What's a Binky?

None of my kids would take a pinky, either. Lord knows I tried! They would look confused, like, 'What the hell is this? There's nothing coming OUT, what's the POINT?' Then spit it out.

:)

That just reminds me of the episode of Toddlers and Tiaras when the little beauty queen is screaming for her "nay nay," all dressed up like a 20-year old in her finery!

I had one finger, one thumb, and one binky. It's easier to break a binky habit than a thumb habit. So no, I would opt for a binky. And personally I don't freak out over a kid sucking on a binky, and don't feel the need to take it away from the child. I cut the tip off when my daughter was 3 because the dentist recommended it, and she gave it up pretty easily. However, she still had to have braces, so getting rid of it didn't make a difference.

IMO they should be allowed their comfort. I don't see what the big deal is.

Both of my guys had a paci. We took it away from our oldest at
18 months, and didn't have a problem at all! So we had no negative effects, and gave it to our second. He will be 18 months soon, and we will take it away. I think it may be harder to try it gradually. The one thing that bothers me about pacis is when kids are running around, talking through the paci. Obviously 3,4,5 yrs old! Bugs me...

My oldest didn't, my youngest perfers (yes current tense) his thumb.
AWE I loved my Binky, but my mom took it away when I was 2. Yes, I remember my Binky - LOL!

I have 3 kids. My first two, boys, did not take a binky at all. They didn't suck their thumbs, they didn't have loveys...nothing. Now, my daughter, who is 13 months is ALL ABOUT her binky and lovey. It's cute watching her at night get her binky and lovey and crawl up on my lap to go to bed. But, she wasn't into it at all until she was about 11 months. It's weird. She just found one in the toy box and from that moment on has been a binky baby.
I try and keep it to just at bedtime and naptime since I know that taking the bink away may be a bit tough.
L.

No, I dont think it's that rare. I see more and more people not giving them to their kids these days. Maybe it's just because like you said they dont want to have the battle of the binky's later on.

My son has always taken a pacifier since day one. And I was and am good with that. It helps him, and calms him when nothing else will. It's his "comfy" or was. Now he only uses it at night time. And my husband and I are okay with that too cause my son has never ever been a good sleeper since day one so if it helps him so be it.

I dont fear the battle cause I dont think there will be one, or much of one. There wasn't much of one when we took it from daytime use. I think when he is ready to give up the night time one well all know and deal with it then. Until then why not let him have it?

I dont regret giving him one because it really has helped through these past year almost two. That binky has been a lifesaver! and if we have a next kid then they will get one too. I cant imagine not giving one.

Whatever works for each family.

Neither of my kids would take a pacifier. For a while I think I was the human pacifier. ;) My son was a thumb sucker. It was a really hard habit to break, but he did at 4. My daughter didn't use a pacifier or fingers thank goodness.

But their take away their ganget (security blanket) and no one is sleeping!! My son no longer needs it, but my daughter sure does. I am ready for her to give it up, I am really tired of the blanket search before bed time. Sigh.

You were fortunate your daughter didn't go to the thumb. I had one who did the thumb when I took the pacifier, one who refused pacifier and didn't do thumb like yours, and most of the others did the pacifier. I can tell you the thumb is so much harder to break. I had no problem with the pacifier since you can take it but the thumb is with them all the time unless of course you cut it off. :-) So if they want to suck they can and it's very hard to stop that. The pacifier is so good for quieting them if out somewhere, etc. but so bad if in a nursery and where they drop it and it always seems like germs were everywhere they took it. They dropped it at night when a bit older and then yelled for me to get it and that was the end of most of the pacifiers after a few weeks of that. Be glad, I guess, that you didn't have that issue.

My oldest had a pacifier and I weaned him off of it when he started crawling. I didn't want him dependent on it. My daughter never really liked it. Not something I wanted to push on them. My niece had a pacifier until she was almost 2 and I thought she looked silly walking around with a pacifier in her mouth.

I had one of each... one of my kids didn't use anything but her finger in he belly button for comfort and the other was a hard core thumb sucker and has a stuffy that went everywhere (now he just sleeps with it). The thumb sucking was really hard to break, and I don't know whether a binky is better at night. We never lost his thumb or had to go in his room in the middle of the night to help him find it... but then, you can't mail a thumb away to the babies or cut it til it's gone.

My first one took a pacifier, my second one refused, and my third took one. I'm pregnant now and I pray to God that she takes one! It was so, so much easier with the two that took them. It really helped them self soothe, especially at nap and bedtime. I'm not sure why everyone makes such a big deal about weaning kids off of them. Its not that hard- you have a couple rough days, maybe a week, and then its over. Besides, pacifiers are a lot easier to take away than a thumb.

Neither of my kids took a binky, but my 2nd child sucked her thumb for 2 years. She stopped on her own when she was 24 mos. I feel so lucky about that! My sister's daughter still sucks her thumb and she's almost 7.

My son never took a binky, bottle, or his thumb. He loved to nurse though! Did nurse him till he was over 2 1/2 but when the time came to ween, it was really easy because he was ready. Oh boy, did I ever wish he would have taken a pacifier back in those first few months!

My first daughter didn't ever use a pacifier or a suck her fingers. Then we had my son and didn't give him a pacifier because the first one didn't have one. He ended up sucking his fingers till he was almost six. Now I have a 10 month old who uses a pacifier when she sleeps. So I've kind of had it all. I guess we'll see what happens when we try to take it away from her! :)

my daughter took one from a day old until 18 months, i threw them all away when she started taking naps without her bink, and after a few days i went around and gathered up all of her binkies and even found her hidden ones, AND THERE WERE A LOT OF THEM. but she got rid of it no problem, same with the bottled at 13 months she was done with that, she was pushing the nipple into the bottle and making a mess of her milk and it was by by bottles, washed em all up and out them into the attic

Both my girls used a pacifier but they also elected to stop using it around 6 months. I'll count my blessings.

My daughter was a binky user as a baby and we finally got her off of it at around 2.5. At that point she only used it for sleeping - that was our rule, starting at around 1 year, that binky was for sleeping only, so it's not like she was always walking around or trying to talk with it in her mouth. Problem was, there was only one particular binky that she would accept and didn't want any others, so after a while, even with being cleaned all the time, it started getting pretty gross and was on the verge of falling apart. So finally we told her about the Binky Fairy and got her to leave it on the windowsill one night for the Binky Fairy to come get it and she got a special big-girl present in it's place. She cried for a few nights afterwards when she realized that there was no way it was coming back but I would say within a week she was totally over it. So it wasn't THAT big of a battle, we got through it, but the 2 years of a baby who slept through the night was totally worth it! And fortunately she never replaced the binky with a thumb or her fingers!

My first, never cried, so she never had one. My second was addicted, it wasnt too hard to get rid of though, we did it before he was 2.
My third wont have anything to do with them and shes been my most difficult baby by far!
I think the binky battle later on would be worth it for this one!

My oldest daughter would never take a binky, even from day 1 she would spit them out. My middle daughter was very attached to her binky, and didn't seem to have any desire to give it up on her own, so when she turned 3 we took it away cold turkey. she asked about it for a couple days then she forgot about it. My youngest daughter is 2 and she sucks her thumb.

Actually, I expected a real fight, but I didn't get one. We weaned my son before he was two, as the doctor instructed, and it was REALLY easy. I was completely shocked.

My daughter never used a binky either. I was soooo glad. Have you seen babies with a rash around their mouth from the binky! Breaking from the bottle was hard enough. Glad I didn't have to do a second round with a binky!

My son was a thumb sucker until he was five. He also had a blanket and you could hand him his blankie and then he would put his thumb in his mouth and be perfectly calm. We tried taking away the blankie to see if that would stop the thumb sucking. It wasn't working so then had to have a new plan to get him to stop sucking. I basically said don't do it, and kept a close eye on him during key times (in the car, while watching TV, while falling asleep) and it only took a couple of days. I do think back on those years and how sweet he looked when he sucked and held his blankie.

Yes, first daughter had the "BaBa" to almost age 3. We finally did the whole "baba fairy" thing at age three and there was no fuss. It was time. I spent that whole last year stressing over when and how we were going to break her of the habit though.
Now 2nd daughter (23 mo) is totally attached to hers. I already decided I really don't care, if she is still using it approaching age 3 we'll just do the whole fairy visit again. I'm not going to stress this time.

Pluses- kids won't put weird things in his/her mouth because binky is already there! Also, it's really easy to calm them when they are upset or tired by popping that thing in their mouth.
Minues- Some people judge. I try to establish that we don't bring it into the store and stuff like that... but I don't really care what others think. Also, if you lose the thing in a key moment, then you're screwed! That's the worst part.

The funny thing is, before I had my kids, my neice had her "paci" til she was super old (I Thought at the time) and I always secretly thought to myself "Oh that will NEVER be my kid..." Ha! Little did I know :)

Our daughter was married to her binky for 2.5 years. Couldn't get that thing out of her mouth. But then her two front teeth started jutting out and we knew it's time had come to an end. Did the whole binky fairy letter, bye bye ceremony to the mail box blah blah blah and prepared for the worst. It never came. I think what helped was her age, actually. She was intellectually mature enough to understand that she was no longer a baby :)

Mine did not take to it at all, tried several times and Im SO glad she didnt. I see three year olds with them still, which amazes me. They cry, they get it put in their mouth to soothe them. Goes against what I think, how we both should handle their outbursts and fits.

Nope - none of my kids had "Binkies". I have 3 and my youngest is now 12. I even tried to give him one when he was teething but nope - he didn't want it. I am grateful that I didn't have to break that habit later on.

I ended up being is pacifier more or less, he was breastfed and we were co sleepers until he was 4. He would take an actual paci maybe a total of 5 times for about 5 - 10 seconds.