Ditching the Pacifier - Huntingdon Valley,PA

My son was 8 mo. old when he quit using his binkie. Not because he wanted to but it was misplaced and I knew that was the perfect time to let it go for good. I was driving myself crazy looking around for the binkie and making sure it was everywhere we were. That night, he was having a hard time falling asleep and I knew it was going to be a long night. I just sat next to the crib and rubbed his back until he fell asleep. To my surprise, he never whined for it or looked around for it again!! I know it will be more difficult for you since your son will soon be 3. You may just have to do it cold turkey and hope for the best. He will probably be whiney and cranky. My sister-n-law told her son that a birdie flew down and picked up his binkie. He was more interested in the fact that a birdie took his binkie and completely forgot about it. I hope it works out for you whatever you decide.

When my daughter was as close to ready as I thought she was going to get, we told her the story of poor little girls, far away, that have no pacifiers and how sad they are. We got her to agree to send them all of hers. We made a big deal about searching the house and putting them in an envelope. She walked them out to the mailbox and put them in. She was so proud of herself and never asked for one again. Believe me, I never thought that would actually work, but it worked great!

I was going to suggest the same thing that Carrie did. We even went to the post office and dropped them in the big blue box! i just wrote on the envelope for the postman to throw away the envelope :)

Hi K.!
We did the same thing - right around my son's 3rd b/day. We had the "binkie fairy" come. My son put all is binkies in a bowl and left it in our hallway. The next morning the binkies were gone, but he had a few goodies (from the dollar store) in their place. He loved it!!! Good Luck!

My advice is to pick a night where you have a couple days where you don't have to get up early so you won't stress about losing sleep. Say Friday night...then just don't give it to him. I would not make a big deal about it either. I think the more "hype" that you use the worse it is. Just tell him "no more binky you are a big boy now." Then just let him cry for it. It should only take a few nights. When I took it from my son it was much easier than I thought it was going to be...I think it was as much my crutch as it was his. Good luck!

A friend of mine had the same problem and what she did is tell her child that he or she had to leave it with Santa. So when he put out the cookies and milk he put it there for Santa. He was told he would get a special present from Santa. He thought that was great and has not touched it since.

K.,
I just went through this same situation this week. We just ditched it cold turkey. There was no way around it. We decided to do it that way instead of giving him long drawn out explainations of what we were doing and why. We had tried another approach previously and it just made him upset. We took it off him on Wednesday the 7th. We told him it was all gone. A concept he understands....The first two nights he didn't make mention of it at all, and daycare said he didn't give them any problems at nap time. The next four nights were rough, but the last three have been fine. It has taken a solid week for him to adjust. It was harder for us to listen to him cry, and we've had to make bed time more creative to get his mind off of it....He mentions it from time to time, but we just ignore his comment and we redirect his attention to something else, and that's usually it. Good Luck. And once you start, don't turn back or they will expect it, and it will be even harder the next time.

Once you take it away just let him cry it out. Do not go back to it. In fact just throw them out. He will soon forget them

Good luck!

Hi, K.,
My daughter started self-weaning in a similar way. We felt that she was ready to get rid of it around what happened to be Xmas time.--Perfect timing!

I took her to go see Santa & talked to him ahead of time so that he could talk to her.--What we both told her was that she was getting to be a big girl & that she didn't need her binky anymore, but that there were babies who didn't have any & they wanted one. So if she could leave all of her binky's under the tree for him, he'd leave her a very special big-girl present in exchange.

We typed up a little letter from "Santa" & left it by the milk & cookies thanking her for her binkies & telling her how happy she was going to make all the babies who got them. In exchange, he left her a tricycle, helmet & pads. It was a big hit!!!

Perhaps some sort of "birthday fairy" could make an appearance or you can hold off until Xmas & use Santa as a scapegoat.--What kid could hate Santa?!

Hi! I didnt go thru all your responces so I am not sure if I am repeating someone elses idea. Here;s what we did - A few months before (May Actually) my friend had a baby so we decided that it was a Great idea to "GIVE" Baby Joey all her binkies so He could use them! So on her birthday (Sept) we packed up all her binkies and gave them to Baby Joey and it WORKED! yay! Once in a while, because our 20 month old still has a binkie, she may ask Were's Pay Pay's Binkie and then she would answer herself and say Baby Joey!!! Good Luck!

COLD TURKEY! Tell him that in x days he is a big boy and will not get the pacifier anymore. You could have him "trade" the pacifier for something - a goldfish in our case. Then when the day comes make the trade at the store ( I baggied the pacifier and asked the kind lady at petsmart to go along with me). And he handed over the bag, took his fish and I had thrown out the rest of the pacifiers. I won't say it went without a hitch. There was crying and he wanted to give the fish back, but we stuck with it and it was better every night and the fuss only lasted about a week. We spent some extra time soothing him at night but it wasn't too horrible.

For my first son, we put them in a baggie and had him say goodbye to them and he threw them away. I took them out of the trash as soon as he left the room in case he ever had a melt down (I hid them up high were he would never see), but he never asked for them again. With my second son a friend of mine came over with a younger baby and I told him that he needed his "chomper" because he didn't have any. He gave it to his mom and she pretended to take it with her when she left. He asked for it that night and said we needed to call her to get it back. When I told him it was too late at night he was ok with that. Good Luck.

When my daughter was almost 3 she had talked up how she was going to throw them into the ocean for the mermaids babies. I never thought she really would...Don't you know we went to the beach on the 2nd day in NC(I know you can't now with the cold), and she threw her BB(what she called her pacifiers) into the ocean for the baby mermaids. She never asked for them again. You just have to figure out what will click and work. Maybe he wants something special...like a toy.? Maybe you can tell him he can pay for that toy with his pacifiers? May work.

In the spring we buried my daughters binkies in the garden. She was about 33 months. We told her that if she planted them in the garden that she would get the most yummy strawberries! The next day, I planted a strawberry plant and every so often, until the plant bloomed, I would toss fresh strawberries on the plants. It totally worked! She tells everyone that she planted her binkies in the "strawberry garden". You could do the same thing, maybe with pumpkins or flowers... Good luck!

One other thing, let him decide when it's time to do it. Get him excited about planting them and what the outcome will be. I think we talked about it and planned it for about a week.

I found that only allowing my 2nd child to only have hers at naptime and bedtime, she was able to just say she didn't need it anymore at about 3 1/2 years old, she would just pop it out and place it on her dresser until she was back in bed, then one day she said "I'm a big girl now, and I don't need this anymore"! To my surprise, that was it! I think she just needed that security for when she was alone in her room, but again she was only allowed to have hers in bed. Good luck, and don't stress about it as he will react to your stress...