Pacifers....UGH!

Updated on May 17, 2007
A.Y. asks from Farmington, MI
21 answers

Any creative suggestions on how to get my daughter to give up her pacifer?? She only uses it at night. They are the greatest invention ever when they are 6 months old and crying, but if I knew how hard it would be to get her to give it up, I would have dealt with the crying I think. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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K.C.

answers from Des Moines on

I have a friend's that told their son that other babies needed the pacifers. They had a small family party & sent the pacifiers off ties to balloons. This worked for them. Good Luck

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D.J.

answers from Detroit on

There is a park next to Mill Race in downtown Northville that has a Pacifier tree. Everyone goes and leaves their old paci's for the paci fairy. Some people even leave a small gift that is supposed to be from the paci fairy. They tell the kids that they need to give them up to pass on to the new babys since they are now a big boy/girl.

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J.J.

answers from Detroit on

A.,
Gee wish I could help. All of my children took pacifiers and they all gave them up at different times in their lives. Mandi(now 16) was older than 3 when she gave them up thinking that they gave her an ear infection. Cal (now 5) at 2 and a half- was bribed to give them up to pay for a new train set - no fighting at all. Donnie (now 3) is the hardest to change. We have totally lost them for a day and once he finds one we can't get it away from him. At this point I guess he needs it for comfort much more than I want him to quit. He won't be going to Nursery school this Fall with it, I'm sure.

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L.C.

answers from Lansing on

I cut just the tiniest piece off of the tip of the nipple. When it was bedtime my daughter put it in her mouth, felt around for a minute, took it back out of her mouth and handed it to me, declaring the binky was broken. She held it in her hand for a few nights and that was the end. no muss, no fuss.

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L.H.

answers from Detroit on

My cousin did the GREATEST thing! She started "warning" her son that "next Sunday part of his pacifier was going bye bye"! She stuck to it and cut off a small piece of the end of the pacifier. She let him have it for another week while saying "ok honey, next Sunday more of your binky is going bye bye". She kept doing this until nothing was left. My girlfriend tried the same trick and had success until her daughter found a binky hidden somewhere and she had to start over again. So make sure ALL binky's get cut if you decide to go that route. GOOD LUCK!!!

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K.D.

answers from Detroit on

All 3 of my daughters used binkies, and when they turned 3 we told them that the Binky Fairy comes and takes their binkies and gives them to a baby who needs them. She also left them a special gift in return. We talked about it a for a few weeks prior, and made it sound very exciting. This worked great with my first, she had no trouble getting to sleep. My second daughter (who has a hard time sleeping anyway) did not do well - she tried, but it just always took her a lot longer to get to sleep, and no longer slept at naptime. But that only lasted a few weeks. A couple weeks ago, she saw a baby with a binky that looked just like hers. She said that that's the baby the binky fairy gave her binky to.
Good luck!

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H.S.

answers from Detroit on

Well, my daughter is almost 2 1/2 yo and she still takes a paci at night only as well. Also at nap time, but only at home, not at the sitter's on Mondays. I was afraid she would suck her thumb like I did, so I allowed a pacifier right away. I have heard advice from other Moms to either just take it away cold turkey and be the boss (the sitter's advice) or to cut the tip off. I haven't tried either for fear that I will have many sleepless nights! Sounds selfish, I know. But, here is the approach I am attempting. She had about 5 different ones that she started to bite, so they got thrown in the garbage. She now has two left and knows that once they are bitten, they are in the garbage. She hasn't bitten either one yet, so who knows how long they are going to last. But that is as far as I have gotten. Please let me know any advice you get from other moms. Thanks and best of luck. :) H.

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E.M.

answers from Detroit on

People told me to put vinegar in the pacifer, to cut the tip of th pacifer off and evey night cut alittle more off, then they will stop by themselves cause it wont do what they are use to it doing.

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C.V.

answers from Grand Rapids on

Hi A.,
I have a friend that soaked all her pacifiers in pickle juice overnight. I guess the vineger stays on the pacifier and kids don't like the taste. It worked for her son. He put it in his mouth and then took it out and set it on the table. There was no crying because whenever he wanted it he got it. He just didn't like the taste. It's worth a try. Good luck.
Chris

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T.K.

answers from Detroit on

A., not sure if you will be able to do this, as I don't know the age of your daughter, but my sister-in-law offered her 3 year old a present every time she found and threw away a pacifier. This worked very well for her! Or, you could send all of them to 'The Pacifier Fairy' for other needy babies by tying them all to many helium balloons and sending them off in a ritualistic ceremony outside! Good luck!

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T.

answers from Saginaw on

Go cold turkey!!! Our daughter was 15 months when we took it away and I thought it was going to be a nightmare...we used to leave several in her bed otherwise she would cry until she had one. The first night without it, she cried 10-15 minutes, the next night was only a few minutes and she never asked for it again!

Also, if you celebrate Easter, now is a great time to "leave them for the Easter bunny." Gather them all on Saturday night and see if the EB brings something special for the big girl who no longer needs a pacifier.

Good luck!

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A.I.

answers from Lansing on

hello A.
i too am dealing with the same problem my two yr old daughter get her only at nap and bed time i have tryed a number of thing and nothing has worked so i am going with the she will give it up when she ready .my dped said not to push it it has not done any damage to her speach and she is a head of the ball on vocab so i gave up a let her keep it for now but that all up to you well good luck let me know what you do maybe it will work for us to

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B.

answers from Detroit on

My son was greatly pacifier dependant and we started the weaning process when he was about 2 years old....originally he was able to have it whenever, but then we (slowly) restricted use until it was just at night. We thought it would be a HUGE battle to give it up. However, after babysitting a girlfriends baby (7 month old) for an entire day & night, we got rid of my sons pacifier. When he asked for it at bedtime that night, we told him they were for babies (like the one in the other room). The next day, he asked again, and again, we explained that was for babies - and asked him if he was a baby (because BIG boys didn't use pacifiers). That was all it took to cure him. If that doesn't work, you can find another motivation! Good luck.

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K.L.

answers from Grand Rapids on

Hi, May I ask how old your daughter is?? My son is very attached to his pacifier(binky) also!!Let us know when you find what works.. Good luck!

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L.O.

answers from Detroit on

My daughter has a pacifier at night only at 15 months. It is not a big deal. I dont care how long she has the paci. She goes into her bed with the a paci and goes to sleep. If you child is old enough to understand- you might be able to have her "give" the paci to a new baby.. or trade it at the store for anew toy-- she gives it to the cashier who throws it away once you are out of sight..

she will give it up someday onher own.. dont worry it is not that big of deal - especially if she only has it at night.

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K.H.

answers from Detroit on

This may sound funny, but we had a hard time with all three of our children, my daughter being the worse! What we did was cut a bit off of the tip each night and told her she was getting bigger each day and her "ninnie" was being sucked away. Took awhile to do it, but she eventually believed us. Only problem we had was she found another one in her toybox...so make sure you have all that she owns before you try this. We just had to start all over, but it did work in the end. Hope this helps.

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L.M.

answers from Detroit on

Ok I know this might sound cruel but cut the nipple off the top of the pacifier. My son was over 3 yrs old and we couldn't get him to give up the "bippie". Someone suggested cutting the top of the nipple off and it worked! When he tried to suck on it didn't work. We left enough nipple on it so he could try it to see that it didn't work. We simply told him his bippie's were broke. We threw out all the pacifiers but one and when he cried for his pacifier we would give him the "broke" one again. The funniest thing was, a couple months later (after he had given up the pacifier), my hsb had him on his shoulders and there on top of the refrig. was a pacifier I forgot about. My son screams out, "my bippie and it's not broke". He no longer wanted it, thank goodness! Well, good luck and believe me, it's harder on you than your child....

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E.G.

answers from Detroit on

I was lucky and my daughter just gave it up at 4 months, but i have several friends who used differnt things. You can cut it until it is to short to hold it in thier mouth, or just take a pin and poke it so it has no suction. also depending on how old the baby is you can put then under her pillow like the tooth fairy and replace them with a toy or some sort of surprise while she sleeps.

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N.W.

answers from Detroit on

How old is she? At about 2 1/2 we had my son throw his away. He was fine in 2 days (but he only got them at night anyway). Seriously, there is no "good" way to do it. You just have to get rid of them.

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A.V.

answers from Detroit on

Try giving the pacifer to the pacifer fairy!! I seen it on super nanny. I would tie it to a balloon and let it go and have the pacifer fairy leave a gift the next day!! How old is she?? Tell her the fairy will give it to a new baby that does not have one

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K.G.

answers from Mansfield on

I just recently went through this. Unfortunately, my daughter was almost two before we could get it away from her. One night, I just waited until she was terribly tired and I laid her down to watch a movie. I made sure her pacifier was nowhere around. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep without it. The next night she asked for it. I told her there was a baby that was crying really hard and that the baby had to borrow her binky. She seemed to understand that and did OK that night. Of course, the next night was a different story. She cried and cried. We ended up having to put her in the car and drive around with her until she fell asleep. We had to do that a few times. But, it's been 2 weeks and she barely asks for it anymore. When she does, I just remind her how sad the other baby was and how bad the other baby needed it. Of course, we were in a store last week and she heard a baby crying. She asked, "Does that baby have my binky?" It was really cute. I realize this may not work for all little ones, but it worked for us and she's doing great. My biggest piece of advice is once you take it away, you really have to try hard not to give it back. It just makes it harder the next time. I hope this advice helps. Good Luck and hang in there. This too shall pass:)

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