# Pacifier Problems



## Andrea

I took my son in for his 15 month old check up on Monday. everything was fine, healthy weight gain, got two shots, etc etc ....except the dr wants us to wean him off the pacifier! 

I said, "Are you crazy?" the dr laughed and said he wasnt. we tried tuesday and wednesday to slowly take it away from him.

BAD IDEA.

he is having a hard time parting with it. He loves his "Nu Nu" so much, he even eats with it in his mouth sometimes. 

So all you parents out there whose kids loved the pacifier and sucessfully weaned them off, what are some tips and tricks that you could share?

I am not willing nor do i have the patience for him to quit cold turkey.


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## swedish

I hung onto mine until I was 3...my mom finally told me the easter bunny would only leave a basket if I hid my 'binkie' so I did...and in the morning the basket was in its place 

I would try going down to 1 (& maybe hide a spare) so it's not easy to grab and find them all over the house if you have several and make a point to have him look for it if he wants it.

If you aren't already, I would also try to limit the time he uses it to the times you think he needs it most (nap time, bed time, etc.)

If he's playing and wanting it, try doing something like blowing bubbles and tell him to blow (I know at that age they can't do that yet) or ABCs/word/talking games but. If his mouth is distracted he might forget about it.

Mine were all thumbsuckers which was hard because I couldn't take that away! I finally had to bribe them with cash! Yes, they were that old


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## Andrea

thanks swedish for the info!

i will try those ideas when we get home today. 

he likes to play outside with his lil soccer and footballs. maybe i can distract him with them when he starts to cry for his Nu Nu. or singing his ABCs or maybe go for walks (another fav of his). I think the key idea here is to distract him so he forgets it for the time being. 

I have two older kids, they never took the pacifier. but my daughter DID suck her thumb. she just turned 11 at the end of may and she *just* stopped sucking her thumb. LOL she would only do it when she went to sleep at night. What made her stop was the thought of getting braces. her dentist told her if she didnt stop, she would have to get them. so whatever it takes, ya know!


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## draconis

Another way is whenever you remove it from him, hide it for some time and each time let it go longer.

draconis


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## GAsoccerman

you can always put something sour on the binky. 

Your daughter sucked her thumb until 11 years old?? wow.

My one son was a thumb sucker, we had a hard time breaking him, we even had to put a dab of hot sauce on his finger to make him stop. BUt it is a night thingy, so I would stay up with him until he fell a sleep and everytime he put his thumb in his mouth subconciously I would pull it out and push it to the side, he stopped in a day or to.

For the binky, you just have to Buck up and take it away. It may be a nigth of crying, but you have to tough it out. Especially having it in the mouth while eating, not good.

but considering the kid is 15 months old, i would take it slow, no super rush yet until he is 2 or getting his adult teeth.


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## Andrea

GAsoccerman said:


> you can always put something sour on the binky.
> 
> Your daughter sucked her thumb until 11 years old?? wow.


Yep, 11. But she only did it when she was going to bed, like your son. It wasnt like we were grocery shopping and she was in public sucking her thumb. 



> My one son was a thumb sucker, we had a hard time breaking him, we even had to put a dab of hot sauce on his finger to make him stop. BUt it is a night thingy, so I would stay up with him until he fell a sleep and everytime he put his thumb in his mouth subconciously I would pull it out and push it to the side, he stopped in a day or to.


Ive heard of people trying out the hot sauce on the finger. I dont think that wouldve worked for me, she loves hot sauce on everything, as so do i. 



> For the binky, you just have to Buck up and take it away. It may be a nigth of crying, but you have to tough it out. Especially having it in the mouth while eating, not good.
> 
> but considering the kid is 15 months old, i would take it slow, no super rush yet until he is 2 or getting his adult teeth.


I really dont have the patience to cut him off cold turkey. but i thank you for your input. 

Ive been trying to take it away from him during the day and that seems to be working so far. he gets it when he is tired and ready for nap/bed. its been working, so i think i will stick to that. Id like to have him completely weaned before anymore of his teeth come in. Cut the habit while he is young.


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## GAsoccerman

sounds like a good plan...didn't see you were from NO, no wonder he likes Hot sauce...LOL

best of luck


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## loobylou22

when I thourght it woz time for my son to give up his dummy i told him that we had to send them to all the children in the world who didnt have binkies and if we left them hung in a basket from a tree in our garden the binkie fairy would come and take them to all the children who didnt have one and would leave him a special presant! (i saw this on a t.v program btw!) so i tryed and it works a treat
my son no longer has a dummy and if he feels tried and cranky he genrally sucks his thumb now!!
but try that it worked for us!

thank you super nanny!!


p.s iam now 22 and somtimes i wake up and iam sucking my thumb!!!!! so i wouldnt worry about an 11 year old doing it!


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## draconis

Andrea said:


> I took my son in for his 15 month old check up on Monday. everything was fine, healthy weight gain, got two shots, etc etc ....except the dr wants us to wean him off the pacifier!
> 
> I said, "Are you crazy?" the dr laughed and said he wasnt. we tried tuesday and wednesday to slowly take it away from him.
> 
> BAD IDEA.
> 
> he is having a hard time parting with it. He loves his "Nu Nu" so much, he even eats with it in his mouth sometimes.
> 
> So all you parents out there whose kids loved the pacifier and sucessfully weaned them off, what are some tips and tricks that you could share?
> 
> I am not willing nor do i have the patience for him to quit cold turkey.


We would hide it every chance we could. We always found it, but it took longer each time. Since the first few times we looked too it wasn't like panic hit the tyke. After a while we just didn't find it.

draconis


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## lovingmom

I find with my little man, that I have to hide it and put it up. we are slowly weaning it from him. he's 20 months. he takes it out to eat. .but he wants it during the day and at nap and bedtime and the car. we usually make sure we have one on us, but we are slowly taking it away during the day and he doesn't get it on short drives in the car


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## JDPreacher

I never used a pacifier for my kids, hate the things with a passion and one of the reasons is, it's so difficult to get them away from the kids once they are attached to them.

My wife wants to use one with our baby coming in October and I said no way in hell...

It will take patience and creativity to get rid of the evil that is the pacifier...try displacement therapy, exchange the pacifier with something else to busy their hands, their mouth and their mind...a frozen waffle, a hand clap game...

Good luck, but better now than later when you have caused issues that an orthodontist will have you paying for forever.

Blessed Be,
Preacher


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## lovingmom

at least with a pacifier you can take it away, where as a thumb you can't. using a thumb causes way more damage. the dentist told my step daughter she had to stop sucking her thumb because it was pushing her front teeth out... pacifiers are built so much better.


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## LaBella

I agree with you taking away little be little, only for nap/bed time, make sure that he only sees the same one, do not keep extras (at least not on his view) only 1, if it get lost then if he understands tell him that was the only one and he will not have another one, be though. 

I remember when my youngest daughter was about 2, the babysitter took their "COCO" away, (it was my D and another girl of the same age, they were only days apart), she told them that the "Coco" was going to the trash, she showed them when she put it on the trash and that was the end of it. My D did not cry or bothered me anymore. With my oldest daughter I was luckier, she started sucking her tumb when she was 2 mo. (my mom says it was my punishment, I have to admit that I suck my thumb until my late teens) but she drop it on her own at about 5 mo., then started using the Coco for sleep time only, and when she was about 20 mo. I told her that she did not need it the pacifier anymore Why don't we trow it away?, and believe it or not, she walked to the trash can and trew it away herself, that was the end of that one.
Good Luck and try it the slow way.

Bella


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## Chris H.

We were really surprised when my son recently stopped using it all on his own. It wasn't even an issue. He's about to turn 2. My daughter took a little longer, but eventually gave it up on her own as well.


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## Andrea

Update: Well the 2yr old has sorta kicked the habit. He only wants it at night now. So i guess that is an improvement.


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## Chris H.

Andrea said:


> Update: Well the 2yr old has sorta kicked the habit. He only wants it at night now. So i guess that is an improvement.


That's what ours did right before he stopped too. Give him a few more months and he might give it up altogether on his own.


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## MarkTwain

We never used them. We both feel it is not needed. They find plenty of things to chew on anyway - and we are of the generation that believes a little bit of dirt immunises the system. But I guess that is a rare view now.


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## Andrea

Chris H. said:


> That's what ours did right before he stopped too. Give him a few more months and he might give it up altogether on his own.


Thats what i sorta figured, its only a matter of time. 

Lately he has been throwing it over his crib when he goes to sleep. He insists that we go fetch it for him and give it back. He does this several times a night. We are getting fed up with it, so last night I went a retrieved his pacifier from the floor, washed it and gave it back to him and said that this was the last time i was getting it for tonight. He threw it as soon as i left the room. He whined and fussed for a lil bit then eventually fell asleep without it. So we are making progress. yay!


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## Bremik

Our second (of three) was always with his binkey and actually would take his younger sister's bink away from her for himself which consequently made it so she never got used to a bink. We ended up slowly cutting his bink (literally cutting the rubber) back a little bit at a time until there was nothing left to suck and he gave it up. So all the binks in the house were cut evenly and over 3-4 wks time he gave it up with no fuss. It works great with no stress to the child!


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## They Call Me Smooth

I hate to say it but you doctor is right. My youngest son wouldn't give his up for anything. Nearly ever photos I have of him as a baby is with one in his mouth. It got so bad that I remember driving to the store in the middle of the night because we couldn't find one and he wouldn't go to sleep.

Well the side effect of it all was my son didn't speak till he was like 2.5 years old. We had to have a speech therapist come in once a week to help him. Any time he wanted something he would point and go "uhh uhh". Both the doctor and the therapist said it because we let him have the pacifier for far too long.

One day he lost his last one and we never got any more. Cold turkey. It was hard but he learned to deal with out it.

On the plus side my son is far more advanced at speaking then other kids his age. He is very articulate for his age. And pronounciate words very well.


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## Bremik

We had really good luck with slowly cutting all the pacifiers in the house bit by bit until our middle son gave it up since there was nothing left to suck on. He was so bad that he actually took the pacifiers from his little sister so much that she never ended up really using them. I think it took about 3 weeks or so.


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