cry and beg for her paci and I just couldn't outlast her. (The longest I made it was 4.5 hours.) I started telling her that she was becoming a big girl and that the new baby down the street really needed a paci, and she could only have it until her birthday. In return, I made sure she had a very special gift from the "paci fairy" for giving hers away. Even now at 33 months old, she occasionally asks for it and we tell her she is a big girl and gave them to the baby. Even tho she doesn't like that answer, she is satisfied with it.
Everyone's got their own opinon about this.....certainly usage during the day can prohibit language devlopment; however, my pedi said if he is only using it night its okay, and not until baby teeth fall out is it really an issue. This is just what my pedi told me. I still use it a night, but we are trying to break it....I put a tiny hole in my son's paci the other night and he went crazy knowing immediatley that something was wrong with it - he threw it immediatley. So, we will try that again, soon enough.
My son is almost 2 1/2, and I have heard that the longer you wait for them to break it, the harder it will be for them to break the need for it...as well. So, catch 22 --
Best of luck,
K.
My kids were off the pacifier before 24 months. With my daughter, we gave it to a baby friend of ours. We told her she needed it more. With our boys, we cut the end of it (be careful with choking) and told them it was broken. They didn't want it anymore after that.
My daughter had one only for sleeping until she was about 14-15 months old. She never used it other than for sleeping. We moved when she was about 13 months old, so we gave her a month or so to get adjusted before taking it. We did it cold turkey and it was rough for maybe 4-5 days (got progressively better), but she was over it after that and hasn't looked back. Her old pediatrician (before we moved) suggested taking it sooner rather than later because they get so attached and it's harder to get it from a 2-3 year old than it is a 1 year old, so that's what we did and it worked great for us. I never thought before I had children that these kinds of things were so difficult to figure out, but they really are! This parenting stuff is hard! Good luck. I'm sure whatever you decide to do will be fine....your son likely won't be headed off to college with it, so try to just figure out what works for your family and stick with it (don't give it back once you take it! I had to throw them all away to avoid the temptation)
Like you, my son only got his at naptime and bedtime. This made taking it completely pretty easy. We took it totally away when he was 18-19 months old. We just didn't give it to him one night. He cried for a few minutes, we went in and consoled him, and he went to sleep. If he asked where it was, we just told him it was gone, and we didn't know where it was. I know this is easier than some have had it, but I think we took it away early enough that he wasn't terribly attached to it. Good luck to you.
