Ditching the Paci

The principal at my daughters school once gave me a great idea. He took his daughter to Build A Bear. She got to pick out what ever bear she wanted and instead of putting a heart inside it, she put her binki inside it. Now, when she feels like she needs it, she hugs the bear instead.

One we ditched it way before a year old! Two you are just going to have to show some tough love and just plain throw it away and tell him he is a big boy and big boys don't need baby stuff. he will get over it!

we did it at christmas time and told him that santa needed them for the reindeer!....worked like a charm!

I'm a very mean mommy- my son was probably 20 months when we got rid of them cold turkey. I just told him pacifiers are for babies, he's a big boy now, so we're throwing them away. He helped me find them all & put them in the garbage. He was mad that night at bed time, but fine after that.

"The babies need pacis, lets mail it to them.". Then place it in an envelope address it and place it in the mailbox.

"The paci fairy will pick it up. She takes it to the babies that need pacis and leaves you a treat.."

Start snipping the head (1/3) of it off a little bit at a time till he does not want it anymore..

My daughter was pretty attached to her paci as well. She was with her teenage cousins when she was 3, who had lip gloss and was enthralled with it. She traded her pacis (all of them) for a huge package of lip gloss that she picked out at the store. Instead of having a paci at night, she slept with her lip gloss. It worked for her. If you can come up with something your son adores, then you can find a way to sub one for the other.
Stay strong Mom!
Blessings to you and yours,
K.

ok here we go....hey K., i gotta tell u i didn't look fwd to this stage either. first, my daughter was turning 2, so we started weaning her off of it and told her she could only have it for nite time and we kept reminding her that big girls don't have pacifiers and that she will be 2 soon so we actually took it away the week of her bday and i sometimes would cave in and give it to her but then my husband threw them all in the trash and it basically it was fits and crying for one whole week! i think it was the longest week of my life..lmao!! but after that week, she stopped throwin fits and cried occasionally....she would ask for it about twice a month and the issue was dead after 3 months. good luck with this one! i think potty training was easier than this one...-M.

I feel your pain...my kids were about the same age before we got rid of ours too and no we didn't do any "paci fairy" stuff either. We did it slowly, not all at once and built them up to it, let them know what we were doing. First they were down to only nap and night and only then. Even if he's just sitting around watching TV, it has to stay in his bed and he can't have it until he goes down and then we made a game of it when they got up and we let them "throw it" in the bed, made a big deal of this and they thought it was sooo funny. By the way we have 9yo twins so were doing both at the same time.

Anyway, we kept talking to them and telling them they weren't babies anymore and when we were out we would point out all the babies they had them and kept telling them they were babies anymore and didn't need them. Then one day we just did it and actually they were fine, they maybe cried a little but reminded them of all the babies we saw with pacis and they did it. Goodluck

Believe me I had 2 very addicted children to the paci. Giving them up was more anxiety for me then anything. And after doing it once you would think I would have learned its not a big deal but when it was time for my second daughter to give it up I feared it again.
Lets see with my first I cut the end off (I mean completely off) of it at 18 months she picked it up said it was broke and threw it in the trash. She never had a meltdown or cried or anything. When she asked for it we reminded her it was broke and she accepted it. (Trust me, SHE loved her paci, before that we hadn't even limited her nighttime...anything.) At the most she whined for it, but the logic of knowing it was broke didn't make her cry hysterically.
With my second daughter as I said I dreaded it again...she ended up being around 28 months when we decided to get rid of it and it was really only by chance. She at this point mostly used it at night but just like your son I could hear her sucking on it at night. I can' really remember what exactly happened but she had one out at a store in her pocket got it out and lost it in the store. I didn't really think anything about it until we went to bed that night and she said to me "Lost paci at the store" I said, yes you did. Sorry no more paci. She whined/cried a little and it took longer to settle her down for the night and in fact did for a week or so...but we just saw a baby with a paci last weekend...and she related it to the baby only. At that moment...I realized oh yeah...it wasn't that long ago she had one of those. I forgot too!

In the end its all about taking it away (no matter how you do it) and sticking with it. Don't cave. Yes, its right you might have a few bad nights or days....but I am sure it will end up being a lot easier than what you think. Everyone that I've talked to that has taken it away one way or the other are surprised at how easy it really ends up being.

Hi how are you! My son was almost 3 as well,with the paci.I have to say this was the best thing that happenned because if it didn't ,God knows he may still have it and he is 3 1/2.I had one paci left and we lost it purely accidental!That was it!We told him it was lost and there wasn't anymore. He wasn't the happiest camper but he dealt with it.Honestly it was only 2-3 days where he continued to ask for it and then the thought of it was done.No paci fairy in this household!!!

Cold turkey! I told my daughter (a little beofre two yrs) at bedtime that grandpa needed her paci. She said ok and handed it to me. The next day at naptime she said - Mommy, paci and I said, no, we gave them to grandpa, remember. Ans she said ok and went to sleep. Never used one again and doesn't remember using one.

You have to make a decision to give it up and go with it. It won't be as bad as you think it will.

We had the same situation with our daughter, who is 2. She really wanted the paci just when she was sleepy or not feeling good. We had a bye-bye binky (what she called it) party! It was fun and it worked. I read this suggestion on this site and despite mydoubts and fears, it worked! We baked cupcakes (her favorite!) bought balloons. We told her a little baby really needs the binky and doesnt have one. We placed the binky in a special box and put it in the mailbox to send to the baby (she put it in the mailbox!) We had a special present waiting for her from the baby- it had stickers, princess stuff, sidewalk chalk, etc. stuff that she really likes). We told her it was from the baby to say thank you and how cool the baby sent her all of this special big girl stuff and that the baby was very happy now. Then we had cupcakes and played, made it a really special day. She asked for it a few days later, but remember the baby had it and played with her new stuff instead! It worked for my bink master! Good luck-it was fun!

We took my daughters nuk away when she was between 3 and 3 1/2 years old. She would only use it for nap and bedtime (she asked for it other times but I always stood my ground, after she was 2 years old, and said no). We decided to just go cold turkey. My daughter is very strong willed and I knew I would cave so we tossed all the nuks and just said they are all gone. Daughter asked if they went to other babies and we said yes because she seemed to be more ok with it if others were using them. It took her about a week to fall asleep in a normal length of time and she only asked for a nuk the first 3 days. With all nuks thrown out I could not cave, otherwise I am sure I would have.

If you have a friend with a baby, hang out with her....tell her not to bring a paci, and when her baby cries, tell your son that the baby needs a paci, and that if he would be willing to give his paci to the baby, that you will take him to get a special toy....
Then if he cries for the paci, tell him that it is with the baby, and remind him of his cool toy he got, and that big boys can't have a cool toy and a paci. (just don't give him the choice of taking the paci over the toy) lol
It worked with my daughter, she was two with a paci, and she gave hers to her little cousin, we bought (took her to the store and she picke it out) a really cool doll baby that cried and had its own bottle and diapers, and she only asked about the paci one time, we explained that the baby had it, and that we would have to take her doll back to the big girls store if she didn't leave the paci with the babies. That was the end of that!

My son is 16 months old and we are working on weaning off of the paci right now. For the last several weeks, my son can ONLY have the paci during naps and at night. During the rest of the day, the pacis are put up out of view and out of reach (even at home). We had like 1 day of fussiness, and then he adapted. Now, he is beginning to show signs that he doesn't really need the paci to fall asleep, so I think our next step will be to try to put him down to sleep at night without the paci, but then put a paci in the crib in case he wakes up in the middle of the night and needs it to help him get back to sleep. Of course, the final goal is to just remove the paci completely.

I think you need to know your kid, because my son never does well with cold-turkey. His entire life, he has responded well to a weaning process. When it came to swaddling, to the bottle, and now to the paci, weaning has worked best for us. If your son is resistant to weaning, you might just throw all the pacis out and face the music some weekend, but I like the step-by-step program better. ^_~

I know your pain...mine was 3 1/2 before we got rid of it. We tried all kinds of things. Throwing it out the window, throwing it in the trash, cutting it, giving it to a new cousin, etc. Finally, We took her to build a bear and put the paci inside the bear, giraffe, frog, whatever animal she picked out. The Build a Bear people thought that was the greatest idea, they were very excited to make a big deal out of it for her. Then she got to dress her animal and then she had her "paci" every night and day when she held her animal. And she could feel it inside his tummy and she enjoyed telling everyone where her paci was.
Good luck!

I feel your pain!!! We are taking away my son's paci on June 1...I set this date about 6mo ago to help prepare myself more than anything...b/c my
3 1/2 yo is so addicted to it I absolutely dread taking it away but it's time!!! Long over due too... A few nights ago we started counting down the nights at bedtime and now it's registered with him... We'll see how it goes!