When and how to cut off the pacifier?

[Logan Sapphire]

My daughter is 14 months old. Up until 2 days ago she used a pacifier to go to sleep/take naps. We decided it was time to try to wean her, and the past two days went really well. She either fell asleep with no problems or fussed slightly and then slept. Tonight she went beserk with 15 mins of screaming, so we gave in and let her have it.

Is this too early to try to wean her? She has 4 upper and 4 lower front teeth, and four molars in, if that matters. According to her foster mom, she didn't really use a pacifier while she had her (10.5 months). We only gave it to her for sleep. I'm sort of surprised since she transitioned from a bottle before a nap to nothing and from bottle to sippy cup in literally one try each time. I guess I thought the pacifier would be easier.

Any thoughts?

 

[curlygirl]

My daughter was a pacifier addict for a while. Until around 18 months or so, she used it a lot. I wanted to get rid of it when she turned one but she wasn't ready and then when I found out I was pregnant again and she'd only be 17 months old when the new baby arrived, I realized that she might need it for a while and didn't want to turn her life even more upside down than it would already be. By the time she was around 18 months, she only used it for sleep, in the stroller and when she was "stressed out"! As the months passed, she was using it less and less and I decided that I would completely cut it off before she turned 2--I refused to have photos of her at her 2nd birthday party with a pacifier in her mouth!!! So 2 weeks before her 2nd birthday, she went to sleep with it and woke up without it. And that was it. She asked for it, we told her it was gone, she cried for about 20 minutes the first night and about 10 minutes the 2nd night and then she never mentioned it again. We didn't give in and she completely got over it. So I think the "right time" is different for everyone but when you do it, you should do it cold turkey. It's so easy to just give in, especially when they are freaking out, but stay strong and resist the temptation. You just need to be consistent and she'll get over it. Good luck!

 

[pinkflamingo]

we "lost" DS''s pacifier at a year. We just threw it out and told him we couldn''t find it. Apparently my parents did the same thing. Worked like a charm with me, and DS. LOL!

 

[mrssalvo]

well, my oldest used a paci for naps and night time until she was almost 3. It did not effect her teeth at all but boy was it difficult. she LOVED her paci''s. Finally we decided that it was time to give them to the tiny babies at church who needed them. She packaged them all up and decorated the box and took it to the nursery. Of course we pitched the box later b/c you can''t reuse the paci''s but my daughter really thought she was doing a generous thing and helping out a bunch of little babies. It was so heartbreaking for me to see her so upset and distraught that I went the other direction and didn''t use paci''s with my other 2 children

 

[TravelingGal]

My daughter was the same age as yours when we ditched hers. She also had the same amount of teeth - 4 top and bottom and 4 molars total. She also only took the paci at bedtime...we never had a kid who had a paci while awake during the day.

Interestingly, we didn''t have have to be TOTALLY consistent. We tried to be as consistent as possible when putting her to bed without it. But there was a phase where she freaked a bit about being put to bed so we did give it to her then. However, when she was sound asleep, we did pull it out of her mouth so she''d wake up without it.

Some nights she''d go to bed without it and then she''d wake up a bit later and we would pop it back in. But all in all, we tried to NOT give it to her whenever possible. Especially at naps - we were most successful then - she could go to sleep without it and wake up without it.

She got used to going to bed without it. And we got used to not giving it back to her if she woke up. This probably went on and off for a month and was totally low stress. Then the need for paci just stopped altogether. She''s been paci free for a few weeks now.

So I''d say keep on trying to not give it to her when she goes down, especially naps. But don''t feel bad if you have to use it. Just keep TRYING to get her to sleep without one, is all.

 

[drk]

Probably the earlier you get rid of it the better, but it''s probably still pretty normal for kids to have them till 1.5-2 years old, I think.
My parents made me throw mine in the garbage when I was little, I''m told. Must have been 18-24 months old, if I could understand enough to throw it in and wave bye-bye.
I''ve watched a few episodes of Supernanny where she was getting older kids (like 3 year olds who still ran around with the thing permanently in their mouths) to give up the pacifiers. Usually it involved child and siblings (if any) running around the house collecting all of them, putting them in some prettily decorated container, and putting it outside on the porch or hanging it from a tree for the "pacifairy", who would then pick them up overnight for the "other babies who need them more", and would leave a little gift for the kid in return. It seemed to work like a charm. Maybe tears the first night, then with reminders that the pacifairy needed them for other babies, they seemed to settle after that.
Maybe ask your pediatrician what they think about when''s an appropriate age to give it up?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

My daughter is 21 months and still going strong. She is in love with her "binks." It provides her comfort and me sanity. Not sure when the "right" age to take it away is. I am hoping like most things in life the day will come when it just seems right to take it away or for her to refuse it.

 

[packrat]

Trapper will be 2 1/2 next month-it''s time to take his away. I did get him into bed without it one night, but then after about 15 minutes he was knocking on his door, asking for it. When London says pacifier, it sounds like paci fai ah, so he calls it Ai ah. I hate to take it away from him b/c he loves it so much and it''s so soothing to him, but he''s old enough now, he needs to learn to soothe himself. He''s got 2 blankets he drags everywhere with him, so I''m hoping that will ease the transition. I wish sometimes I never gave it to him in the first place..I took London''s away at 6 months. We aren''t having any more kids, so I think I kinda spoil him.

Have you had any luck taking your daughter''s paci away Logan?

 

[Logan Sapphire]

I''m happy to report that Casey is now off the pacifier! We just had the one night of fuss, and that was it. She seems like she falls asleep faster without it, though she also seems a bit more fidgety too. Hopefully we''re done for good

 

[Jas12]

Co is 16 mos now and once he hit about 6 months, has only used his paci for sleep time. He knows to throw it back into his crib when he wakes up and we''ve never had an issue with this.
We just started the sleep-paci weaning process and i have given in a few times. Seems to be a similar process as Tgal''s experience with Amelia. Some naps are fine, but night time is when he really wants it. Hoping it will be over with by the end of the month!

 

[anchor31]

This is kind of funny for me, because my mother told me that my sister and I were huge pacifier addicts. I think we were about 2 when my parents decided enough was enough, and what they did was cut little bits off it every once in a while, until there was nothing left. That was the end of that. Sneaky mommy...

 

[DiamanteBlu]

When DD was small [maybe 2 or 3 or so - maybe even 4] I was worried that she was not giving up her bottle and/or pacifier. At that point, my father told me that when he was 6, his mother would send him down to the store [in Italy]to buy his own pacifier because he still was using one! LOL!

He eventually gave it up. To this day, I have never seen him sucking on a pacifier!

Apparently the pacifier use had no negative impact on his becoming a well known scientist, professor and consultant. He has done very well . . .

Bottom line: Don''t get sick over it. When she is ready she will give it up.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 8/10/2009 7:50:16 PM
Author: Logan Sapphire
I''m happy to report that Casey is now off the pacifier! We just had the one night of fuss, and that was it. She seems like she falls asleep faster without it, though she also seems a bit more fidgety too. Hopefully we''re done for good

Congrats!!! I was just posting (and just deleted) about how we did the cold turkey method with my son and there were a few days of crying and then he completely forgot about it. He endulged in it for a number of years - maybe 3 or 4 before we took it away. It''s horrifying when looking back through baby pictures and see nearly every one of his toddler pictures includes him either sucking on it or carrying it around in his hand.

 

[atroop711]

a pacifier is a soothing method for so many kids. I may be in the minority but I don't think there's anything wrong with a pacifier for a 14mo child. My oldest child had hers for a while and was addicted. I did limit the pacifier (when she could understand) for naps and sleeping (kept it in the crib). It was hard to get my older child off of it since she really was addicted to it's comfort (I was the same as a child my mom said)...so I used a scare tactic (

) and it worked. She had prickly heat on her cheeks once day (she was 3yr old) and I blamed it on the pacifier. She gave it up then and there...never looked back.

My 2nd daughter never used it but was a finger sucker...that's harder to stop...can't get rid of the fingers

My son is 9mo and uses it for sleeping but can take it or leave it. I'm not going to stop it anytime soon but will use his cues on readiness.

As for teeth...my daughter used it for 3 yrs and has amazing teeth...no issue there

It all depends on the kid. Some love it some don't care if they have it.

 

[Sharon101]

Date: 8/13/2009 8:00:23 AM
Author: atroop711
a pacifier is a soothing method for so many kids. I may be in the minority but I don''t think there''s anything wrong with a pacifier for a 14mo child. My oldest child had hers for a while and was addicted. I did limit the pacifier (when she could understand) for naps and sleeping (kept it in the crib). It was hard to get my older child off of it since she really was addicted to it''s comfort (I was the same as a child my mom said)...so I used a scare tactic (

) and it worked. She had prickly heat on her cheeks once day (she was 3yr old) and I blamed it on the pacifier. She gave it up then and there...never looked back.

My 2nd daughter never used it but was a finger sucker...that''s harder to stop...can''t get rid of the fingers

My son is 9mo and uses it for sleeping but can take it or leave it. I''m not going to stop it anytime soon but will use his cues on readiness.

As for teeth...my daughter used it for 3 yrs and has amazing teeth...no issue there

It all depends on the kid. Some love it some don''t care if they have it.

LOL, I did the same. Let my kids have pacifier till they weaned off themselves. My daughter however was and still is addicted. She is almost 7 and still talks about the good old times when she was allowed to have the dummy! I also tricked her that some rash etc was from the dummy germs!!!!

We also had a big performance from a special babysitter who wrote her a book with pictures about how the dummy fairy wanted all of her dummies for the fairy babies. That worked for awhile. But like a land mine site our house had 100`s of hidden dummies that she would keep finding for years!!!! I cant tell you how many times we paid her or bought her the special gift to celebrate the end of the dummies!!!!

What has helped these days is a special (baby) blanket that has a silky backing that we bought specifically for her to suck. It`s her dummy blankie. The urge to suck is very strong in some kids. Some suck their thumbs even in utero!

And yes, we do have some upper arch deformity with an open bite consistent with sucking dummies! It is resolving now that she hasnt had a dummy for about a year. The other problem from the open bite was that she had a speach impediment which also caused her to not be able to read. ie if you cant say certain sounds it effects your ability to have phenemic awareness. Its all resolving now though! But something to keep in mind.

 

[packrat]

When we took London''s pacifier away, she started using her stuffed duck. She sucked on the point of the wings..ugh that thing was sooo nasty. The dentist said it was starting to push her front teeth forward, so one day we realized Ducky had "owie wings" and daddy had to do surgery on him so he''d be ok. She wasn''t very happy about it, but she didn''t want Ducky to be sick, so off came the wings. She was about 3 1/2 I think, and had been a wing sucker for about 3 years or so. She got used to not having the wings fairly quickly-we were surprised it went so well. Maybe b/c she was older and able to understand things a little more? She still sleeps with Ducky at night.

 

[VRBeauty]

Date: 8/12/2009 6:03:50 PM
Author: anchor31
This is kind of funny for me, because my mother told me that my sister and I were huge pacifier addicts. I think we were about 2 when my parents decided enough was enough, and what they did was cut little bits off it every once in a while, until there was nothing left. That was the end of that. Sneaky mommy...

LOL!

 

[packrat]

Took Trapper''s pacifier away today. I wanted to make a "clean" break and snag it before he got up so it was just gone. However...at 6:00 this am he was knocking on his door wanting to get up. We did some errands this am, and he took it out to drink some milk so I hid it. Getting him down for his nap wasn''t so much fun..he cried (and screamed and hollered "mooooom..mooooommmmyyy pleeeease" for about 20 minutes. He slept for about an hour, and now I can hear him crying again. I feel so bad for him..he''ll get used to it I know, but jeez it makes a mommy feel bad!