Calling all Parents of Prior Pacifier Users
>> Saturday, September 13, 2008 –
Baby of the family
Say that 5 times quickly!
We seem to have gotten ourselves into a predicament. All of our other children sucked fingers/thumbs and one child sucked her blanket. This caboose of ours is absolutely hooked on his paci. We've been trying to curtail this annoying habit at bedtime, but if he finds one around the house (which is very likely because ours have legs, you know), into the mouth it goes.
We seem to have gotten ourselves into a predicament. All of our other children sucked fingers/thumbs and one child sucked her blanket. This caboose of ours is absolutely hooked on his paci. We've been trying to curtail this annoying habit at bedtime, but if he finds one around the house (which is very likely because ours have legs, you know), into the mouth it goes.
June 2006 - 4 months old
5 months old in this picture and he knows how to get it in his mouth. Aug 2006
March 2007
Aug 2008
Okay - if you had a paci baby, how did you get rid of it or stop the habit? Cold turkey seems a bit cruel, but I may resort to that pretty soon.
My daughter (11 months) uses a paci at naptime and bedtime only. I was worried about it turning into a serious habit, so my sitter suggested, when the time is ready (which it's not yet!!) to snip a little hole in the end of it. She did this with her daughter and that was all she wrote. I guess it changes how it feels in the mouth.
Another suggestion, since he is older, and since you guys garden a lot - which means he probably understands the process of a garden. You can plant the paci in the ground. I've heard a lot of people do this, and then magically, carrots appears where the paci was and the paci is all gone!
Hopefully you will be able to find something that will work. Keep us updated!
We did cold turkey, but not intentionally. He'd only take one brand, that they discontinued it. We bought up all we could find, but eventually they were all lost/misplaced/chewed by dogs. We tried other brands and he refused. So, one night, we searched madly but couldn't find any and he had to go without. It took about 3-4 nights but he was comforted by us and really, it wasn't too bad. We did find one about a week and a half later and hid it since I didn't want to have to go through it all again. He found it 2 months later and laughed at it, never asked for it back.
Well, I didn't! Not until he was four years old and we had a fairly adult conversation about it probably being time for "Goggy" to go! This was my third child, who by the way, had long blonde curls until he was 3 and a half, and I just really didn't care about things like that! He spoke like a high school student, was perfectly normal (?..what is normal anyway?) in every way and you know what I mean, lol. Wish I could help you though! One of mine was a thumbsucker and still is at times, at 23! Oh how I agonized over that though and of course realize now, what a waste it was to worry about it. No braces needed for either of those two on their teeth. You guessed it though, my first one, who I DID take paci away from at age 2, is the only one that needed braces!
JA-
Rylee still uses a paci. Alot. She loves them and usually carries more than one around. I asked the ped dentist she goes to and he says she's ok at this point. I just don't have the energy to take it, lol. Good luck breaking the habit!!
We told him that it was time to throw them away, as he was a big boy. I made sure there none hidden anywhere, and had him throw his last one away. We had a rough naptime, then bedtime that first day/night, but then after that it was a piece of cake.
I have heard of others saying they were going to leave it for the "pacifier fairy" and then went and hung it somewhere for the "fairy" to find it, and then the next day the "fairy" left a surprise for the child.
We are still using it here. And when we take it away, he sucks his fingers. Since my 6 year old still sucks her thumb (and we can't take that away) it freaks me out WAY more when I see him use his fingers so I let him have the paci.
Ugh. Apparently my kids have oral issues?!? Although my oldest never did a paci or thumb or fingers or anything like that at all!
Only one of my kids really was attached to it, and I let her have it until she was almost three. I was really wondering how I was going to break that habit too. One day, she fell and cut her lip. It hurt too much to use the pacifier. By the time her mouth healed, all the pacifiers (maybe 20 of them around the house by then) had disappeared. Sorry I'm not much help!
I love your sweet pictures...:)
We started the process by only allowing the paci for sleep and then I just started talking about how he was getting too big for a paci and that he would have to say bye-bye to it. One night he said "bye-bye" to his paci and I thought I'd give it a try (wasn't committed to actually doing it yet). He whimpered for a few minutes and that was it! Whenever he mentioned his paci, we just reminded that he said "bye-bye" to it and it went.
The other kiddo, basically same thing with the "getting too big for paci and need to say bye-bye" talk for awhile. He wasn't quite so easy as my first (he had a huge "need" to suck--still does at 8), but it really wasn't bad.
3rd kid, we wanted her off the paci before the new baby came (didn't want her taking the baby's paci--although 4th baby doesn't care for a paci). So, same thing....again not as bad as we anticipated.
We just comforted them in other ways---rocking, rubbing back, stuffed toy. Really only took a few days for us.
good luck