When to Stop Using the Pacifier

My son was 3 when he gave it up. I wish we did it earlier. But, we had a binky fairy come at night. He had to get all binky together and we put them in a box outside. When he woke up he went outside and binky fary left him some big boy toys. It was hard for about a week. He would ask everynight for the binky back just one. He then called the fary tinkerbell and said he wished she would bring them back. I told him he was a big boy now and all the new babys in the world needed binkys. The first night was the worst, imagine someone needing drugs really bad. HE pleded and begged for a binky just one mommy please. Then everynight for a bout a week he started asking for something for his mouth. But it all worked out. And he is fine now.

Good luck

The older they get the harder it is to break them of the pacifier. If you are ready, 14 mo. is certainly a reasonable time to do it. My son only used it to sleep as well. We took my sons away around 15 mo. because he had to be without it by 18 mo.in order to move up to the toddler room at daycare (which was developmentally more appropriate). We just stopped giving it to him one night. We went through several days to no more than a week of him waking up frequently at night because he didn't have it to soothe himself back to sleep, but it was not nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. I thought it would take a month or more! I also realized that I had been using the pacifier in the day time to help keep him quiet in stores etc. and even when it was only at night I was using it to keep him sleeping. I was using it as much for myself as for him which really isn't right. Babies and children need to learn to be vocal, make sounds and express themselves. No teeth issues; my sons teeth are amazingly straight with no overbite. I don't think you need to worry about the teeth too much. Good luck whatever you decide to do!

My oldest daughter also needed her paci to sleep. Just after her first birthday we told her that it was time for her paci to live in her bed so she only used it for sleep. She didn't give it up until she was 3, but only used it to sleep. She pretty much gave it up on her own when she went to preschool. She's now 14 years old and has no overbite or anything that people worry about from using pacifiers. So I'd say just leave her be for another year or so. As long as she's not wandering around all day with it stuck in her mouth it's really nothing to worry about!

My daughter loved her binky and used it for naps and bedtime. But as she approached 3 yrs old, I started to think that the binky would be going to college with her since she was SO attached to it! :-) As her 3rd b-day approached, I started talking to her about how "big" kids don't need the binky anymore and that when she turned 3, she would be a "big" kid...we reinforced this for about a month. The day after her 3rd b-day, she asked for the binky and I repeated the "big" kid story and said the binkys were gone. She had a total meltdown that lasted about 45 minutes. Okay, I figured the 1st night would be awful but I was scared that this could happen every night and I wasn't prepared for that! But the next night, she asked for binky and I repeated the same story...and this time she just got a little weepy but didn't have a fit. She asked about binky for about 2 weeks and then she just lost interest. She is 4 1/2 now - no problems sleeping, no problems with her teeth or speech. If your daughter enjoys it, I say let her have it but just remember that habits are harder to break as they get older. Good luck!

I didn't have time to read all the responses, but I got some GREAT advice on breaking the pacifier habit on this very site. Our pediatrician at the time said to get my son off the pacifier at 2 years old, so that's what we did. We snipped the tip of the pacifier a little at a time over the course of a few weeks. Within a month he was off the binky. He still held the "nub" up to him mouth when he slept for a while, but there was nothing to suck on. Eventually, I he just forgot about it. Before that we had tried everything and nothing worked.

Sounds like you have the dream baby. Enjoy it !!

The potential harm is to her teeth. Baby teeth create a path for adult teeth to grow into later. If she sucks too long she will effect the position of her teeth forever. When she is able to understand better you can make it her job to give her pacifiers to the pacifier fairy and get a great treat in return. Then jsut be sure she has other things to satisfy her orally, like a sippy cup of water before sleep.

my stepson was hooked on a binky. we all swore at two it would be gone. so when two came he asked and we told him they were gone. with some help from his cat... she had been chewing on them one by one and them ahving to be thrown away. at two he was able to understand. he's now 15 and i don't see any adverse effects.. no teeth trouble. and he wasn't scarred for it. LOL it's no diff than weaning them off of a bottle or nursing. you just have to be ready for the possible tears and fight. :) good luck

I personally think 2 is the limit. We just broke my daughter off the pacifier this past weekend. She is 20 months old, but I wish we would have done it sooner. We tried it a couple of months ago, but I was in my 1st trimester of pregnancy and didn't have the energy to deal with the crying. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The 1st night she had about a 30 minute tantrum when we put her to sleep and kept asking for it. We told her that they were all gone. The 2nd night it was about a 10-15 minute tantrum and the 3rd night, not even 5 minutes. Good Luck!

i THIK THE SOONER THE BETTER. WE HAD TO BREAK THE BED TIME BUNKY SITUATION AND DIDIT IN 2 NIGHTS. WE RAN HER AROUND UTIL SHE WAS EXHAUSTED AND SHE LITERALLY WENT TO HER BED AND FELL ASLEEP ON HER OWN. AFTER 2 NIGHTS OF THT SHE DIDNT "NEED" IT AND ALL WAS GOOD. i DID HAVE FRIENDS HAVE THE BINKY FAIRY COME AND TAKE IT AN LEAVE A PRESENT (SAMLL OR $$$,LIKE TE TOOTH FAIRY). TYHEY EXPLAINED TO THIER DAUGHTER THAT SHE WAS A BIG GIRL AND THIS WAS JUST WHAT HAPPENS..SHE WAS REALLY EXCITED ABOUT HER TOY AND WAS PRUOD TO SHOW THE BINKY FAIRTY AWARD OFF!

Hi T.,

My first son loved his pacifier. He would have it all the time. When he was about 18 months old, he would only have it for sleep (nap time and bed time). We let this go on for as long as he needed, especially since there is really no harm in having it. We just kept explained to him that he was getting too big for a pacifier and once he 'lost' it, then there would be no more pacifier. This went on for about 10 months. He's pretty stubborn and kept a good watch on where he'd put it. Well, one day he misplaced it and couldn't find it for his nap. I told him that he lost it and needed to take his nap without it. It took him a little longer to fall asleep, but he did it. Ever since then, he has been without it. (I did find it under the bed and just put it away.) Now he enjoys telling our family that he doesn't need it anymore, because he is a big boy!

Your daughter will give you signs when she is ready to give it up. She's still pretty young and I feel there really isn't any harm in having the pacifier to sleep. Good luck.

N.

i asked this of my dentist when my son turned 18 mos and she asked what did he do when i took it away. i said that he sucked on his fingers, she said not to take it away yet. the pacifier may give them slightly buck teeth but they are only baby teeth(by the way my daughters buck teeth straitened on their own in 3 months after the pacifier was taken away), but sucking on the fingers will misalign their jaw and that could cost you thousands in orthodontic bills later. so she said by 3 or 4 if they still really need it. if you take it away and she just accepts it then she's probably ready. i hope this helps.
T.

Both my daughters were addicted to the binky like crack heads!! They had them always & it became unbarable to keep track of them & make sure we had them at all times. Your situation sounds much better. I stopped the binky when they turned 2. You can always do it now since she is so good at self soothing. I would just gather them up and throw them away & be done with them. They bounce back really quickly I promise. After a day or two at most she will forget all about them.

A.

To break our kids of the paci habit we just cut the tip off. It makes the suction not work right, so they basically tried using it, declared it "broken", and after a day or two they decided it wasn't worth it. So it made it seem like their own idea to quit.

As for the ages, my son was 18 months when we had him break the paci habit, and it was very painless. With my daughter, we let her go to 2 years old since we didn't feel the pressure of a new baby coming. She had gotten much more attached to it by then, and we ended up having to cut her paci a few times to make it shorter and shorter before she gave it up. It was relatively painless, but still she would look longingly at pictures of her with the binky and be sad that it had "broken."

So from our experience, 18 months worked better than 2 years old.

My 2 oldest daughters both were the same way with their pacifiers, and their sleep. They only got them in bed. It worked beautifully. When my oldest was almost 3, she started really whining and crying for it during the day. So, I just told her that we weren't using them at all anymore, and threw them away. I was expecting nights of crying and sleeplessness, but none of that happened. That was it. She was done. For my 2nd daughter, when she was 3, we just did the same thing, and threw them all away. No problems for her either. Not a single night or nap of whining or crying for it. My dentist told us that 3 was probably the oldest that you want them with a pacifier. I have friends who had big pacifier parties where they invited friends, got a present for saying goodbye to the pacifier, etc... For me, that is just way too much. But it seemed to work for them!

I don't see the harm in letting her keep it for a while longer. At 14 months they still look cute with it. Some dentists are concerned about it, but you have to decide if the tradeoff is worth it. My first child was two when I took away his pacifier. There were a couple of rough nights but it was just the going to sleep part that was hard. It was probably three weeks before he stopped asking for it, but he only complained vigorously the first couple of nights. I had decided to let my third child keep the pacifier longer because we were transitioning him to a bed and I didn't want to do both at once. Wouldn't you know it, the day he moved into a bed, he also shredded his paci with his teeth. It was the last one and I just told him that it had to be thrown in the trash. He never mentioned it after that. It's so hard to predict how they will react, but if you decide to take it away, stick to your guns and don't give in. It will take less time than you think for them to forget about it.

Just like the old saying goes, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it.' She's sleeping & self-soothing so why worry? Our oldest son was a binky baby...totally addicted. When he was 2 we cut it off to just the car & while sleeping. From there we petered out its use to a stop when he was 3. We were worried about the effect it might have on his teeth & I was assured many times by our hygenist (my BF) & our dentist (her brother) that his teeth were fine. I'm not saying keep it til she's 3 but you're on the right track by only letting her use it at sleep times. But when you do want to get rid of , what we did is tell our son that he needed to give up the gigees (as he called them) when he turned 3 to the new babies who needed them. We took them in a plastic baggy & gave them to his ped. at his 3 yr well-check. We started 'prepping' him at about 2.5 yrs that when he hit 3, the gigees would go bye-bye & we reminded him of this frequently throughout the day. So, when the day came he was all prepared & we had absolutely no problems. Napping was harder for him but he was 3 which is a common age to stop napping anyway. He'd always needed them more for napping than night time so the night went w/o a hitch. But, funny, since he was so addicted to them, he never once asked for them again. So, unless your dentist or ped. see a reason to stop right now, I say keep doing what you're doing.

I think every kid is different. Keep doing what you are doing right now... only at bedtime. During the day take it and put it somewhere she can't see... out of sight out of mind.

I think we make too big a deal of this and end up causing more harm than good. Most kids faze themselves out of it. Other kids need more sucking/soothing time. I don't see anything wrong with either... as long as it doesn't turn into a big deal (either way). If you take it away too soon she will find a substitute, like her arm or fingers, and you can't take that away.

A friend of mine had her son put it in the garbage truck when it came by (she talked to the garbage man) and he was excited to watch is pacifier go off on a truck. He hasn't really asked for it, and when he does, she reminds him that he put it in the garbage truck, giving him the empowerment that it was his own actions.

Does that make sense? Again, every kid is different and you know your daughter best.

ahhhhh, I broke my son of his very slowly. took it slowly away during the day, than he could only have it at nap time, in the car or when he went to sleep (but always kept close in case of meltdown), than took away car, than nap, than bedtime, etc. etc.
You'll see what works for you once you start to remove it..I only took about a week and a half for us to transistion away from it. AND we had aninfant who was using one which i was worried about, but slowly removing it seemed to work for us.

K.

My son is 2 1/2 and we are weening him off of it. He never took to a blanket or stuffed animal so the pacifier was his comfort. We are slowly allowing him to have it for less and less time. He used to nap with it and now does not. He only has it at bedtime and we talk about it. We tell him soon he has to say bye-bye to his pacifier so it can be with his sister and help her sleep. I know it sounds corny, but he is so posessive of his little sister it works. He is now only asking for it if he thinks about it. So we are getting there, but slowly. It is not that big of a deal that he still has it, but it is time. Good luck.

It is still ok to let her use it and then you just start talking to her about being a big girl and how they don't use a paci and get her to throw it away.

I think she can use it as long as she wants. If it's not a problem then don't worry about it. I think it's good to experiment a bit with seeing if she can get to sleep without it but I think that people get concerned for no reason about pacifiers. I know many 2 year olds who still use them with no problem.

I have a son that used this paci for sleeping and I have just removed from the routine because he knows how to slef soothe. He has done great! He is also 13 months old.

A pacifier is no big deal at this age if it is used only at bedtime. Good for you!

I bet in a short period of time, she will start spitting it out shortly after she goes to sleep - mine did.

Cut yourself some slack and don't worry about it- she willgive it up in a few months.

I wish more parents were like you -

Blessings,
B.

I don't think it hurts to let them have it into their 2's, but by three usually the dentist is telling you to get rid of it.

In my opinion, if it weren't for dental issues I'd let them use binkys for life if they so desired. I've always thought: how nice it would be to be so easily soothed. Now I need drugs and alcohol to soothe me (JUST KIDDING!!!). (But I'd certainly indulge in those things if they weren't bad for me.)

Cutting the tip off worked for us.

Both of my girls still use the binkies at nap and bedtime (also on long car trips). My oldest is 26 months and is very dependant on her binky. I swore she would be done by 2, but cannot deal with trying to take it from her. We have decided to let her continue with it until she is ready to give it up. We talk about it daily but so far she isn't ready. It was also harder for us because her sister (13 months) was born when she was 13 months and we can't tell her the binkies are all gone when her sister uses one also.
Good luck with the decision of when to remove the binky from the picture!

We got rid of my son's pacifier at 16 months and my daughter's at just over two. With my son we did it cold turkey and it was so easy at that age. My daughter was way more attached and I was worried about going cold turkey so we snipped with tip. She could have cared less, so we had to keep snipping it until it was too short for her to suck on. I wish we had just done it cold turkey. It was such a long drawn out process and when it was all said and done I could not get her to nap. It takes her at least 2 hours at naptime to settle down, compared to lying down and going right to sleep. We rarely get her to nap now and it is so frustrating since by dinnertime she is spent. If I had to do it over again I would have done it completely different with my daughter. I would have done it earlier and cold turkey. (I decided to wait with her since we were taking a plane ride to the east coast and I didn't want to take it away before that. Then she was sick, so didn't want to do it when she was sick. It kept happening where there was some reason not to do it, that I just wished we had done it sooner. Good luck whenever you decide to take the plunge.