I have a nearly 6 month old son and he wakes up a lot during the night. He doesn't wake up hungry (I stopped feeding him at night when he was about 3 months old) - all he wants is his paci and once we give it to him he falls back asleep instantly. He doesn't actually get a paci during the day anymore but we don't seem to be able to wean him from his paci at night. When we wait for him to fall back asleep he cries until we give him the paci.....Any advice on what we can do to make him sleep through the night?
Thanks to all of you who shared their experiences and thoughts. I am optimistic again that we can figure this out. The reason we tried to get rid of the paci so early is because our pediatrician (she is really great and usually has the perfect advice)said that the paci might be the reason that he does not sleep through the night. So when we got home from our 4 months appointment we stopped using it during the day and had hoped to wean him off at night as well. After all your comments the weaning is history:-)
Don't worry soon he will be able to find it himself and put it in his mouth but until then its a dreaded job. I had the same issue. I was worried about the whole paci thing when my pedi finally said "why would you want to take away something that gives him comfort"? Atleast wait until he is 2. Well mine is 19mths so the time is creeping up. He only gets it at nap and night time. Give it some time and yours will be able to do it himself.
We had the same problem. When my son was around 4 1/2 months old, he would wake up often in the middle of the night. It seemed all he needed was for us to put his pacifier back in his mouth and then he was happy. At about 5 months, we started putting A LOT of pacifiers (up to 10)in his crib hoping he would find them and learn to put them in his mouth by himself. It worked immediately. He now 6 months old and stays in his crib from 7pm to 7am. He is able to soothe himself back down with his pacifiers and rarely cries out for us. If he does we are right there for him (normally it is because he can't find a paci).
Hi D.,
I had the same experience with one of my children and I, just like the others who have responded, put a lot of pacis in bed with him at night so he wouldn't have a hard time finding them....it worked like a charm.
I honestly would not suggest giving him his fingers instead because you won't be able to take those away from him when he is older and it is very hard to break them of that habit. Children who suck on their fingers or thumb usually have more orthodontic issues later in life than those who take a paci.
Don't beat yourself up trying to wean him from his paci right now. He is still young enough to need the sucking motion to soothe himself while he tries to sleep. When he is somewhere between 1-2 years, you can then try to wean him from them.
What I did to wean mine from the paci is I made it into a little game: Start off letting him throw various pieces of trash in the trash can, explaining that once something goes in the trash, it sould never be taken back out, instead it is taken outside and the trashman comes to get it....it's good to do this on a trash day where he can actually catch the excitement of watching the trash man dump the trash (if you have a trash where he has to step on the lever to open the lid, that works the best), then say "Let's take all of your pacis and throw them into the trash can since you are such a BIG BOY now!" (I said this with much excitement in my voice). Into the trash can they would go. Then later, when he would start crying for his paci, I would say, "Remember, you threw them in the trash can because you are such a BIG Boy and you don't need them anymore." I always had a stuffed animal on hand that he could love on when he needed soothing. After a couple of nights, he didn't need anything else to soothe him and he would brag to others about what a big boy he was for throwing away his pacis all by himself.
I agree that 6 months is way too early to take away a paci. My 2 year old uses her paci, when she needs it. I am just happy that she has found something that soothes her and provides her comfort. When she is ready to give it up, she will. But I can't imagine taking it away at such an early stage. Put lots of pacis in the crib and let him learn how to find it and put it in his own mouth. It is an important developmental step.
I'm wondering who told you to wean him? It's too early. You're lucky enough to have a "self soother" and you've taken it away...along with your lovely sleep! He's old enough to no longer need daytime soothing, but it takes baby longer to learn to sooth back to sleep and that's why pacis are so wonderful and help you sleep too. So why get rid of it?
Keep the paci in his crib, he finds it on his own and saves you getting up. This is what my great sleeper did. Babies need a way to sooth themselves to get back to sleep and now it's gone. At one year they won't need it as much. That is when I was recommended to start to try to get rid of paci and was perfect timing. I started "hiding" it under the pillow in his crib, so if he was desperate, he'd still find it and I wouldn't have to get up and was quickly weaned. A 6 month old still needs to self sooth to go back to sleep. If you take it away, you will be getting up a lot!
A paci is wonderful. I had 2 paci babies(now 14 and 11) and we just put a lot of them in the crib at night. They would then have several around them and be able to find one and go back to sleep. At about 2 we helped them get rid of them. It didn't have any negative impacts and really was a great comfort to them both during the night and at naps. We always LOVED our "stoppers". So take advantage of the fact that he likes it and just put more in the crib. He will find them and go back to sleep on his own.
