Yikes!! Passifier!!

hmm, she's 8 months old. perfectly capable of putting it back in herself, as you say. i say get rid of the darn thing. just be done with it. go through it now (as frustrating as it is to have to do it all over) or from now on she will just get stronger, more opinionated, and more stubborn. the younger you do it, the easier it will be, trust me! and honestly, if she's sick, it's real tempting to give it back to her - don't. just throw them all away. you'd hate to have to do this for a third time...!

Whether or not you take it away, she's gonna have to go through it all anyway right? Either cry because she doesn't want to reach it or cry because it's gone because of you. I'd wean her from it. I never had to deal with the paci thing, but I did have to wean my first from her bottle and it took a good 3 days of hell, but then she was fine.

I personally couldn't WAIT for the day my kids were able to find their "plug" on their own at night. To help, I always put two of them in the exact same spot. In each corner next to her head. Close enough to reach for but far enough away that she wouldn't accidently roll onto them at night.

Still, though...you'll eventually have to wean her of it, even if it's a year from now. I can tell you that it only gets more difficult with time. So maybe you should go through the misery now and resist the temptation to fall back on it when she gets sick (which will surely happen again).

We put several pacifiers in his crib with our son, and he learned to grab one and put it in his mouth.

I am having this same problem with my DD. Found Pacimals online. I didn't buy one but just made one with an animal that she already sleeps with and is attached to. She is over 1 so I am okay with her having extra stuff in her crib. You might want to check them out. There are a few different brands.

Play "find your paci" during the day when she's awake. Put it on the floor next to her and make a game out of her grabbing it and putting it in her mouth, and always say "Find your Paci". When she wakes up in the night go in and whisper "find your paci".... she'll figure it out after a few nights. You might need to let her fuss for a minute or two but I bet she'll decide to "find her paci" on her own.

We were unsure when to get rid of the passifier too....when I asked our doc, she said at that young of an age, if they like the sucking and you take it away, they are going to find something else to put in their mouth....like a thumb or fingers. Hmmmm, those are a LOT harder to get rid of down the line! We did not rush on getting rid of the Binks, But when we had the same situation as you, I would put about 5 pacifiers in the crib at night time. At 8 months, they can feel around a HOPEFULLY hit one and go back to sleep. This worked for us for the most part. Good luck! It gets better ;)