The Zombie Walk

hi Lara,

I had this problem with one of my sons. I let him cry until he went to sleep by himself.
For the first two days, it used to take him 3 ½ hours to sleep. At day 4,5,6 it took him 1 ½ hour to sleep. At day 7,8, it took him 15min to sleep. After that, it starts to take him seconds and stayed asleep and never wake up during the night, not even once. I know it seems to be long time, but it works with me.
Well, if you decide to do what I did, you will need to make sure to:
Throw all the pacifiers in the garbage and never buy new ones.
Have lots and lots and then lots of PATIANCE.
An ears and hart that could handle the screaming and don’t get emotional quickly.
Don’t go to her room or pick her up or talk to her during the crying time because when she hears your voice, she will recharge and start crying even stronger and Oops we are at square one again.

Good luck

1 mom found this helpful

My son was the same way. We started putting 3 or 4 pacifiers in his crib so he usually gets through the night with atleast one left.

Oh, the frustrations of "crying it out"! What we did in the same situation is - let our son cry for 5 minutes about it, then go the first night, 10 minutes the next night, 15 minutes the next... you see the pattern. It worked. I hope it helps you.

PS: For later, the "bink" fairy came and took our son's pacifier for a child who really needed it because he was a big boy and didn't. The "bink" fairy also left him a cool dinosaur toy to remind him of how good he was to let another child have it!

At 9 months you could try to just throw it out and just wait out the crying. That can be really rough though! Our son would do the same thing..lose his paci and cry until we got it for him. We just put 5 pacis in his crib when we put him down so he was sure to find one on his own. Worked wonderfully. Withina month or so we could cut back to only having one or two in his crib because he knew to look for them. Now he only gets one and we have cut the tip of it off as we are trying to wean him off of it all together. After reading other comments we may just need to throw them all out and wait out the crying. I just hate to do that because its SO hard on everyone! Best wishes and I hope you get a good nights sleep soon!

My kids were Pacifier junkies, too. One quick trick is make sure you take her hand to help her find the pacifier - don't just give it to her in her mouth. You need to teach her how to find it with HER hand. Second trick is put more than one pacifier in her crib. Lastly, other people might say that you should consider weaning her. Since that was not an option for me, I only say it so you think it through. Cheers.

If your not really in a hurry to get rid of the paci, just put a couple of them in the crib at night. For both of my kids I put two or three paci's in the crib in arms reach. My daughter is 9 months old and I almost never have to get up for that.

Put about 10 pacifiers in the crib. She will learn to feel around and find one. Have them in each corner. Mine was the same until we gave them to Santa to give to other babies that needed them at 3 years old. About 2 years old, they only could have them in the car and at bedtime.

Hi Lara. YOu are not the only one as you can see with all these responses! My son is already doing this at 5 1/2 months! I find myself walking to the other end of the house sometimes 10 times a night. I did it with my first son to. Well unfortunately w/ my first son it lasted for a while probably until he was just about done teething bad. I am the mom who posted the request Sleep! about a week ago. And after seeing all the responses I think that between my son teething and dropping his binky at night is what is making me do the zombie walk. my zombie walk is usually quick so he doesn't wake his big brother! I feel your pain!!!!
B.

Try to give her a favorite toy or blanket instead of the pacifier, slow wean her away from it.

I know what you are talking about. My son was like this until he was 1 1/2. My suggestion is to get several "binkies" and put them in her bed. At one time we would have up to 5 binkies in his bed and he got used to having them always there. It took him 1 night to know he could always find a binkie.
Good Night Sleep here you come!!

i had this problem with both my kids. we would put like 8 - 10 pacifers in there crib so thry could always find one. it works. on occasion i still have to go in there to help.(maybe once in 3 weeks).

My son was the same way. We put him to sleep without it-- and it took about 3 days before he got used to sleeping without it.

Good luck.

I don't know if it's the best thing but for both of my boys I always gave them one to hold and one in their mouth. Then when they lose one they have a back up and it gave them something to play with when falling asleep. My older son gave up his with no problem when we were ready. Good Luck and take a nap!

I have always been against sleep props, but I have found myself completely relaxed about my 3rd baby! LOL He has become a paci addict and I just let him have it. If your baby can put her paci in her mouth on her own (amazing how quickly they learn that) then just fill her crib with them and she'll be able to find one at night. You could sneak in while she is crying for one and put it in her hand to teach her how to get it by herself. Oh, yeah...and I've learned to buy paci's in bright, bold colors so they are in contrast to the light bedding, easier to see in the dark!

~L.

Once my son was able to put the pacifier in by himself, we put at least 5 pacifiers in his bed with him so that in the middle of the night he could find one by himself. Can't remember what age it is that they can do that, so your daughter may be too young just yet, but thought this might be one idea!

OOOH I know this walk!!!!!!! I do it just about every night!

Here's what I was thinking - Once the pacifier is gone, it wont happen anymore... I've been corrected otherwise.

It's hard, but perhaps you need to just adjust your sleep schedule to accommodate for the 30 minutes or so that you will lose between waking up, doing the zombie walk, and then falling back to sleep. (I think that's what I've figured it to be by now... on a good night that is...)

Good luck with this. It's so hard!

Edit - I would NOT Use the paci clip at night. I did that for a nap once with my son and went in to check on him to find it MUCH too close to his neck for my comfort... NEVER again did I do that!

Do you have a glow in the dark pacifier? We had one, and neither of my kids ever woke up for me to give it to them!

Get a pacifier clip and hook it to her pj's. You can also put several in the crib close by for her to find herself. Good luck - get some rest.

My kids are older now, 18, 15 and 11 but I used to have the same problem. I have two suggestions...put multiple pacifiers in your daughter's crib so she can always reach out and find one OR tie a ribbon around the loop on the pacifier and pin the other end to her pajamas. You could also just buy one of the ribbon/clip thingys they make for pacifiers...do they still make those? Hope this helps!

Try a pacifier clip,,,, then it will be easy for her to grab.
http://www.babyant.com/pacifiers.html

We had a similar situation...we finally put 15 pacifiers in teh bed and hoped he would find one. I will tell you that the older she is the harder it will be to get rid of it. We waited until 3 and now we're paying for major braces. Good Luck!

Both my sons love their paci. I place 4 pacifiers in their cribs so they can find one easily in the middle of the night. This stopped my zombie walk.

My daughter had a paci.. but by your daughters age- she could find her own paci--- I put 2 or 3 pacis in her bed when I put her down.. and when I went to bed I check on the pacis.. and put them right near her little hands..

She had a bumper pad in her crib so the pacis didnt fall out of the bed.

MY daughter would sweep her little arms around to feel the paci.. and once she found it she would grab the paci and put it in her own mouth..

I agree. Put several in her crib so she can find one or attach a basket to the crib with pacifiers in it so she knows where to find one.

i tied my daughters' to her jammies. not a long enough string to hurt herself, just long enough to her nose. this way she always knew where it was.

Put a little box at the foot of her crib with a spare pacifier in it and show her it's there. Then, when she loses the first one, she knows where the replacement is and can help herself.

My son was the same way! You always saw him day and night with that in his mouth. It got old! But he was almost 3 1/2 when I finally said enough. I started taking it from him during the day off and on and distracted him with fun things. We kept doing that for a month. Every time we went to my older kids school, I took it and told him he couldn't have it in school. Then, kept increasing the time w/o it and saying he was a "bigger boy" without it. Total it took about 2 months before most of the day he didn't have it and didn't cry about it. he would ask for it and I'd tell him lets do this, you're my bigger boy and don't need it. When he'd get tired, we'd hold off to give it to him to help him learn to fall asleep w/o it. Finally got to the point, he doesn't ask for it. Towards the end, I said no more. The whole bigger boy thing is now helping him become potty trained. The way I did it with my son, I didn't get all the tears and it was for sure easier on me to break it away in slow motion than all at once. Good luck!

can you clip it to her so she can find it? hmmm ... 9 months old might be too little to "get" it. but you could try it. they sell those clippies for pacifiers all over.
we used the technique in "the baby whisperer" book to teach our second one to sooth herself. you could try that.
or you could have her sleep beside you so you don't have to walk to her room!

Hi Lara, have you tried putting a couple extra pacifiers in her crib ???? That might help, it helped a friend of mine, just put 3 or 4 in there and she might be able to find one on her own and therefore will not need to cry out for you !! Hope it works !! Good luck !!

B.

Can she put her paci in her mouth all by herself? If she can, I would place SEVERAL pacis in her crib, that way she always has one close, and when she wakes up, it's easier for her to find one and put it in herself. My daughter is 8 1/2 months and goes to bed with 3 pacis. Good luck!

Forget the Zombie Walk...I would just let her have her pacifier when she goes to bed. She will be happy and you will be getting much needed sleep. As long as the pacifer is in good condition it won't hurt her. She'll give it up eventually. My middle daughter was the pacifier QUEEN...one in her mouth, one in each hand and 5 or 6 in the bed. They all disappeared one by one as they got conveniently "lost". Good luck...Sweet Dreams.

Hello, you are not the only zombie walker. My daughter who is 13 months is the same way. She wakes numerous times at night and the pac. is the only thing that seems to pacify her. She is in our room so I don't walk to a different room but is still enough that you don't get a good nights sleep (not that you do when you're a mom). I am planning on taking away the pac within the next 6 months. We will see how that goes. I don't really have any advice on what to do. Good Luck.

My daughter also had a hard time getting back to sleep without the pacifier. I recommend reading the book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" for some great ideas on how to diminish the sucking-to-sleep association. Basically, we repeatedly removed the pacifier every time our daughter fell asleep, replacing it if she cried, then repeating the removal once she fell asleep again. It took many tries the first night, fewer the second night, etc. until eventually she would just roll over and go to sleep! We loved this gentle method because we did not want her to cry it out (and it sounds like that hasn't been working for your daughter).
Good luck!

Hey Lara,

I have three children. My first daughter I did the same as you, after two hours as she is a very determined little girl, and still is; I would go in and get her. Needless to say, she is now 4 and we still have issues sleeping. With number 2, I let him cry it out and actually turned the monitor off after about an hour and I knew he was fine. This lasted about three nights and then now - as a 3 year old he is an amazing sleeper. So, I figured that I was 50/50 - so number three who is now 8 months old, I let her cry it out at about 7 months. Did the same thing as your daughter, and after three nights, and I checked on her and then after about an hour, I turned off the monitor and went to sleep. Not that I didn't wake up and hear her, and once she stoped I maded sure all was well. But in my experience, which isn't perfect at all, if you go in at any point even if it has been two hours - you are giving into them. So, let her cry. She is fine. Check on her of course, but after a few nights, you will have some happy sleeping. thats just what worked for me. Good Luck!

She has relied on you finding it and hasn't thought to look for it herself. When you get up, calm her and have her look for it or point to it so she gets it herself. Show her how to seek for it. Also, you can get one of those pacifier clips and hook it to her PJs.