Getting Rid of the Pacifier - Raymore, MO

I will be honest I did not read all the replies that you got.
What I did was when my daughter was 3 and after her baby brother was born (so she was more like 3 and a half) I took her to Build a Bear at the St. Louis Zoo. She got to choose her own animal and make it then at the very end before the girafe was sewn up she put her binki in it. You can still feel where the binki is in the girafe and it is 2 years old now. It is a special girafe that she does not have to share with anyone.
The first night went so so. She wanted her binki however it was in the girafe and we found it together and she held onto the girafe right where it was until she fell asleep. It was a rough go the first couple of nights but she got over it and she still gives the girafe a hug every now and then when she is down.

B.,

I simply told my 2-year-old that she needed to throw it into the garbage, and we walked over to the garbage can together. That way she thought she had control of the situation, and she never asked for it again. Good luck.

My son who is now 2 1/2 was still taking his pacifier after his second birthday so one day I gathered up all the pacifiers that I had in the house and I got rid of all of them but one. The one I took and put liquid soap on and sat it on the table or somewhere where I knew that he would find it. When he picked it up and put it in his mouth he immediately took it out and told me that it was yucky. I told him that if it was yucky then he needed to through it away. I had his go follow me to the trash and then he was the one that actually throw it away. There were times for the next week or so that he would ask about his pacifier and I would just say remember YOU through it way becuase it was yucky. After about a week of asking occasionally I never had another problem with it again. Actually he found one about a month later and he just brought it to me and said mommy throw it away they are yucky. He just remembered.

Hi B.,

We had the same issue with our son but he was around 2 1/2. The trick that worked for us was to tell him that he had to donate all his pacifiers to babies who needed it. We did it right around christmas time so instead of leaving cookies and milk for Santa, we offered up a plate of pacifiers. Worked like a charm and he has never asked since. :)

Good luck.

I lucked out BIG time with my daughter. I actually lost all five binkies I had for her. I told her that I was sorry but they were gone. She helped me look for them (even in her hiding spots), when we did not find them, she sighed, and went to go play!
Other suggestions I was told to try was to maybe have your child give the binkie to the Easter Bunny (for example) so he can give it to another baby who needs it.

B.,
I can't wait to read the responses to your question. My son will be two in two weeks and I am having the same problem. He is definitely my last child and I seem to baby him more. I guess I feel like that is the last thing that is keeping him my baby. Good Luck!

Good Morning B., I have heard that you clip the end off the passie a little at a time. It gives them no satisfaction then. Other then that I have no idea. Our boys just played with them never really used them to pacify themselves. One had a squeeky in the base of it and he would chew on that to make it squeek.

Good Luck B.
K. Nana of 5

B.,
My oldest had one specific pacifier that he liked. It got lost one day. He would not take any of the others. He fussed for one day and then he was over it. Maybe it was just a fluke thing but maybe cold turkey will work for you too.

We "left" ours on vacation. When we got home from our last vacation, my daughter fell asleep that night without it, so I decided if she could do it once, she could always do it. So I found all of them and threw them away. Then the next day when she asked for one, I just told her that we must have left them on vacation. It wasn't too hard at all (not nearly what I had anticipated, anyway). Wishing you lots of luck, as this one can be hard.

To me cutting the end sounds dangerous. Both of my girls had pacifiers and I got them where they only had them when they napped or slept at night only and then you can try forgetting to give it to her every know and then until you think she might be ready and then just quit giving her one. You want her to be ready too and just remember to hide them all so she doesn't happen to find one when you don't want her to have one. And if you take it away for more than a day or two and she was fine don't give in when she asks for one later because it will only be worse to take it away the next time. Good Luck

We're in the middle of this too - my daughter is 18 months. My doctor recommended using scissors to SLIT the end of her binkies (as opposed to the other idea of cutting the tip off) to make the suction not work anymore. She said it would be 3 really hard days and then she'd be over it. I like the idea of it because to the baby, the binky is "broken" and it's not Mommy and Daddy taking it away from her. So we tried this, and she had zero problem at bedtime but threw a MASSIVE FIT at naptime...she kept looking at it and trying to suck on it and just getting really mad at it. Now, she still gets it at bedtime and naptime, but she mostly just holds it. The doc said this is okay...it's the suction that hurts the teeth. Good luck!

Have you heard of the Pacifier Fairy (from Supernanny)? Have her put her pacifiers into a large envelope and address it to the fairy (the fairy needs all the pacifiers she can get for all the newborn babies). Tell her the fairy leaves surprises for big girls and boys who donate their pacifiers. Hang the envelope at the front door and after she goes to bed, sneak a surprise thank-you gift into it from the fairy. I never knew of this little technique when my daughter was little, but I plan on trying it with my grand kids in about 15 years. LOL!
Good luck!
Angie

We gave all our pacifiers to a friend having a new baby. We washed the pacifiers and put them in a nice box to give away. My friend threw them away for me and my son never knew.

maybe i look too deeply into this.. i think it's a life skill ,best when learned early, to self-sooth. and cold turkey is the way too start learning this! there's my cent and a half... good luck and let us know... meg

We went cold turkey about 18 months, and the first nap was living hell! But he only cried for about 1 hour! HARD! That night, he didn't even ask for it. He never asked for it again, EVER! And he was a 24/7 kinda sucker.

His baby sister was born a few months later, and he never even put the thing in his mouth, kept saying, NO for BABY! So...I say cold turkey. Just understand it is HARD not for the child, but YOU. YOU can't pacify them that easily now. YOU have to work harder to calm them down, YOU have to be ready. They will adjust, you have to be strong!

GL!

My aunt first tried cutting the paci a little at a time until it isn't very good to suck on and the theory is they will just throw it out. This didn't work on my cousin, but it did on other kids in the family. What she eventually did was have her donate the pacis to the baby animals at the zoo. They found a keeper at her favorite animals cage/home and they had the pacis in a baggie and she gave them to the keeper who told her they would go to the baby animals who need them very much because they were babies and she's a big girls. Hopefully one of these two ideas will help. Good luck!

Hi, B.,
cutting it off didn't really work for us, and then I got a little weird thinking of all of the stuff that could grow in the inside of one of those with little holes or rips, so didn't push it. My daughter was a little older (sigh...), so we had a really simple sticker chart...one line for when she could go a morning from wake-up till drop off @ day care, one line for when she didn't need it in the afternoon (this was the first row filled up!), and one for making it at night. That one was tough. But anyway, when it was filled, she was allowed to go "buy" something with her old pacifier (we always only had 1 @ a time). She went to Au Marche & picked out some yummy lip balm. I told the cashier ahead of time what was happening, assured her that I'd sanitized the pac. & paid for the lip balm when my daughter wasn't looking. Then when she'd picked out what she wanted, she paid for it with the pacifier. The next couple of nights were a little rough, but she knew that it was gone because she'd given it to the store clerk. Now she doesn't even remember that she ever had one.

I eased mine into it, but it was still tough. I'd suggest speeding up the process more and getting it over quickly. They are attached to these things & they're important to them, but we need to help them rip that bandaid off so they can move on. GOOD LUCK! I have known kids to change their behavior for even several weeks after this if it was a tough transition for them, but it doesn't mean they need to go back to the bink...
G

The Paci-Fairy came to our house and left a beautiful dress up dress. We wore the dress for two days straight it reminded us that we were big and did not need a paci any more. The Paci-Fairy took all the paci's to the hospital for brand new babies that were born and needed them. Before she came we talked about it for weeks and her big sisters were involved and we talked about how exciting it is that she would come and leave a special present just for her. Good Luck.

We stuck a pin in the pacifier, removed all the gel, washed it real good and put it back into the crib with my sleeping daughter. When she awoke and tried to use it, it wouldn't work. She knew it was her pacifier and tried to suck on it but since it wouldn't work she fretted and then put it aside. Success.

I also recommend the "paci fairy" idea. Since you have older girls, maybe you can make a project out of it? Approach your daughter with the idea and tell her how important it is to be a big girl and help out the babies who still need that stuff. Address a big envelope to the fairy, let her help loading it up with ALL the pacifiers and put it in the mailbox. The next day remind her that the fairy sent her a big surprise to thank her for donating her pacis to all the babies who need it. (You can decorate the return envelope, fill it up with "fairy dust") and make a big deal out of the "gift". Then anytime she asks for the paci, remind her of the big girl gift she has instead of the baby stuff. I wish I'd had this idea when I was going cold turkey!

Cold turkey...

I babysit for a mom and her son is 2. She told me to get rid of all of the pacifiers that she gave me "in case" he wanted them. He never did. He hadn't had one for over a week and one day he came to my house with one in his mouth. Mom said he was crying for one...and she gave in after going for over a week. Funny tho, he didn't ask me for it the whole day!! Gotta be tuff and not give in once you take it away. They get over it within a day or two and so what if they cry. They won't cry all day and night for it. Maybe give them a blanket to hold and get attached it it, or a new grown up toy!

Ok.. . This worked great for my son. we had several pacis and one day, one of his got a whole in it. You of course can cause the whole. Then I said it was broken and we had to throw it away. I had him do it. A week later, I cut a slit down the middle. and we repeated the process. Now we had to wait seral more weeks (we went to Disney and I was not about to make him give it up until we got home : ) Then I split the last one - any others I threw away myself. He noticed it was broken and told me he had to throw it away. I told him it was the last one. And he threw it away again. (A friend of mine did the same thing with her daughter and she kept the broken one for a couple of days) He asked for it for about 2 more days. I told him "remember you threw it away because it was broken?" He says, "OK". And that was the end of i. Make sure at this point you have searched your house. If she finds one, you will have to repeat the end process. Good luck!

We had trouble with this with my daughter and her cousin. Try cutting off the tips of them. It worked for us pretty well. If she only uses it at bedtime this should be pretty easy. If she is an all day user try to wean it down to just bedtime at first and them completly get rid of it. Good Luck!

Hi B.
When we were trying to get rid of our daughters pacifier, I cut the nipple area off as close to the base as I could so there was nothing left to suck. I did this when she was asleep for the night. And then I left them all where they had been in the crib, car and all over the house and when she found them she brought them to us and asked what was wrong and we told her that it meant they are no longer good to use and they must be broke, she would try to suck them to no avail and that was all it took to break her of them,after the first day or two she helped us toss them in the trash. Good luck!

I slowly reduce. At around 1.5 yrs my son came to know his paci as a Night Night, because h only got it when he went to bed. We had prebedtime, prenaptime rituals of reading a book & after he was done with that, he was allowe his Paci. I'm doing the same for my daughter right now & it seems to be working.
When they're old enough to change the room, move, or upgrade beds, I would state.. OK, now we don't need the night night anymore because we have: new bed, new room etc. Also, mine both have a comfort animal they may use only in bed. (for my son it was a panda that at 4.5 we left somewhere & he forgot about, for my daughter, its her daddy monkey, that has daddy's voice because he's deployed & YES, she's still very attached to it). So, they would eventually gain something new & lose their paci, but not their complete comfort. During the first couple nights I would pat them, but then, it was time to be done.
Not sure if this makes much sense, or would help, but it works for me & its too early in the morning to make much sense... sorry. Good Luck!

What we did with both my kids was wean them off slowly where they had it at nap and bed time only, then only at bed time. My daughter was a little harder to break so we finally cut the end off with her watching then gave it to her to try and use it then when it didn't work she threw it away..with my son him and my hubby were playing tug of war with it ( it was on a laniard) and the paci part fell off in my hubby's hand and my son was told it broke and he was fine with that. Most important in which method you try be consistent.

Our dog chewed up the paci, and that worked perfectly. We had others, but thats the one that we offered her whenever she wanted it. Of course she didn't want it anymore. I have friends that have cut the tip off, and the child eventually decides that it doesn't work, and doesn't want it. You might be saying goodbye to naps though. THat was our big problem. Good luck.

Hi, I'm in the same situation you are in! My son is 2 1/2 and still uses his pacifier. I have thought about going "cold turkey" and being over and done with it. He is always asking for binky, it's so sweet, and I don't have the heart to take it away just yet...sure it helps him sleep and calms him down when he's fussing, and that's the main reason we've kept it around so long. He's my only child of 3 that took the pacifier, so I'm not sure what to do either. I'm hoping you get some responses that have worked, I'll be reading them!
Take care,
V.

Well, here's what worked for me. I took all my daughter's pacifiers away except one and made sure she knew she had the very last one. Then about two - three days later I cut a small hole in that one, the taste was so bad she threw it away herself.

I hope this helps.

R.

My son loved his paci - he only slept with it but it was his security. Anyway, we set a date that the "paci fairy" would be coming to take all of the pacis to give to other babies to use. Then the fairy left a gift(s) in place of that to open the following morning. That morning he was so excited about the gifts and couldn't believe that the fairy came into his room without him knowing. :) He actually did really well with this and was sad that day for a short time and has been good ever since. I have a friend that did the same thing for her daughter and it worked as well. You may have a couple of nights of asking for it, etc... but if you stick to it they'll forget it before long. Good luck...

My daught didnt have a binky until she was 18, got really sick and her dad gave it to her, because he didnt know how else to make her stop crying. It took another 5months to get it away. Basically I just let her have it when she slept, nap, bedtime, or in the car. Just the past week, I told her she was to big to have it, even at night. I just took them all and hid them. In the morning she still looks for it and wants it or if she finds one, hell breaks lose. But I just stuck to my gun and didnt sleep for three nights. But the end result, she's binky free. So I would say either try just at night or cold turkey. I have heard cuting off the ends work. But if it doesnt work, then you have a bunch of binkyless binkys, and might have to go buy more.

We just got rid of the pacifier for my 2 year old daughter. We were at the point for the last 5 months where she could only have it in her crib. I had thought of different ideas like "giving" it to our next door neighbor's baby, tying it to a balloon and letting it float away to the "binky fairy" who collects them up in the clouds, or cutting the tip off. However, we ended up not doing any of these. I saw her one day offering it to her baby doll. I asked her if it now belonged to her baby and she said yes. When she went to bed that night and asked for it, I reminded her that now it was her baby's and she was ok with that and baby slept with the binky on the floor next to her crib. The next day she noticed that it was slightly ripped (she must have chewed on it recently and tore it with her teeth) and showed me that it was broken. She then threw it away because it was broken. She did ask for it for a couple of days but when reminded that she had thrown it away - she had this look of "oh yeah, that's right". She now plays with a few toys in her crib before falling asleep, but plays quietly or looks through a book. It was easier than I had thought it would be.
When my now 4 year old was 2, we had been on vacation at Grandma and Grandpa's house in MN and when we came home I told her that we had forgot it at Grandma's. For 6 months she continued to remind me that Grandma had her binky but only wimpered one night for it.

I had trouble with my second child loving the pacifier and not getting rid of it. A friend told me to start cutting it down until it is no use any more. So I tried it, having at least one still intact for backup. My child hated the broken one. She screamed and cried for the pacifier. I told her this is the only one I have. She looked at it, said, "It broken." and threw it across the room. That was it. She asked for it for maybe two days at nap time and bed time and then that was it. We regressed when the baby was born but cut it and it was gone again. Good luck.

You might think about including the 2 year old in the process. Point out that it is getting old. What could replace it? A new cuddly stuffed animal to sleep with, etc. My daughter cut off the pacifier part and so it was not very soothing and then had her 2 year olds throw it away. Just some ideas.

With my oldest we used the Pacifier Fairy story. It is a story I found online. He was at the point that we were only giving it to hime at naptime and at bedtime. One morning I snuck into his room before he was awake and took his pacifier, (it was always out of his mouth) and I left a note and money. The note was from the Pacifier Fairy, she told him that he was no longer a baby and didn't need the pacifier anymore. She was taking his pacifier to a baby that needed it. She then wrote that because he was such a big boy that she was leaving him some money and wanted him to take it and pick out a new toy because he no longer had a pacifier. At first he was not happy but then we started talking about what he was going to get with is money. I mentioned things that I knew he would want. The first night w/o it was a little rough but not bad. When he did ask for it I would just remind him that the fairy took it to a baby that needed it and that he was not a baby anymore, and then would remind him what he bought because he didn't have the pacifier anymore.

Hi B., I would tell your daughter that all the new little babies in heaven need her binkies because they are about to be born. Since she's a big girl now, she does not need it any longer. You could tie it to a few balloons (something cheap from the dollar store) and send the binkies to heaven. I know it sounds like goofy, but it really worked! Then may reward her by going to the store and buying alittle comfort toy or bear. So when she feels she needs alittle comfort she can go get her new "binkie bear" to snuggle with. My son never did take a binkie so I was lucky enough NOT to have to go through this part, but the bottle part was alittle tougher but we made it through within a few days. But my girlfriend has used this method with two of her babies and it works great!! Anyway good luck!!

I have a daughter that is now 6yrs old. We had a terrible time getting rid of the pacifier. In fact she was almost 3yrs old. We finally bribed her into getting rid of it. It was a new bike if she threw the pacifier away. We took her to the store picked out a great Little Ponys bike and told her we would be more than happy to buy it as soon as she got rid of the "binkie". Within a weeks time she actually took the pacifier to the trash can herself and said bye bye binkie. We went and bought her bike that same day!!

Good Luck!!!

I thought I did a good job, and my seventh grader told me she had hidden them all over the house and would suck on them until she was about 4, so I have no advice, except make sure you've got them all!

I know this is a late response, but we found a trick that really worked with our son. We started this at two. We told him the only place he was allowed to have his paci was in his room. Every single time he left his room, we would return him to his room. He took to it like a game and it did take a few days, but he got the point. Then slowly I would take his toys out of his room so he no longer wanted to play in his room as much. Then we added another big boy rule that the paci was only allowed in his bed. So if he really needed it, he could ist in his bed or at night. That really worked. He is now 3 and we leave it in his bed for comfort, but he never uses it. OUr next step is to just lose it. We took a different approach and put him in charge. Our son does much better with things like that when he feels he is in charge of the situation (within reason). Good luck,

we were out of town and when we got home we quickly cut up all of the pacifiers and my son thought some one broke them all! So he threw them away... - it took 2 nights of some crying but then it was over

I don't know if this will work for your situation or not but what I did was...

A few months before my "deadline" for getting rid of the pacifier was to leave it in my daughters bed when she got up so it was only linked with naps or nighttime sleeping. Then shortly after she turned 2, we made a really big deal about being a big girl. We really focused on things that big girls do and don't do, i.e., "big girls don't use paci's and big girls sleep in really cool big girl beds", etc. We got rid of the security blanket at the same time. My daughter was really receptive and postive about the whole situation...didn't seem to have any negative impact on her at all.

Good luck!

Hi B., I have a couple of idea's that worked for me and my sister. I have 3 children, ages 12, 8, and 4. When I was ready to get rid of the binky's, that is what we called them, I took all the binky's in the house and took a pair of sizzers and cut the very tip of all of them off and them placed them back were I found them. When the child would ask for his or her binky I just gave it to them as I always did, and acted normal. They would look at me funny, and hand it back to me and tell me it was broken. I tried to act surprised and said I would get them a new one, and they did the same thing. When we went through all of the binky's in the house I told them that they must be a big girl or boy and did not need them anymore, because binky's were only good for babies. It worked like a charm.
My sister just told her children that they were too old for binky's and when the last one got lost that she was not going to buy anymore. They held on tight to the last one for quite a while, but when it was gone she kept her promise. This seemed to work pretty well also. Good luck and God Bless, C. F

Both of my daughters had binkys. With my oldest we just decided one day was the day, took it away and we were done with it. She cried a few nights and during naps, but it only lasted a brief time. Over a month after taking it away a friend had a newborn with the same kind of pacifier (the soothie kind) and my daughter was DYING to have it. She finally completely forgot about it.

With my youngest daughter, we took it away a few months ago. She was over two and was beginning to rely on it a lot more. I have always been a stickler about only at nap and bedtime, and in the car, but she was wanting it more and more. What I found though, was she was only wanting it if she found it. If she didn't find it she was fine. If she asked us about it, we'd just say we didn't know where her binky was. One day I decided we were going to try it for bedtime. She cried for maybe 10 minutes, but slept through the night fine. Naptime the next day was the same. It took her about a week before she stopped asking about it at all, but it was only a few days that she cried for it and the crying never lasted long.

I think it is just something you have to committ to doing and make sure you remove all binkys from the house or out of sight in order to do it. Stay strong!!! But remember, no one goes to kindergarten with a binky.

Well I had to go through the same thing with my first daughter and now with my 18 month old. Depending on how often your baby sucks the pacifier throughout the day is how difficult it may be to get rid of it. I just started taking it away from my daughter as soon as she woke up in the morning and she didn't see it again until night time because that was the hardest time and plus I wanted to get some sleep. So after a week of that I then I told her that we would have tell the binky bye bye and after about 3 days I just threw them away. She cried for about 3 consecutive nights but after that she didn't ask about the pacifier anymore and she went to sleep on her own without it.

My son was 2 we we got rid of the pacifier. I asked my Parent's as Teachers Lady what some of the ways were we could eliminate the paci. I used the method of of cutting the tip of it, I told him it was broken. I knew that he would understand if I told him that it was broken, and wouldn't work any more. I cut all the paci. at night, except the one he slept with the night before. I did th

Hi B.,

I don't have any kids that took a pacifier (one has her thumb - we get to tackle that soon!), but others in my family have and my Grandma always tells them to put it on the pacifier train. She would tell kids that the pacifier train was coming and that she's putting the pacifier on it. And when they are asleep she'd gather up all the pacifiers and get rid of them. Then when the kid woke up well he missed seeing the train and it took all his pacifiers. She said that you have to make it clear that they are all gone (and it works best if they really are since you can't give in if you have nothing to give) and be tough! Good luck!!

Cold turkey worked best for us! I tried the cut the tips off and it didn't help.
You might let her "give away" her pacis to a baby?

One night my friend left all of the pacifiers out for the "Paci Fairy" and the paci fairy came and took the pacis to little babies that needed them and left her a little suprise. Kind of like the tooth fairy. Super Nanny did this too.

Hi B.,

When my son was 2 yrs old we cut the pacifier so that he was not able to suck on it. When he tried to put it in his mouth he looked at us puzzled...we told him his "bink" must be "broken". It worked- he threw the pacifier in the trash and didn't ask for it again. Hope this info helps!

For me cold turkey was the best way to go. It was tuff for only a few days and then it was OVER. I saw on Super Nanny an idea where you gather all of them up and put them in a bag. Take your daughter outside and put the bag under a tree. Tell her the pacifier fairy will come and pick them up to give them to babies who need them, tell her that the fairy will leave a special "big girl" gift if she is willing to give them to the fairy. In the morning take her outside where you left the bag and have something fun waiting for her. Maybe something she really really likes or some kind of big girl thing. I loved this idea and wished I had seen it before I had to cold turkey the binkey :)

I was told this by a pediatrician. Put away all pacifiers but one. Using scissors, cut the tip off the last pacifier. Give it to your child as usual. Make sure there aren't any sharp edges that would injure your child. Cut a little off the end every few days, but don't let your child see you do it. After a week or so, your child should have lost interest. Good luck!