Saying Goodbye to the Pacifier - Sanger,TX

Hello Kiki-
Like Miranda said...a paci fairy can come take it to be with her fairy babies! This is what we did with my dtr when she was 2. She sit it out by the window and when she chose to do this(we let her build up to it)she got to pick a special prize. In her case it was a fairy dress for dress up. This worked wonders! I didnt know about the paci fairy with my 1st daughter who is nearly 11 now and we ended up telling her the dog ate it(and threw it out) bc we had so much trouble getting rid of that one!
Good Luck!

Why now??? About 2 is when you usually want to discard it, but only at nap and bedtime. You might introduce a special lovey, such as a small satin blanket and have 2-3 handy and ad soft CD music as a bedtime ritual as you slowly wean off the pacifier.
My son flushed his Binky down the toilet at 2 and we said bye bye. After the first night of reminding it where it went, he was fine from then on.
V. B.

I got rid of the pacifier for both of my children around 11 months. We didn't plan on doing it for my first child, but one night we couldn't find it so we had no choice. He was over it in one day. Same for my daughter, who was very attached to it. We certainly thought it would be harder for them than it was. Just commit to one day of a few more tears than normal. Good Luck:)

My oldest son took a pacifier and I found the best way to do it was cold turkey. You pretty much just have to take it away and get them out of your childs sight. You'll have to deal with some crying and all that but the longer they take one the more attached they'll become to it. Also stay away from the sections at the store where your child will see one. Good luck.

I have 2 children that had theirs until 3. My oldest actually got rid of hers on her own. she went one day without it and went to bed fine, did this a couple nights and then the day after her 3rd birthday said wheres my paci. I reminded her that she is 3 now and when you are 3 you cant have it. So that was that. The other one however loved to sleep. so when she was 3 it was a little harder, on me, she turned 3 and we said no more paci 3 year olds cant have them. she was fine with it she just wouldnt take her 4 hour naps anymore, so with that one i am glad i waited, cuz she needed her naps.

I always wonder why people think pacifiers are bad and feel like they have to hurry up and get their child off them. Why did u give it to her in the first place? For comfort, and security right? So taking that away from her at an age that she doesn't understand what is happening may give her unecessary anxiety..and there is plenty of that out there...So if she loves it let her have it....My daughter had her's until she was 3 then we told her she could only have it at bedtime, and eventually she just quit asking where it was and that was that! What's really the harm? It was more harmful to me listen to my mom and others say "she still takes a paci?" But I would just say...SO!!

My daughter had a pacifier... We actually let her have it until she was 2, but my Pedi told us to cut the tip of it off. I did that to several of them and she couldn't suck on them properly. Within a few days she wasn't upset anymore about it and it was over. This worked great for us.

Hope this helps and good luck.

:) B.

Your child might be too young for this, but the best idea I've seen is to go to the store (e.g. Disney Store)...have the child pick out a toy and then "pay" for it with his/her pacifiers.

The way that I got rid of the pacifier was cutting a little each day. Each day, I would take the binkys and cut a little off of the nipple. I would give the child the cut binky. I would cut it until there was no more to cut. I would also still offer it to the child. They will figure out that something is wrong, and wont want it anymore. It worked for both of my boys. Good Luck!

There is also the binky fairy. My sister told her child that there are babies that need binkies. She told her child that if she puts the binkies in the basket and leaves it out for the fairy, then the fairy will leave a reward for her. That also seemed to work.

We gave ours to "Santa" to give to all the babies around 2 yrs old and she got some really neat "big girl" toys left in their place.

Leading up to that we limited it to nap or bedtime only and it had to stay in the crib. Good luck!

My daughter LOVED her pacifier, too...but we let her keep it until she was 3! We kept finding reasons for her to keep it...moving to a new house...a new baby in the house, etc... Anyway, we told her that the "paci fairy" would come when she turned 3, because another LITTLE baby might need her pacifiers. So, the paci fairy came one night and took her paci, and left her a little surprise. She NEVER ONCE asked about her paci again. She just accepted that that was just how it was...which made us realize that she didn't really NEED her paci as much as we thought she did! It was "out of sight, out of mind". You do have to be sure, though, that you get rid of ALL OF THE PACIFIERS in the house! If she finds a stray one, then you'll be in trouble! :) GOOD LUCK!

What I did with my son, was for a couple of days before I officially got rid of it, I would constantly mention that the pacifier has to go away. I decided to do it over a weekend because I worked so I knew it was going to be a little rough for him. So I gathered all of the ones I could find and cut them (the part that goes in their mouth) I did this and told him it was broken, well I didn't cut enough off because he still tried to suck on it. So I completely cut the sucky part off, and said they are broken we have to throw them in the trash. He did just that, he gathered them all up every time I found one I would cut and show him look it's broken we have to throw it away. He threw them away with no problem. Bed time was a little rough but after 2 nights of no pacifier, he was fine. WE haven't looked back since. He was very easy to transition off the bottle and pacifier, I'm just hoping I get as lucky with my daughter when I get to that point.
I wouldn't just take them from her and not let her see that they have to go away or it will be more traumatic I think. Good Luck with it. Just remember that it's going to be harder on you then it will be on her. She will get over it, the pacifier was such a crutch for us. Whenever he would get fussy or whiny we would scramble to find a pacifier and I to get over that real quick. Throw ALL of them away. Don't keep an emergency one at all. I tried that and it was too tempting for me.

Well, I got off easy with my toddler. I thought that we would have to call in a special fairy; however, this is what we ended up doing. My daughter was a pacifier addict. She would find some hidden in the crib. When I would come get her in the morning she would sometimes have one in her mouth and two in her hand. Then make sure that she sucked on every one. If I tried to take one away, she would know how many she originally had and throw a fit. Anyway, I started limiting the pacifier use to only going to sleep (around a year). When she turned 18 months I communicated with her day care to find out that she had not needed a pacifier to sleep for the last few days. I decided to try and not give her a pacifier that evening when she went to bed. If she asked for it, I would give it to her (I was due with another baby in a few days and my goal was to get rid of the pacifier by age 2). Anyway, she never asked for it and I never gave it to her again. She has been pacifier free ever since. That evening I put all of her pacifiers in a zip lock bag to save for her little baby sister that was coming. It really was much easier than I thought. Even when the baby came; she still did fine. My suggestion would to start weaning her off of it since she is only 11 months. May not understand "pacifier are for babies". Not sure how mature your daughter is. If you haven't already, I would start limiting the pacifier use to sleep time only and emergency situations. Hide the pacifier the rest of the time. If she sees it she will want it and throw a fit. Eventually, she will become less dependent on it. Maybe after a while try a nap without it and see what happens. If she doesn't need it, lock them up for the next one or throw them away. My thought is that pacifiers are better than trying to wean a child of off thumb sucking. you can't take a thumb away! Also, she may need that pacifier for teething. I was always concerned with speech; however, limiting it to only sleep time worked for us.

try cutting the very tip of it. Just enough to put a small slit in it. Then just keep cutting g it little by little until she doesnt have anything to suck on or doesnt want it anymore. Becareful not to take it away to early or she may start to suck her thumb. Then that is going to be harder to break her of that. You can't take her thumb away! Hope it helps. Good luck!

This is waht go t myself off the paci and both my boys. I had paci's all over my house - every room had a few and some where even hidden by the kids - so it was not easy to just limit their use - every paci i found we made a small cut in it - now when the child tried to suck it it would not suck the way it always had - they would bring me the paci and I would say - oh it is broken we need to throw it away - they never fussed cause they knew just like me there was another one close by - with in a week or two they were all broken and they had thrown them all away (execpt the one I saved for each child in its broken form- for memories)But what I really like about this method is that they are involved in getting rid of the paci - they throw it waya because it is broken and they really grow this way too.

We started off by not giving it "jsut because". If he was playing and content he didn't need it. We worked down to while sleeping only pretty fast. Then at nap time let him fall asleep with it and then it was out. To napping without it completely then did the same at bedtime. It can be hard at 1st but if you just stick with it and get it over with it's not so bad. You give in one time and it can be like starting over. My son was obsessed with his too but I had him off by his 1st birthday starting to take it away at 11 months. He was off the bottle by 11 months as well.

I only read Nikki's response, and I agree. Pacifiers are GOOD for babies. It has become a cultural taboo or something, and I don't understand why. My daughter had hers until she was 3-almost 4- and could logically understand to let it go...to be a big girl. Same with my other daughter and her thumb... she made a conscience decision to stop at around 4. The paci soothes the baby... and 11 months is still a baby! We live in a society that mandates our kids to grow up faster than they really should. Enjoy your baby, and let her enjoy her paci. She won't go to Kindergarten with it, trust me!! :)

Hi Kiki, like Andrea's response we thought it would be so much harder than it actually was. I decided that I was going to bite the bullet and take it away. It only took one night/day and she wasn't even fussing. Of course she was 1-1/2 yrs old. You may want to wait a little longer. Good luck.

We took a daycare teacher's suggestion and cut off the tip of our daughter's paci and it worked amazingly well. We just said, "Uh oh, the paci's broken." She would try to suck on it, but it just doesn't work to suck on a broken paci. We hid all the other pacifiers. After a week she didn't fuss at all for the paci!

A.

The sooner the better! My daughter is 2 1/2 and she still has one at night only. Looking back we could have easily taken it away before she turned 1. Now, I don't even want to try. I am going to wait until she is ready to give it up because I like my sleep! Isn't that horrible!!

My brother limits his 2 year olds to their pasi just at night. It helps them sleep well, but they don't walk around with it all day. They are also allowed it on long drives (he lives 5 hours from me). They know when they get out of bed that the pasi stays in bed "to sleep".

Hi Kiki, we let our girl keep her paci till a litte over 2. we had her give her paci's to the baby (a friend of ours had a new baby) since she wasn't a baby anymore. It worked! she cried and cried over it for a long time before her nap, then she never mentioned it again. Done. It is was really fast. I think 11 months is a little young to get rid of the paci, but then again, the younger they are when you do it, it will be just one less thing you'll have to take care of later. Good luck.

Hi,

It was Easter time when our time came to do this so, we gathered up all the pacifiers and put them in a large ziplock bag. We went to see the Easter Bunny. She gave us a really pretty Easter Basket in exchange for our bag of pacifiers! My daughter wasn't really thrilled about this but it worked! That was almost 5 years ago and when moving some large furniture a few weeks ago, we found more hidden pacifiers! She really got a kick out of finding them at this point in her little life. We took pictures and everything. Maybe you can adapt this idea into Trick or Treating or something. In looking at some of the other answers I felt like I should let you know that we were close to 2 when we did this. Good Luck!
B. B.

only letting her have it at bed time or nap time, and it being (lost) the rest of the time is a start.

The Pacifier Fairy came to our house. We had our daughter leave all of her pacifiers in a pretty gift sack and when she got home from MDO there was a Princess movie anf a pretty pink blanket for her and the pacifiers were gone. It was a rough couple of nights, but she is fine now. My suggestion would be to do it on a weekend or time when Mommy and Daddy can help (no one has to go to work the next day). She asked for them off and on for about a month, but after the first couple of days, it was not a cry-fest. Good luck!!!! You can do it!!!!!

At 11 months, not sure this will work, but I told my son (at age 2 when we finally got fed up with the whole pacifier thing) thant he needed to give his binky to all the little babies. He felt like such a big boy and was proud that "all the little babies" were going to be happy and sleep well at night even though he didn't have his binky anymore. Try giving it to her only when she sleeps and not during the day. This will get her used to the idea of not having it all the time. Maybe just have it "disappear" one day. Good luck!

The pacifier fairy should come and take her pacifiers to little babies.

Start talking to her about babies and the things that go with babies especially, pacifiers. Do this often for 2 weeks, read books about babies and big girls and talk about what a big girl she is. then get a brightly colored gift bag, maybe even let her color on it and make it a game to gather up all of the pacifiers over 2 days or so. finally, put the last pacifier in and hang the bag some where interesting like from a tree or the backdoor, so that the Paci Fairy can take the pacifiers away to babies and leave her a big girl treat in the bag (toy that she will love)while she is sleeping. the trick is to really hype it!!

Good Luck!!

I agree with Kara...just take it away, cold turkey. The sooner the better.

What worked great for both of my kids was to gradually ween them off of it, allowing it only at certain times.

Mainly bed time, nap time, or in public(so that others don't have to suffer through the little one's screams). As they got older and started to understand about being calm with their voice in public we stopped the public use.

Then it was just sleeping times and when they were going to turn two I just started telling them "when you're 2 we are going to throw away your paci and you will be a big girl." " In 10 days we are going to throw away your paci..." "In 9 days we are going..." etc. So we made a big deal about it and THEY threw it out on their birthday (make sure you only have 1 that they use by this time). The next time they asked for it we said "remember you're a big girl and threw it away". Maybe a tear or two after that but no big deal at all.

L.

When my son and daughter-in-law decided to wean their children off of the pacifier, they cut a small hole in the pacifier. The child could still put it in his mouth, but didn't give them the satisfaction of sucking and they soon became tired of it.

My SIL gave me this one: Just snip a tiny tip completely off the nipple of her paci. It takes away the satisfying suck without posing a choking hazard. She might even throw it away herself. Worked like a charm for us!!

My mother in law always shares the story about getting my husband to get rid of his pacifier! It was around Christmas time & they told him that baby rudolph needed the pacifier.. they had a real elaborate story about it, & i dont remember the whole thing, but evidently it worked! He doesn't still have it! haha

Unfortunately, I couldn't use this story with my daughter... she's a thumb sucker!! Thank your lucky stars that isn't your situation.. you can throw away pacifiers.. but you can't cut off thumbs!!

I was told by a woman in my church to cut off the tips. Start out really small, to where its barely noticeable, and then each day, take off a little more. The woman's son got off the binky in a few weeks, I beleive.
I personally didn't find it as helpful as it was for her. Ha.

I didn't know it was supposed to be a gradual thing, and so I cut the tip half off, and my daughter threw it out and kept begging for a paci.

So, I cut some of the binks' tips off, a little, and the others I left alone. And, I'd only let her have a binky at bed time, not nap time. After I felt comfortable, I'd make her go without the binky every other night, and spread it out, to where she was gradually off it.

It took about a month or so, and it was so worth it! I also didn't start taking the bink away from my daughter until she was older (about 18mths), so maybe it will take longer, or shorter, because she's young.

Just remember DON'T GIVE UP! :D Best wishses.

I think you are concerned too early. My daughter laid her pacifier on the night stand when she was two 1/2 and after a couple of days it suddenly "dissapeared" and I think she finally asked about where it was and I said I didn't know and that was that. I agree with the mom with a thumb sucker. You really want them on a pacifier not the thumb which if you take the pacifier away too early they might find their thumb. Thumbs can change the shape of your mouth and I've had students in Elementary up to 2nd grade sucking on their thumbs when they thought no one was paying attention. Good Luck with your decision.

We tried one way with our son, we cut the ends off and told him they had broken, which really worked well.

But my sister-in-law did something with my niece, that I thought was awesome. They went and bought a dozen helium balloons, tied all the pacifiers to it, then let it go. They told me niece that they were sending them to be with the babies in heaven. She never asked for another one again.

I cut my daughters and it worked so well and was incredibly painless for both her and me =) We had limited her to paci in the bed only (naps and night time). Then we started to cut a small amount off of the tip. Every other day we would cut a little until one day she said that her Papi was broken and she threw it away. She knew the first time it was cut that it was broken, once she said something I would just say "yes it is broken" and move. It only took her about a week to figure out it was useless and threw it away. Good luck

we poked holes (with a pin) in our son's paci when he was a yr old and he spit it out. we threw away his pacis and and he basically didn't want them anymore. we offered the "holy" one a few times and he just lost interest. he still liked his "luvee" and we've let him keep that to sleep with (he still uses it @ the age of 3) Hope this helps!

My daughter had hers until she was about 3 1/2; by that point it was at night only. Her permanent teeth are coming in just fine now and the process of getting rid of the paci when we did decide it was time was painless because she was old enought to understand what was going on & each night made the decision herself: no paci, she got a prize. There were never any tears or frustration or loss of sleep for any of us.

The cold turkey approach, to me, seems mean & unnecessary. She loves the paci, it's not harming her...my vote (not that I get one ;) ) is to let her keep it (assuming she's not experiencing recurrent ear infections or speach problems, that is).

I was recently watching "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and they did a neat thing which worked great! If you know someone with a younger baby, you tell your little one that she is a big girl and doesn't need a paci anymore, but the little baby needs one and why don't we give her yours?

Maybe 11 months is a little young for this trick to work. I think their kids (the sextuplets) were closer to 2. Their friend and her baby were there, and each child dropped their paci into a Ziploc bag and they they gave the bag to the baby. They needed to witness the "passing of the paci" ritual for it to sink in. And it worked . . . they had no problems!

I agree that is too early to take it away. She won't understand right now and why would you want to take away their comfort so young. Mine is 20 mths but he only gets it at nap time and night time. When he gets old enough to understand then I will do the paci fairy or some other method but now he loves it and it doesn't bother anyone. Don't rush it.

Toss and do not give her another. At her age, she'll whimper for a day or so but will get over it. Stand your ground!

Well some kids you have to hide them out of sight out of mind and others you have to have a farewell.

My son did have a pacifier he was a premie and they said it was ok for him. Once he started eating more foods at about 12 mo he didn't want his no more. He did it on his own and we didn't have to do anything. Now getting him off the bottle to sippy cup was harder.

My friend baby had several different paci and he would lose them and she wouldn't replace them and he didn't even want it as long as he didn't see one. If he found it then he wanted one.

Good luck !

We had the "binkie fairy" come one night and take my daughter's binkies to all the new babies. She wrote Amee a note the day before she came back to get the binkies and she left a new toy for her when she took them. It was hard for about a week, so the binkie fairy left another toy at the end of the week for her being so brave. Amee was 25 months at the time so I don't know if this will help you now. We had reduced her time with the binkies to only in the bed before we did this. Good luck!

I have a two and a hlaf year old boy who took a paci and a one year old girl that did not. With my son we started around 15 months only letting him have it in the bed. We stopped letting him just have it all the time. After a day or so when we got him out of his crib we would tell him to drop his paci, and he would throw it back in the bed. Then about a month later, when he was used to that, just like your other responses, we snipped the tip. He was still able to put it in his mouth a little. But I would notice that when he fell asleep the paci fell out. So after a few days he didn't even want it anymore. It was too easy, and I think we could have done it sooner, but I was having to let go too!

Hope this helps!

Both my oldest kids LOVED their paci's and here are some of the ideas we heard and some we used. With my daughter, she was , so we told her to give it to her new baby cousin b/c he needed a paci, but she didn't b/c she was a big girl. With my son, he finally lost his last one and he was almost 3. When he couldn't find it, I reminded him that he was supposed to leave it in his bed, and since it was gone, we had to go to bed without it. He cried a bit, but was fine. Prior to him loosing it, we told him that 3 year olds don't have paci's, and we were going to send it to some kids that didn't have one. He actually found his paci after "losing" it and we did ship it off to my hubby who was serving in Afghanistan at the time for the kids there with no paci's. My neice recently gave me her paci b/c I told her she was a big girl and if she would get rid of her paci I'd take her to the store to buy a new toy. She handed them all over, and did fine. Asked for it a few times and that was that. Now, all of those where "big" kids who could reason a bit. You said your daughter is 11 months. You can try cutting the tip of it off when she's not looking. When she tries to suck on it, it won't work and you can say "it's broken. But that's OK b/c you don't need it anymore". Each day snip a bit more off the tip until it's all gone and maybe she'll even throw away the "broken" one. A friend did that and it worked for her. I've also heard of the "paci fairy" that will leave you a present if you leave your paci for the fiary. The key is to let the kid know that it's gone. She will probably cry for it for a bit, maybe 1 or 2 days even, but once it's gone, YOU need to stick firm and say "it's gone."

11 months old, that's very early to take away the pacifer. Is that at the advice of your ped? I'd question your ped if that's the case. Why do you want to take it away so soon? I cut off the tip of my youngest daughter's (she was 2) and after awhile it was 'broke' so I let HER throw it away in the trash.
They are a Godsend especially in public places when they are tired or hungry and they get fussy...Now the parents that has kids who are walking, talking and still using a pacifer, that's lazy and crazy and a different situation...don't get me started there...ha!

Cut the tip of it off and give it back to her. She wont like the air and get rid of it. My son did. Good Luck