Throwing Pacifier

Replace it with something else- a stuffed animal, blankee or a book... If she throws it she is playing you and you have to be strong- I know it is hard... and I am one of the biggest wimps when it comes to crying, tried babies, however she will catch on faster the stronger you are about it. My boys have learned to love other things then pacifier, however my two year old if he can find one will claim it in a second- he loves it but out of sight out of mind...

My daughter used to do the same thing. It would drive me crazy! I finally started placing several pacifiers in her bed so that she would always be able to find one. It worked for us. Good luck!

Hello Cynthia,

Letting go of her pacifier sounds good. She will need to sleep without it sooner or later. It sounds like the two of you are power struggling. If you like to read, I recommend, "Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves: Transforming parent-child relationships from reaction and struggle to freedom, power and joy," by Naomi Aldort and "The Baby Book: (birth-2 years)" by Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears.

~T.

Try giving a warm bath, warm milk, cradle and rock, sing, and or dance her to sleep. Read a bedtime story. More than likely she just wants to either spend more time with you or with enjoying her environment (her toys, exploring new things, etc). If all else fails, leave her there until she cries; and if that doesn't work, let her cry herself to sleep. You might also want to try keeping her more active and busy during the day or arranging her nap time to be a little earlier.

My advice is to stop going in to give it to her. Why get no sleep twice. She just wants to see you. So if you stop going in there she will either wing herself or stop throwing it out of the crib. It will take some dicipline on your part of not going in there.

Thats the one problem with pacifiers. They are great to help calm and comfort a baby but once they throw it it's time to give it up. Not only is she throwing it because she is mad about napping but she is doing it because you are coming in and giving it back to her. If you keep it up it will become a game to her. I now you want to wait until she is a year but it sounds like you might have to start weening now. I would start by taking it away during the day when you can get her mind off it. Remember it has to be a gradual thing. Once she doesn't need it during the day then you start taking it way for naps then bed time. Good luck.

My baby is also ten months old, and naptime has become harder than ever. I think they are at an age where they understand what they can do to get you into the room or to get them out of bed. Our main problem is that my baby stands up in his crib, cries, and won't lay back down... So I know how you're dealing with an exhausted and sad little baby.

Anyhow, I have tried multiple tactics; you might also to see if they'll work:
- spend 5-10 minutes holding your baby and rocking her
- read stories in a quiet setting
- leave the door open or try closing it, whichever you don't do normally
- give her the pacifier during storytime to keep her calm and settled; she might not throw it if she doesn't feel like you are leaving her anytime soon
- sing soothing songs or play some music or white noise
- keep her in her crib but stay in the room for a few minutes so she can relax and still see you
- let her cry for a few minutes without having her binky; then maybe she'll want it when you give it back
- use a security blanket or something like it, something she can suck besides her pacifier
- make the room darker

The main thing I've noticed is that it doesn't seem to help to re-enter the room every 5 or even 10 minutes. Then your baby will keep up the same behavior to get you to come back. I would work on a naptime routine that really helps her to get sleepy, and then take it really slow when you leave the room. Let her cry as long as you feel will work. Good luck!

There are clips you can buy, to clip the pacifier to your child. They are big, so they aren't a chokin hazard, and during the day you could teach her how to grab it when she drops it.

I had a clip for my dd's pacifier. She would wake up crying because she couldn't find it and once she was about 9 months I felt comfortable putting the clip--it was too short to be a strangulation issue. Just long enough to reach her mouth. She is now 2, and still sleeps with her pacifier. Since her dad left for Iraq she has started "losing" her pacifier on purpose. She is asking for more attention. If I spend a little bit longer with her putting her to bed at night we do better. Some snuggle time and a story--perhaps your daughter is just letting you know she needs a little more wind down time. Good luck.

My daughter did the same thing, at about the same age, and I finally just quit picking it up. After a few days, she didn't want it anymore. I think she was just done with it.

If you don't want to wean your daughter from the pacifier now, maybe you could get a bunch of them and put all of them in her crib so she could grab another if she throws one out...but then she might just throw all of them out.

I'd say she is probably just doing it for attention, because she knows you will pick it up, so if you stop, maybe so will she.

We went through the same thing - now my son is 27 months old and still needs his pacifier when he goes to sleep - he doesn't throw it out anymore. I just went back to his room and picked it up for him every single time - but he really didn't do it too much, so I never felt "played with" or anything like that.

Just a thought , but try to replace it with something else for comfort like a snuggly etc. If that doesn't work, then, like with my little one, its time to just let her cry it out. They can learn, they just need the time to figure out how to sooth themselves. It was the HARDEST thing I've had to do as a parent, but I am reaping the rewards now. good luck.

I would take it away now (or at least leave it her crib but don't "push" it)and let her find another way to soothe herself to sleep. It will probably be a hard couple of days, but trust me (mother of 3), they will sleep eventually!! Have you tried having some soft music playing at naptime and bedtime? That's really helped all of my children. good luck.

My daughter did the same thing at this age. She realized that we were not going to come in to her room and give her the pacifier again and quickly stopped the battle. It took a couple of attempts with "crying it out" for it to work, so don't give up. Also, I found the best way to avoid the pacifier "addiction" is to only allow the baby to have it in their cribs. Good luck to you!

I agree with many of the other girls. Babies know and learn cause and effect. If you go in there every time, she's going to keep doing it. I used the graduated extinction method with my daughter. If she cried, i would let her cry for 5 minutes then go in, comfort her (but not pick her up), then leave and let 10 minutes, then 15 minutes and so on until she fell asleep. It didn't take her longer than a few days to figure out that it was time to go to sleep when she got into her crib.

Good Luck!
M.

It has become a game for her, I would say now is the perfect time to break her of the pacifier. She will continue to throw it as long as she knows you will come get it for her. She will sleep without it, you may not like that it takes a few nights of crying but she will learn very quickly to fall asleep without it.

my son did the exact same thing!!! He also would throw out his blanket & I was about to go crazy, but then decided to try one of the pacifier holder things... that connect to your babies clothes & the binkey.(I couldn't remember the word for it, but at babiesrus.com they call 'em a "Sassy Mam Pacifier Keeper" ... you can check it out at http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2784438 if i'm not making much sense.) -i was afraid of it choking my baby when he was younger, but i got over that fear & decided to put the two things together, tieing the binkey to the blanket, that way it was a bit harder for him to throw the binkey over. you could just put it to your childs clothes though if you didn't want it on the blanket, but that helped my little guy. :)

Get some of those pacifier attachments (the ones you clip to their cloths) and then instead of just clipping it to her pj's try a safty pin so she can't take it off. it'll force her to keep it through the night

First, put several in with her. She might throw them all out, but she might throw a couple out, relize she is tired, and get one and go to sleep. If she does throw them all out, take them, walk out of the room for a minute or so, then go back in and give them to her again. It might make her relize that they can be totally taken away.
It is a very common thing for her age. My daughter just went through the same thing, only it was with her blankie. She would just laugh at us when we went back in there to give it to her. I would just hand her the blankie, say "night-night", lay her down, and walk out. She got over it and hasn't done it in several weeks.

My son did that at 3 months and I just decided to throw it away because I felt like he was telling me he didn't want it. So instead I played soft music in the background to calm him down so he could relax ans take his nap. My daughter was a different story she actually threw hers away at 12 months and stopped taking a nap at the same time. Every child is different - the best advice I can give is to start with calming her down before nap time so she transitions into a nap. Hope that helps!

Your daughter is letting you know that she has fiured out that if she has that pacifier she will fall asleep and she don't want it no more so all you can do is just keep it on hand for when she wants it and she will let you know in her own way.