How Did You Get Your Child to Give up Their Pacifier?

I just took it away for good. I never weaned anything away from my child. One day it just suddenly disappeared. That is what I would suggest. It's a quick and easy method that I had found to work great for my little boy.

Our son didn't give his up until he was 3. We had 2 moves within 13 months and both of them had temporary housing involved, so I just couldn't bear to think about taking it away during all that. We tried once after the first move, but I guess we just didn't have the willpower to make it work. We weren't happy with our living situation, so that probably didn't help, I'm sure he picked up on that. At that time though, we did cut him down to having it just at bedtime...not naps or during the day. After the last move was over and we were settled, we just told him that we weren't buying anymore and as they broke, that was it. There were a couple of bad bedtimes, but it went pretty quickly. I think he was old enough to understand that it was over and he was a big boy now.

Maybe, you could wait for a cold.

My son, at 10 months old got his firts cold with stuffy nose. He couldn't suck on his binkie for 1 or 2 days. I didn't give it back to him after. He took a little longer to fall asleep but no major problems.

Good luck!

My daughter just loved her binki! At about 15 months she was only allowed to have it at nap or night, or in the car. At about 18-19 months she only had it at night. A couple weeks before her 2nd birthday we took it away. I told her the story of the binki fairy... we left her binki on the night stand, and that night while she was sleeping the binki fairy came and took the binki to give to a baby, for she was a big girl now and didn't need it anyone more, but there was a baby that did. (This worked well because at the time a friend of the family had recently had a baby. She assumed the binki fairy was taking it to him.) In exchange for the binki, the binki fairy left a small stuffed animal that she could sleep with. The next few nights she would ask for her binki, but we would just remind her that the binki fairy took it to a baby that needed it and she was okay with that. Your little one may be to young to understand the whole "binki fairy story" at the moment, but may be useful. Good luck!

Hi M.,

We gave up the paci at about one year. And, we started about 4 weeks earlier just having it in the crib. Then went cold turkey. I think with a lot of kids it gets harder the older they get.

Good luck!

C.

I'd definitely do it now! My son has just proved all my ideas on this wrong. Here's our experience: I had planned to take it away before age 18 months, but he came down with chronic sinusitis that kept him ill off and on for about 5 months. I didn't think it was a good idea to take away an easy source of comfort when he was having tons of doctor visits, illness, surgery, etc. So, that brought us to the month before his 2nd birthday and we decided we'd be rid of it by the time he was 2. We snipped the ends off of them one by one over a week until there was none. Turns out this was a bad idea. Definitely go with what one mom said about snipping all of them at once on the same day. We did it like that because we couldn't find them all, but it created anxiety in him and he became more attached.
So, I expected a few nights of crying. It was bad for a full week. The next week it wasn't as bad -- down to a half hour of screaming instead of a full hour. But then it would get worse again....
The problem was that our once peaceful bedtime routine suddenly became a nightmare and showed no signs of returning to normal. With the paci, we could put him in bed and walk away, never hearing another word from him until morning. Without paci, it was a war zone after 8pm at our house. Everyone I talked to said he'd forget about it in 3 or 4 days. Not so! We've dealt with fitful bedtimes for 2 full months.
I asked the pediatrician about it at his 2 yr well visit (this is a full month after throwing away the last paci) and expressed my concern about all of his fussing, that now the only thing that would get him to sleep is rocking, etc. She actually said that it would be fine if he kept the paci until he was 3! (just at bed time).
So, I got a new one last week. We were instantly back to peaceful bed times. The new plan is to get rid of it (again!) when he's 3.

O weened both of my binki babies at 17 months. I took all of the binkies and cut the nipples off and said "uh oh broken"!

We had two or three bad days and then they forgot about the binki!

K.

I would defintely recomend doing it sooner than later. We got rid of the bottle at one year but have not yet got rid of the pacifier and let me tell you how much i regret not getting rid of it long ago! My daughter is 22 months and she is obsessed with the paci. I have not got the courage up yet to get rid of it but my pediatrician recomended cold turkey. When I look back now any time between 12 and 18 months would have been ideal. Good luck

You've gotten great responses however I will share mine too. Our second child(we have 3) was absolutely addicted to the paci.! Totally. She was 31 mos. before we were able to break her from it.
We cut a small hole in the tip of all of them(okay, I admit that I kept one of them uncut-just in case) and we left them all laying around as usual with the holes in the end and whenever she would find one she would put it in her mouth and pull it back out and say "uh-oh, it's bwoke." I would just say "it is?" and then carry on like nothing was different and she would put it back down try to go find another only to find another "bwoke" one and she gave them up in no time. Once she couldn't get any suction out of them they did nothing for her. When she got desperate a about a week after giving them up and she stole one from her younger brother we told her that the paci fairy was coming to get the pacis and she threw it at me because she doesn't like the idea of any kind of fairy, bunny, santa etc. :)
Anyway, just thought I would share our story too! HTH

We took it away from our son -- cold turkey -- when he was 15 months old. Our ped. told us that we should do it before he could talk and had a name for it. So, after that appointment, we just took it away. It was a Friday, and by Sunday, he was none the wiser. Our daughter goes for he 15 month check up this week, so it looks like this weekend will be the time for us to go through this again.

As an aside, I found your post intersting because our children as the same age difference, just reversed in gender. We have a son in kinder and a daughter that is just past one. :)

With my older son he gave me his paci at 10 months and never asked for it again but my younger one was at 18 months, I went in to check on him and he was playing w/his binky(he tore the rubber part apart and there was pieces on his crib) that is when I decided that it was time to take it away cold turkey.
He cried for 2 days and forgot about it, he only took it when he went down for a nap or for the night since he was about 10 months old.

Good Luck.
The sooner the better.
M.

We were on vacation along the coast. I took my daughter's (about 18 months )paci, away, prentended to throw it away in the ocean..(I stuck it in my pocket) She was okay...cried a lot at night for about 3-4 nights. Then one day, she started I heard sucking noises while I was driving, looked back and she started on sucking her thumb...I pulled over...yelled and that nipped that nasty habit in the bud!