Good Bye Paci!

I wouldn't do two large changes simultaneously. Wait for a while after the bed change; she'll lose interest in the paci after a while.

I would suggest doing one thing at a time. If you tell her she can't have the pacifier in the new bed, she won't want to sleep in the new bed so she can keep the pacifier. As long as she's only using it to sleep, I'd let her keep it until she's ready to give it up.

I am currently in the same situation and my sister told me to use the binky fairy. She recently did it with her daughter and they told her that other babies needed her binky now that she was a big girl and they put it in a box under her pillow and the binky fairy came and took it that night and left her a new stuffed animal. I have not tried it yet because I just had baby #2 and do not want too much change for my 2 yr old, but I am approaching this situation.

do you have a friend with a baby? we gave our paci's to baby jeffrey. she's been paci-free for about 3 months and now doesn't ask for it or miss it at all.

build-a-bear puts pacis inside teddy bears. so they can still sleep with it... brilliant!

the big bed will be transition enough, i think that you shouldn't do them both at the same time-- she'll probably hate the big bed if it's related to taking away her pacifier.

some people clip the tips so they pacifiers don't "work" anymore, then the kid throws it out on their own.

My daughter was 2 when we got rid of hers. It was time b/c her teeth I was afraid was going to go out. I took her to the store and let HER pick out a balloon to put the paci on and send up to sky. SO at that time she was into Princess and she got that balloon so we put it on the end and we did a count down and we sent it up and she was excited saying BYE enjoy your new home lol. We did put her in her big girl bed after that PLUS we got her a fav plush animal to sleep with and it helped her out. She did ask for it for a couple of days but no big deal for her we said remember you sent it to a new child that needed it OH that it right she would say. Might want to try that and see if it helps OH BUT before we did all that I did cut the tip off to wear she could not suck on it just rub on her face like she would do. Then I would cut a lil more off to where there was nothing OH she did not like that lol. That was per the Doctor to get rid of it b/c she was due to get it gone. I see kids with them that are like 4 or 5 WHAT get that OUT of their mouth WAY to old for a darn paci that is for sure especially in public lol.. Good luck...

My twin girls are going to be three in February.... and they LOVE their "mimi". We started telling them that we are going to leave all of our mimi's for Santa (instead of cookies), and Santa will bring them presents while they are sleeping. I started telling them this about two weeks ago.... so taht they can get used to it. We'll see if it works!

Lately I had the thought that adults are always in such a hurry to take away the comforts of children. How would we like it if we were denied our comforts? Adults smoke, chew gum, drink coffee and tea and alcohol, eat chocolate and ice cream, religiously carry a purse (substitute for favorite "lovey"?) and lipstick, etc... I even still cried on my Raggedy Ann doll once in awhile as an adult. Be mindful of your child's feelings and needs. I see no harm in her still using the paci at this age. A kindergartener I once knew still used them, but not at school. Kids outgrow these things when they are ready. Who are we to fail to respect their individuality? We need to stop hurrying our children. That's my philosophical musing for the day... Blessings, R.

I had 3 kids to take Paci's away from. My first was almost 4 when I finally got it away from her. The other ones 2 & 3. With the younger two, I had them put ALL their Paci's under their pillow and had the "Paci Fairy" come take them away. In exchange, the "Paci Fairy" came and left them money so they could go buy a new toy. I think at that time I left them 50 cents per paci. It wasn't much but it did the trick and I never heard another word about it. I wish I had done that with my older child as well. They are now 17, 18, & 23.

GOOD LUCK & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The paci is a much better solution than finger - if you take it away before she is ready to give it up, you will have to deal with thumb/finger sucking (that will cause damage to the teeth). If it is only at night, it is probably a security thing. Maybe if you offer a night lite or another solution such as a special friend (stuffed animal) as an alternative you can get her away from the paci.

At first we only used the Paci for sleeping...but then all of the sudden it turned into a wanting it all the time thing...this happened after her first birthday. Well, sometime around the 20 month old mark I decided we needed to start weaning her off of it. I hid most of the paci's and cut about half of the tips off of 2 of them. The first time she put it in her mouth she took it out and looked at it with this hysterical look on her face. She put it back in and soon started loosing interest in it. It was less than a week and she was completely off of the paci.

She's been off of the paci now for about 6 months and only occassionally will she ask for a paci...we call it a nuk (nook)...and she'll out of the blue say nuky (nooky) and I say you don't use nuky's...what are you talking about...your silly and that's it - it's over with. That's just happened 2 or 3 times in 6 months...not bad :-)

I was surprised that this worked so well...but very pleased. I did notice that the first time I cut some of the tip off I didn't cut enough because she was still able to suck on it/chew on it pretty well...but when I cut a bit more off, it was perfect :-)

Also - I almost forgot. We introduced a new comfort item for her. It was a beany baby stuffed kitty cat. Not too big, not too tiny...perfect for a bed time companion. She did carry it around with her a lot for the first few months...but now she just sleeps with her Mow-Mow and doesn't need to take him everywhere.

I hope this information helps :-)

We're probably "against the grain" on this one. I have a 5 year old that only wants the nuk/pacifier either at night when she sleeps or if she's very upset (which is happening less frequently). That's the only time she wants it, and since the occasions that she wants it are reducing in frequency, we really haven't pushed it.

My sister has a 4, and 6 year old, and last year, they gave their nuks to Santa. That seemed to work pretty well for them.

Or you could take another route - when she goes to her big girl bed, let her know in advance that when she goes to her big girl bed, then no more nuks, and make a ceremony of it and have her help you throw them away.

Good luck!

Is she excited about the big girl bed? You could start by telling her that big girls in big girl beds don't use binkies--see how she feels about that. She may stop on her own.

We just transitioned my two year old into a big girl bed and a new room (shared with her sister) and ditched the bink all in one night! We used the method where we cut a hole in the tip of the nipple and then gradually cut it back (we started this transition a few months ago). This worked like a charm with my older daughter. She had about half the nipple left when we moved her into her new room. The first night, she announced that big girls don't use binkies and threw the binky down into the hallway. For the life of us, we could not find it, so that was the end of the binky. Needless to say, she changed her mind about the binky later that night.

She was a serious binkaholic, and I truly felt she would go to college with it. However, it was really only one night of crying until 11 pm--then, she slept through the night. The next few naps had a difficult start, but she did eventually sleep. The only real difference is that it took her longer to fall asleep without it.

Good luck!

When our son was 2, the paci fairy came to visit. We (my son included) tied the paci to a tree branch one night and the next morning it was gone, there was fairy dust everywhere and a small gift for him. He loved it and was only upset for a couple days when he had to go to sleep without the paci.

We also got rid of our daughter's pacifier when she was two. I would do it now and not along with the transition to a big girl bed. Too many new things at once may backfire. We had baby #2 three weeks after my daughter turned two. We waited a few weeks and moved her to her big girl bed. Then we waited for about a month before we took away the pacifier. She used it only at night and nap time. We went cold turkey on it. It was rough for about three days and then she was fine. Good luck with the transition.

you need to take it away. If you don't her permanent teeth are going to be messed up.

Let's look at the big picture and all the changes she will be facing:
-getting rid of a security object (the pacifier)
-moving to a regular bed
-having another sibling in 6 months

Whatever you do, make sure you strategically plan each of these events so that all three don't happen at once and she has 3 major adjustments to make.

Our son, who isn't quite yet 2, still takes a pacifier at night. Over the holiday break we plan on discontinuing use of the pacifier cold turkey (we chose the holiday break because I won't be working and can afford to have some rough nights if screaming ensues). We've also been weaning him onto a few comfort items at night: he clutches his Elmo doll when he falls asleep, he has his favorite blanket, and we introduced a pillow when we saw that he was using a Snoopy doll as a pillow for a week straight. We're not going to make a big deal at all about the pacifier; he doesn't need one at naptime so we plan on just putting him to bed without it.

My youngest son is the only one out of all 4 who ever took a paci. He'll be 2 next week, and I still haven't taken it away. But when I do, I have a great plan that my best girlfriend used with all 4 of her binky lovers! First, you snip off the tip of the paci. This will make it kind of yucky, but they usually will still take it. A couple of days later snip off a little bit more. Every couple of days snip of just a little more and a little more. Eventually they are gripping onto that paci with all of their might, until finally it's just too yucky, and hardly any nipple is left at all, and they give it up all on their own. =)

Good luck!

Just did this w/ 2 y/o, so check it out:
My daughter's usually was only taking binky when sleeping, and her "2" BD was coming up, so I decided to be done w/ it at that point. I started by telling her every night, a couple months before her BD, that "When you turn 2, binky goes bye-bye b/c you're a big girl." We had fun w/ this; I'd ask her "What does binky go bye-bye?" and she'd say "2!" or "What happens when you turn 2?" and she'd say "Binky bye-bye."
I really made a big deal of it and she understood what it meant; we'd tell other people about it and she was pretty ready by the time it came.
(note: we actually did away with it a couple weeks before BD b/c she got a rash around her mouth that was slobber-related, and it hurt her, so I told her no more binky b/c it was hurting her mouth. I couldn't believe when we had no issues getting rid of it! She'd ask on occasion and I'd say "binky went bye bye b/c it hurt your mouth." That was it!) I think preparation is key.
Best of luck!

My daughter is 2 1/2 and just gave up her paci 2 months ago. I myself had asked for advice on saying goodbye to the paci because she too only used it to sleep. I finally decided there were other things to worry about and wanted her to be a part of the decision to give it up. I lucked out because one day she got mad and went and threw it in the trash. I watched her do this and told her if she left it in the trash then all the pacis were gone bye bye. Well, we waved at the trashman the next day and no turning back. She cried at nap time the next day for about 10 minutes and hardly mentioned it again. I think that it really helped that I expressed over and over again that she chose to do this. In doing this, I didn't take it away, she chose to throw it away. Now sure, I don't expect the exact same scenario to happen but if any opportunity presents to let her feel like she chose to get rid of the paci, then go for it.
With this time of season, I did have a friend that suggested we leave the paci for santa in exchange for gifts. That would be another option if you think she would grasp that at all.
Good luck. Ultimately for me, I was the one more attached and I am very glad we just let it happen and didn't force it!

Merry Christmas