Posts: 1497
11/18/09 6:17 P

DD isn't breastfed anymore. She self-weaned at 6 months following a gradual drop in my milk supply over the previous 3 months. So she never saw breast as a comfort either...

I didn't realise the need to suck continued for that long...for some reason i thought that need ended around 6 motnhs...

Since my last post I have focused on just giving DD the dummy when she is going to sleep. She has stopped asking for it throughout the day but she does ask in the eveing after she's had her milk, which is fine with me!

Hopefully this new routine will continue and she will eventually progress to not needing it at all!

thanks for the advice!

Posts: 2144
11/17/09 11:39 P

I intended to phase the pacifier out at her birthday but DD (14 months) still has major teething pains so I have postponed that. Until the ttething trouble started she was down to just using it to fall asleep (naps and night) but now she wants one almost all the time...

Posts: 3787
11/14/09 12:46 P

Here's my view.

Children NATURALLY have a sucking urge until they're between 2 and 3 (the natural age of weaning). This is something that is biologically ingrained in them. If you're not nursing or offering them a bottle, it's very natural that they will want/need a pacifier to suck on from time to time, ESPECIALLY sleep. IMO, early weaning from breast or bottle AND taking away the pacifier can lead to later oral fixations because that need to suck was NOT satisfied.

If you're breastfeeding, then I think there's no harm in taking away the pacifier. But if you're not, I don't think it's horrible that she has it.

With my son, I just started pulling it out of his mouth and putting it up. If he really needed it to suck on, I gave it back. I didn't make a huge deal of it. When he took it out and set it aside to do something, I put it up. Eventually he naturally "weaned" from it to only bedtime and nap time. Now he only has it to fall asleep (he's 2 1/2) and he doesn't have it WHILE he's sleeping (I remove it after he falls aleep). I think he's ready to have it go now, since he's almost 3, so we're going to let Santa take it away and bring something else for Christmas.

I'm NOT a huge fan of the pacifier, I think it's the reason why he weaned himself right at a year while I was pregnant, because he didn't nurse for comfort, so he had no interest when my supply dropped - he used the paci for comfort. I won't use one again because I'd rather my children nurse for comfort until they're 3 instead of a pacifier.

Posts: 1497
11/14/09 4:38 A

Lot of great tips ladies!

I have to admit that I am the main reason my daughter still has a dummy/paci. She loves it more than anything in the world and I just don't feel ready to deal with the crying and whining! She is 15 months old and she just out right asks me for it! If I say I haven't got it or that she doesn't need it the whining, then crying, then screaming begins!

She is in day care 2 days a week and she doesn't have the dummy at all while she is there and she takes naps just fine without it...when I go to pick her up as soon as we get outside she asks me for it! If she doesn't get it we have screming in the car all the way home...I usually feep one in the nappy/diaper bag and if we're out I've found her digging in the bag and getting it out for herself! I do try not to give it to her during the day but it is getting more difficult now that she asks for it!

I think at some point we're just going to have to go cold turkey becuase one thing I can't stand is a child talking with a dummy in their mouth!

Maybe I'll try the cutting off of the tip thing...

Posts: 6
11/8/09 11:29 A

i just finally got my SD off of it (she's now 2 1/2) dad would hide them but always give in bc "he doesn't like to hear her cry" finally one day she did something and got in trouble so it was nap time. she wanted the "paci" and I said no, only for bedtime and it's NAP time...after about 45 minutes of whining (mostly bc she didn't want to take a nap and usually it's 1-2+hrs of screaming/whining) she fell asleep without it. once I discovered it was quiet and she was fast asleep...I threw out all the binkies and buried them so deep in the trash that b/f wouldn't take them back out and wash them off. later that night, she went to bed without hardly a problem. and now she doesn't even ask for it. (it's been about 2-3 mos ago) breaking her into "bedtime only" then getting rid of it worked pretty well. during the "bedtime only" phase, I would get her to put in on her pillow in the morning when she woke up and she could go get it again at sleepy time. hopefully this helps some of you...

the next one (my first) I plan on beginning the weaning process at one.

Posts: 1596
11/3/09 9:24 P

We restricted DD's soother to bedtime and naps at 6 months and the night of her first birthday we took it away for good. That night she cried for about 10 minutes and pointed at her mouth but then went to sleep no problem. The next morning at naptime she again pointed to her mouth and cried for 10 - 15 minutes before falling to sleep, but by her afternoon nap she went right to sleep and never asked for it again. It was about one gazillion times less traumatic than I thought it was going to be.

She's also still teething (she actually only has 2 teeth right now) but just uses other chewy toys when she wants to gum something. She never tried to replace it with her thumb or anything, which is what I was most worried about.

She's almost 16 months now and never seems to miss it; she tries to steal the soothers from the younger babies at daycare occasionally so it will be interesting to see what she does once her little brother or sister is here in a few months!

Posts: 2346
11/2/09 2:12 P

My little one is just over a year and still teething.

So far we have noticed that if we let her deal with binky on her own, she only uses it when she feels she needs it.

We don't use it to plug her mouth all though it is tempting at times.

But at any rate, she only seems to want it during really stressful situations or trying to sleep.

She is gradually dropping it on her own. I told my husband this is the last set of binky's we buy, so as they get thrown away or lost, then they are gone.

We keep some in her bed, some in the living room that she carries around the house once in a while, and at least one in the car seat that she uses occasionally and other times she pitches.

Basically we don't even talk to her about binky anymore, we just leave her alone about it and it seems that she is on her own using it less and less each week.

We do make a point though to never hand it to her. Its accessible to her and she has to remember she has one and see it and want it.

Posts: 2
11/1/09 9:52 A

Our twins stopped using them on their own between their first and second birthdays, though we got a great deal of flack, particularly from my mother, about them using the pacifiers so long. They also weren't particularly interested in drinking from cups until a little after their second birthday...... but they're fine, well developed, smart guys at seven, so I'm not sure it mattered that much to them.

Posts: 550
10/30/09 11:11 P

In my experience and many of the moms I have talked to (not all mind you) this is always much easier when we finally do it than we think and build it up to be before-hand.
My doc suggested that we do one of two things: throw them all out (not hide, because eventually they will find them) or cut the tip off so there is no suction.
We kept putting it off during the month after his 1st bday, we had swim lessons, it helps him in the water; we're going camping and don't want a screaming baby in the woods, etc. I just woke up one morning and said "it's always one thing or another, we're never taking it away at this rate" and I cut the tips off of all of them and gave them to him. He tried every one of them several times and was very curious about just what the heck was going on. Finally he decided it wasn't funny and started crying. I threw them all in the trash at that point and he continued to throw a pretty good fit for a while. Finally he calmed down and was just fussy for that day. Naptime and bedtime sucked for about 2 days, he cried himself to sleep in my arms. But day 3 he was fine and he's never needed one again.

Posts: 7
10/30/09 12:08 P

we cut the tip when our first son turned one. he put it in his mouth once and threw it away himself. he never had any interest in one again.

our second son on the other hand wasn't phased by the cut tip. so we tried to take it away cold turkey. he cried for three days and didn't sleep. so we let him have it at night... but going in public was out of the question. then we realized he was still teething so we decided to let him have it until the pain stopped and he was ready to give it up. at 18 months i hid the majority of them and soon he forgot that he wanted one. so i threw them away. just recently he found an old one and it went right into his mouth, but we explained to him that he was a big boy now and that the baby would need them when it got here. it was rough but he got rid of it

Posts: 550
10/29/09 3:39 P

These are good ideas. DS is almost three and he still has the pacifier. I refuse to use it with my next. We started taking it away from him during the day, now he only uses it to fall asleep at night.

Posts: 900
10/28/09 11:01 P

On the show called "nanny 911" she says for an older child to mail them off to the pacifier fairy. Let the child package it up and mail it off.

I was thinking allowing the child to give it to another baby if you know any other littlier ones?

I would say not to wait much longer...the longer you wait , the harder it gets in my opiniion. My first born had his til almost 3!! I had such a time getting it away, i feared he`d do to school with it haha!

Posts: 28
10/28/09 9:27 A

Thanks for the advice!

Posts: 1729
10/27/09 2:28 P

You could go cold turkey, just throw them all out, and weather the crying and such for a couple of days.

You could wait until they are older, we removed the pacifier at 2 yr, and it was only in the crib from 1 yr on (with the exception of high stress situations, i.e. lots of new people.)

We cut the tip off the pacifier, and slowly removed more until he had no interest in it. It worked for us, no sleepless nights no crying. It took about 2 weeks to do it. I did make sure there was no pieces of rubber/silicon that could come off while sucking on it, but other than that it was simple.

Posts: 28
10/27/09 12:51 P

My 1 year old only uses a pacifier at nap and bedtime. Any ideas on how to break it?