Ideas How to Wean My 3 Year Old from the "Binky"

Hi C.,
My daughter just gave up her binky at pretty close to 2 1/2 years old. I kept telling her that the "Binky Fairy" would come to take her's and give it to the new babies being born. One night, I just hid them and she fussed a little but it was no big deal. I think these type of things are worse on us parents than on the kids.

We cut the tip off the binky--worked like a charm, especially with my son who declared it "broken" and decided that he didn't want it any more. It also worked well with my daughter, but she was even more attached to hers. She still wanted the broken binky for a while, so we kept cutting the tip shorter and shorter until she decided to give it up. The good thing about this method is that to the child it feels like their own choice. It worked great!

I don't love the sight of a binky in a three year old's mouth either, but when I took my daughter to her first dental exam at just over a year they saw me take the binky from her and told me they consider it normal and healthy for children to use one until they are 5 or 6 and that since it is a comfort item if you take it away too soon they will often replace it with something more harmful to their teeth like their thumb. So, if you are limiting it to sleep times, maybe it really isn't a big deal that she still has it. Maybe make a rule where the binky lives in bed...

My son gave his paci up at about 10 months, but my daughter was a different story. My friend went through the same thing and I resorted to bribery as she had suggested. My daughter was 2yrs and 7mo when we moved. I told her that if she left her paci at the old house she could go to toys r us and get whatever baby doll she wanted. She went for it and we've been paci free ever since. She never looked back. I think she needed an excuse to get rid of it. Good luck. I did like the paci fairy idea someone else suggested too as my daughter had over 20 pacis placed throughout the house!

C.,

I have three kids, the two youngest are just 16 months apart and they were on the binky together. I weaned them in just 3 days by cutting the rubber tips off. The reason why is because their gums began to bleed and they would suck so hard that their teeth were beginning to pull away from their gums. Both of them! Once we cut the tip off, they would put it in their mouth and not like the way it felt... by the end of the third day they just did not want it. Anyway, that is my two cents per say.
T.

Hi.......we did something similar to what Noelle said. We didn't cut hte top of the binkie but we would just cut little pieces off, small cuts and we did this will all her binkies so that they were all about the same. But we'd do this every couple of days. My daughter found she didn't like the binkie anymore because it wasn't "smooth". We only had to do this a about three times before she gave them up. We also kept talking to her about it and saying that she was getting too old for a binkie and that her binkie was getting worn out. Then one day she just agreed and actually threw out one of her binkies. She was done within a week! Good luck!

M.

Tell her the binky fairy called (You can have a friend call and actually speak to her) and said it's time she had this binky back, because there is a special baby who is really needing it.
Take her out to a special place, dress up if you like, and have a picnic. Then tie her binky to a helium balloon and have her release it.
Take a picture of it floating away and see if you or someone else can't take the picture and photoshop a fairy recieving the balloon, so she can look at it later when she is feeling regretful about losing her binky.
I've heard this one works wonders!!

HI C.,

Some kids just need that extra security for a little while longer, don't they? :O)

I know my son did! He was a Pacifier kid, too, and was so sad the few times I mentioned one day he wouldn't have a pacifier.

To help, I did a couple of things that worked for me. The first thing I did, was I decided that he wasn't going to the Prom with that thing, so I needed to relax :O) It would be harder if he had been a thumb-sucker, right? So, after I shifted my "attitude", and I tried to take a different approach to the issue.

I found a small cardboard box that I decided to give him for his pacifier(s). He could decorate the anyway he wanted, but that box was for his pacifier, and it needed to stay right by his bed for resting and sleeping.

I tried to keep the pacifier associciated to only sleeping and resting. If he wanted his pacifier at any time, I said "of course you can have your pacifier, just go lay on your bed with it because it's for resting and sleeping only". This was what worked. Because he was also 3, he was "busy" playing with things and didn't always want to leave playing to get his pacifier. So, eventually, he stopped asking for it in the middle of the day. Occassionally, he would go in his room quietly, and get his pacifier, lay on his bed with it for a few minutes then come back out and play. I never acted like I knew. This was his experience with seperating from something he loved.

We did this for about 4-5 months, and when I thought it was time, I took the box and put it in my kitchen cupboard one night. He asked me where it was, and I told him I "cleaned his pacifier and forgot to put it back".... the next night I did the same thing and he fell asleep without it for 7 nights in a row and finally remembered to ask me for them. I said I was saving them for a new baby that was going to be born. He loved that idea :O)

C., the part that I am most proud of is myself :O) What was the rush to get him off the pacifier when so many other kids have their own different securities until sometimes the 3rd Grade, or more. Relaxing about it was the best thing I ever did, and that allowed me to handle the issue with more love than frustration.

Your daughter will be done with her pacifier, when she's done with it and doesn't need it anymore. Just help her understand why she needs it....to soothe her to sleep, not to concentrate on playing :O)

~N. :O)

When a child moves on in his development and gives up something, he/she will only fuss a few days/nights at most.
Have you thought about visiting a baby and having him give it to the baby as the baby needs it and not him? Some parents have done that. My son kept losing his and my fil kept buying him another one. On his 2nd birthday I told him when he lost that one no more and told my fil not to buy him anymore. He would spin it around in a circle in his mouth. My Mom said when I was a baby I would drink my bottle in my crib and throw the bottle and it would break.
When I broke my last bottle, she didn't buy anymore. I don't know how old I was. When my kids were little it was bottle/pacifer give up at 2 years old. Now it is 1 years old as they say the longer a child has a bottle or pacifier the more difficult it is go give up and this is true. The longer you wait the more difficult it will be. As soon as he wakes up, keep him busy.
F.

Been there too. I had believed one article that 'they'll give it up when they are ready, naturally'. Right. And at 3 1/2 she was not interested (our 2nd & 3rd children did this). So I took another mom of a large family's advice (we now have 5), and cut off the tips and left them lying around. Everytime I found one, I'd just snip the tip. Pretty soon, she got tired of all her binkies being broken. It was a little rough at night, but we stuck with it. Took about 3 days & nights. Worked for #3 as well.

One note of caution, before we did this, with our first child, I gave it back to her when she got sick and that was a huge setback (she was only 2), but we eventually got it right.

The #'s 4&5 never had them (twins) because we figured the #3 child, a 2 year old would steal them. :-). But both twins are thumbsuckers, yikes! Can't cut the tip off this time!

Good luck!
D.

my son was 3 1/2. we finally did similar to what another mom did - at xmas time i said we needed to give it to other babies that don't have a binky. maybe you could do the binky fairy or... for my own security i just put it in a zip loc bag in my dresser drawer, but i didn't ever have to pull it out after that.

We had the same problem with our daughter - three and there was a pacifier in her mouth a lot! Since she was not a baby, I wanted her to participate in the pacifiers leaving our home.

I told her that Priscilla the Paci Fairy was going to leave a fancy bag on our porch at a certain time for the family to all go about the house and put all the pacifiers in the bag. Then I had Ariel say bye bye to the pacifiers with the caveat that Priscilla would drop the bag off later that day filled with "prizes" for Ariel for being such a big girl.

We found she had stashed pacifiers everywhere but got them all and put them out on the porch. Later, the bag was gone and I had sprinkled a little glitter out there to make it look like Priscilla had really come.

A few hours later the bag returned and had all sorts of fun dollar store items with a few nicer things for making this "sacrifice'.

I think since your daughter like mine is older the idea of cutting off the ends etc aren't going to work as well as they would with a baby.

It worked for us and we have been paci free for two years!

Good Luck!

K. and Ariel

I had a friend that took her three year old daughter to Funderland and every ride she wanted to go on cost one binky. No problems after that!

Hi C., I know this is going to sound strange, but this is what we did when they were around 2-3. My kids are adults now, but the way I weaned them from both the bottle and the binky is as follows. We went to Disneyland with my daughter and left them with Micky. We told her that the babies at Disneyland needed it so we were going to give it to them, now that she was a big girl. We did the same with our son, but left them with the Ninja Turtles at Great America. I know these places may not be possible, but maybe a favorite park, or place she likes to go. You can leave it behind for whatever reason, maybe baby animals. I know it sounds crazy but it worked for us. There were only a few rough times after that, but we reminded them that they did a good thing by giving them to new babies. Good Luck