Bye Bye Pacifier? Bye Bye T-shirt Too?

I definitely think you should get rid of the paci, but the t-shirt is fine for him to keep. My daughter still has her blankie that she sleeps with and sometimes carries around the house. My thing with the pacifier is that it can impede their speech if they have it all of the time and they are not great for their teeth long term. So, we took my daughter's paci cold turkey at 15 months, but she has kept her blankie and I'm fine with that. After reading some of the ideas on here about getting rid of the paci, I might have tried some of them first, but cold turkey was only bad for about 2 days and then she was fine, so all in all, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Best of luck to you and with your new baby. I'm due in May also with our second. :-)

I would definetly try to get him off the pacifier first & let him hang on to the t-shirt. I agree that if he sees his little brother or sister with a pacifier, their could be trouble. But I really don't see the harm in letting him keep the t-shirt :) good luck!

I say no way!! I think a "comfort item" shouldn't be taken away. The paci is a different story because of harm to teeth and such... and the fact that a toddler no longer should need to "suck" to pacify. However, comfort items should be let go of at own's own pace. Everyone needs some comfort!

We ditched the paci at 23 months, cold turkey. It was actually much easier than I expected - as in the first two days, there was discussion, and we were able to redirect him, and after a week, he had completely kicked the habit. My son, at the time, attended a home care with other kids who still had pacis.

As for kicking the habit before the new baby comes - We had a new baby 4 months later, and although pacis were completely gone from our lives, my son started stealing his sisters. Funny thing was he didn't even remember what to do with it! With us, we ignored the paci regression, and he eventually lost interest in it again. Probably 2 months later.

Regarding the teething and the tshirt, if you don't mind the tshirt, I'm the type that would let your son keep it a little longer. Those molars were tough, and both my babies got clingy when they were growing molars. That blanket might also help your son cope with the arrival of the new baby. No reason to make too many changes right before that new baby comes... You'll need your son to have some coping tools that don't involve you.

Don't do the gradual approach. My friend cut her sons paci's and he just bit down on them and kept them in his mouth. I saw on Supernanny that getting all the paci's together and telling the child a story about how new babies are going to need his paci's and having him "send them off" is a good technique (she did it two times that I saw - once they mailed them, once they sent them out into the ocean). Then th child gets a surprise in return the same way they sent them off. (For instance, they put them in a mailing envelope and into the mail box. When he woke up the next day, they went to the mailbox and there were streamers and glitter everywhere from the paci fairy and she left him a oresent in return. I thought since he was a boy, he wouldn't be into the glittery fairy stuff, but surprisingly, he liked it.) Anyway, no matter how you do it, cold turkey is the best way. As for the shirt, I'd let him keep it. Daughter is 2.5 and she has a lambie that she is attached to, but when we need to, she can go without it. Good luck!

i think you definatley need to get rid of the paci before the new baby comes. my 2 little ones are 1 yr and 8 days apart, and it was hard, but i had hannah done with the binky, and bottle before micah was born. she even had to give up her baby bed for her little brother. but the t shirt thing, i would let him keep. he may need that comfort zone even more when the baby arrives. you don't want to take away all of his saftey nets and then slam him with a new thing in the house that all it does is eat sleep and poop. lol. you will be fine. kids are very resilent and they will be best friends. you are having them a perfect age distance apart.

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D. Mattern
The MOM Team
Raise your income and your rugrats at the same time!
www.formyrugrats.com
"The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love," Galatians 5:6