Advice on ditching the pacifier?

jena5595

Hi Everyone! My LO is a little over 2 and I'd really like to wean him off his pacifier, but it has been a struggle.  The good news is that he's only really accustomed to getting his pacifier at bed time and nap time.  The bad news is, it would appear he needs it to settle down to sleep.  

Our pediatrician recommended phasing it out at nap time first at home (and not to try to do it at school).  We tried to do that this weekend with his naps and it progress has been slow... yesterday, he tossed around in his crib yelling "paci" and ultimately refused to settle down/go to sleep, which meant he skipped his nap and was miserable the rest of the day.  Today he did a lot of the same, but then after a little over an hour, he finally did settle down and fall asleep.  He goes back to school tomorrow, so my concern is we'll be back to square one come next weekend with this gradual approach.  

For those of you that may have been in a similar situation, what would you recommend? Trying to figure out what would be the easiest/fastest/least traumatic (for us and him!) way to get through this. TIA!

ItsmeR30

Honestly with us- we had to stop cold turkey. I know it probably wasn't the greatest choice but it worked after about 2 days. When my nephew was younger, my sister actually cut a hole in his paci's and he hated that so he stopped! (That was 14years ago lol). 

So I never heard of this, but I wonder if the polish used to stop thumb suckers would work on a paci. That stuff is no joke tho and I feel like itd be cruel . We used it on our daughters to stop them from sucking their thumbs (my daughter that stopped her pacifier resorted to her thumb a couple months after! Argh!) but I felt bad because they could taste it when they ate and it is BITTER. 

tracij12

With my oldest, her "school" was actually super helpful. I think keeping the kids paci's straight is a pain for them. When we were trying to wean we told them and they actually said she'd been napping without it for weeks there. Not sure if it is being around the other kids, their experience or just luck, but they actually had an easier time with almost all transitions than we did at home. 
So I guess my advice would be to try weaning at school first.

Bigboobsmcgee

Another cold turkey here. You have to just stick to it otherwise the progress you've made will be lost.

greyt00

Cold turkey. I tried poking holes and slicing a little off the tip and it did nothing except cause my son (then 19 months old) to drool more and more. I couldn't stand it anymore and cut the tip off drastically. He got mad and threw it down. He wanted a different one so I snipped them all. We had some wailing but in a few days it was over. He really wasn't dependent on it to sleep. He just wanted it in his mouth more and more all day long the older he got. It was weird. So we didn't have trouble at night/nap time. He was already doing without it at nap time at day care. I would suggest trying day care first, too. He might be more cooperative in that environment.

I'm glad we got it over with I've heard storied of people who tried to take pacis away from the 2.5 and up crowd, even when they only have it for sleeping. The kids cry and beg for their paci, very descriptively, with lots of words. All I had to listen to was "bus-ee!" Not "I'm soooooo sad, I need my paci. I can't sleep."

jena5595

Thanks, ladies! Cold turkey is what my instincts were saying too.  Also great idea to check in with his day care teacher on how he's been doing at nap time. 

SLGILL1978

Cold turkey is the best way! My pediatrician recommended going cold turkey as well. 

Marley629

My pediatrician warned that sometimes if they aren't weaned by 2 it's easier to wait until 3 when they are more "rational" and you can try saying you are mailing it to help other babies or you will get a you if you give your binky to Santa etc.   She said as long as they were only using it for sleep purposes she didn't view it as a detriment to them.  But having said that we tried anyway - we snipped them and he just kept telling us binky was broken over and over and we eventually (a couple of days) he just stopped asking for it.