Hi Moms,
My 22 month old daughter still nurses several times a day, including before going to sleep. When she was a newborn we tried pacifiers, but she always spit them out. For about the last 7 months we were blessed by her having discovered these small stuffed animal elephants, the trunks of which she would suck on during her sleep. This is how I finally got a full night's rest. Before she always woke at least once during the night, asking to be nursed. Unfortunately, for some reason (teething, perhaps), she has stopped sucking on the elephants. I still give them to her at night, she holds them, but she has not used them in over a week. So now we are back to her waking at night, needing me. This is in addition to increasingly more difficult bedtimes (Mommy, sing to me, sing more, stay here, don't leave...) So I was thinking... should I try to introduce a pacifier now? I am quite sure that if she got sucking on something again at night she would sleep better. Any thoughts?
Well, that sounds like a resounding NO. :) THANK YOU for your replies. We'll look for another lovey and work on sleeping through the night. (BTW - those elephants: we have about 8 of them, and I washed them after each use....)
Kids who use pacifiers after 6-8 months are WAY harder to get off of pacifiers. Personally, I think you'd be nuts to introduce a paci now.
Try anything--soft music in her room--rainbow or stars projected onto the ceiling--sippy cup of water near her bed--ANYTHING but a paci! LOL
After we brush my sons teeth at night we tell him he can only have water until the morning. We give him a sippy with water in it. Some nights he doesn't drink any some nights it empty in the morning. You may want to try that.
No!!!!! I stopped nursing my DD at 11 1/2 months and since then, she's had a sippy of water at bed. She's almost 4 now and we still give her the straw type of cup to use but are about to cut it out. Your child is old enough to sleep through the night. Let her know that her "special" cup of water is what she can have and that's it.
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Okay, at her age, she does not need to nurse at night. I am all for breastfeeding, I bf mine for 2 years as well. So the thing to do is to help her learn how to self soothe, you are being her pacifier, and that is not working for you, or her. I also would not introduce the pacifier at her age, but that is just my opinion. Give her a few nights of no nursing and she will learn to soothe herself back to sleep, as will you.
Dr Sears is an expert in this field and he has 12 tips for helping to wean the night nurser, (that doesn't mean weaning all together, just the late night feeding):
http://askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/night-weaning...
and ways to help your baby/toddler stay asleep:
http://askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/31-ways-get-y...
Considering how many kids her age are hooked on pacifiers and need to get OFF of them, trying to get her interested IN them seems counterproductive. I would agree that giving her a sippy cup of water would be best, so there's no milk residue on her teeth, and stop allowing her to nurse at night and drag out the bedtime routine. Set some limits and don't start giving in to her demands. My daughter at that age would keep asking for more stories, more cuddles, etc. - anything to stall bedtime. I had to just tell her no, no more stories, Mommy is done cuddling and it's time to go to sleep.
I wouldn't because I personally can't stand seeing older kids with pacis. But maybe that's just me.
Oh my gosh.... DON'T do that to yourself!!! I am speaking as a mommy who rues the day she EVER brought a paci into the house. I would try everything, ANYTHING other than a paci. She's old enough to learn that she doesn't nurse at night. I'm not saying to stop nursing her (I nursed mine until 27 months), but start teaching her that she can't nurse at night. I know, easier said than done. It won't be easy - it will be awful for a few days, but it will be a lot better than trying to pry a paci out of her face in a year!!!
Have I mentioned that I loathe my 3-year-old's paci?
I would work on sleep training. Stop the night nursing and she will learn to self soothe.
NO! That will only make things so much harder for you and her when you want her to break the habit. Instead, go and buy a taggie blanket with lots of textures on it and give it to her at bedtime. Make that her new lovie and she will grow to love it. Hang in there!
M
I have TWO older paci kids and all these other moms are right! Don't do the paci! It becomes a horrible habit to break!
And my paci kids still wake up at night and need me...even with them!
She's well old enough to put herself to sleep and sleep through. This might be a habit/attention thing. I used the Teach-to-Sleep method with my children and they quickly learned to sleep well with no soothing aids. In fact I used the opportunity to take the pacifiers away. Good luck.
Try a bottle of water, if you want, but this is more about her learning to self soothe, encourage her to find something special to take to bed at night, my son would take the book I just read him, matchbox cars, things I would never think of as bedtime cuddles! Research shows that all kids wake during the night, every night, forever! they either need M. to help them get back to sleep OR they turn over and go back to sleep. Do you want to help her get back to sleep every night forever?
When I weaned my son at 18 months he still needed something to suck too--I reintroduced the paci's he used them until about 22 months and then we introduced a sippy of water! He still has the binkies, but doesn't suck on them, he just hoards them all together and then sleeps on top of them--funny boy! I say go ahead and give it a shot if not try just putting a sippy of water in her crib and see if that works--its worth a try!
I told both of mine at around 18 months they could not nurse until the sun came up. Yes, they understood. No, they were not happy for a few nights, but by that time I needed to sleep. I did let them sleep with me, but no nursing, they had to just cuddle up and be quiet until morning.
you could do a similar thing with the crib. She can cuddle a stuffed animal, blanket or what she wants, but not nurse at night.
I would not introduce a pacifier at this time. They are for infants who have a stronger need to suck than is satisfied with nursing. At 22 months, it is not likely that that is the case here, she needs to learn to sooth herself.
I agree with NO! Also, please do NOT encourage her thumbs either. My 5y is STILL having issues, because you can't just hide a thumb!!
Give her a spill proof cup of water.
If you want to wean her and she still needs to suck she needs something appropriate to suck. I think the sucking on the elephants nose is gross myself, it would have to be in the washer almost all the time just to make it clean for her to suck. Fibers are much less forgiving than rubber.
I say try it if that is the way you'd like to go.
Our daughter came home from Ukraine at 3.5yrs old a rabid thumb sucker. We didn't take it away from her because it was literally the only thing she had. BUT the roof of her mouth was awful, she sucked her thumb sideways and it was so curved up we couldn't see the top or back, she made this weird sound when sucking and they evne checked her for cleft palate when she had her MRI! (She has cerebral palsy so the MRI was to see where the brain damage was.)
ANYWAY, we intro'd a pacifier and used the 'no bite' stuff on her thumbs and at first it was just a filler, she would just hold it in her mouth but it did the trick, she stopped sucking her thumb and its only been 4 months since she stopped and started the pacifier and the roof of her mouth has flattened out almost perfectly!
I realize this is a different scenario, but she's not hooked on the pacifier. She uses it to fall asleep and then I put it up and thats it. She doesn't use it any other time. I think if it was controlled (ie just in bed) then it would be fine.
I used to be os against pacifier use, my boys had them from birth and also nursed but both lost interest in the pacifier around 8/9 months, so it was never an issue. BUT with her, its important to not just take something away that she has relied on and been her only constant for years.
I don't think it would be a terrible thing, honestly. As long as you didn't let her drag it around in her mouth all day.
You may want to check out the books by Elizabeth Pantley. She has several books on helping children sleep. I know she has one specifically for toddlers and preschoolers.
