When to Get Rid of Paci

My son was at the exact same point when he was 6 months old. He would use it at naptime and at bedtime. At bedtime, if it fell out of his month or he woke up in the middle of the night, he would scream until he got the pacifier back. Yes, IMHO, this is a sign that it's time to go in the trash.

My son cried for a couple of nights, and then he was fine. Since your son is older, you might be in for a rough week while your son learns to soothe himself back to sleep, but then it will be over. If you keep up with the pacifier, it could go on indefinitely. :-) Good luck.

We are struggling with this decision also. My daughter is 2 1/2 years old, she will be 3 in August and still uses a nuke at nap and bedtime. My plan is near her 3rd birthday, or shortly after we are going to ditch the nuke. We recently started the conversation (just a quick mention) that when she is 3 her nukes have to be given away for another baby to use. She says ok, so we will see how that goes when she turns 3.

Oh we are also linking it to getting ready for K-3 (she is an only child so we plan on having her go twice a week just in the morning). She REALLY wants to go to school and we are starting to potty train and we also have told her that to go to school she has to give her nukes away. She tells us now that before school starts she will throw away her nukes, hopefully it will be an easy transition but who knows.

I was told that you either do it before 18 months when the child is not totally dependent on it or after 3 years when the child can understand the reasoning for getting rid of it.

You also don't want to get rid of it too early that the child will start sucking his/her thumb. Make sure you have a couple of options for him/her to latch on to for soothing the first couple days (stuffed animals, blanket, etc).

Best wishes.

Hi K.,

I think it may be a good time to get rid of it. You will probably lose some sleep, but it won't last for long...although it will probably feel like it, but won't it be great when you don't have to worry about having a paci anymore.

C.

I did daycare for 5 years and my rule was that 18 months was the cut off. No nuks allowed after that time.

So, when we had our daughter, I kept that rule. And she was VERY attatched to her nuk for the most part. At about 14 months we started cutting her back. By the time she was 18 months she only had it at nap and bed. And then we went completely cold turkey when she turned 18 months.

My parents actually had her overnight right about then so they did the first night of NO NUK AT ALL (THEIR CHOICE, and she did GREAT, they said) so we never gave it back.

Throw them away so you're not tempted to give in the first few nights.... Kids adjust pretty easily now. If you wait too much longer it just gets harder. (My brothers' ex-girlfriend had a sister who was SIX and still had her nuk!!!)