Pacifier-to-sleep Addiction

staebells

I have realized that my 4-week old who loves to suck has become dependent on his pacifier to fall asleep. The problem is, it falls out of his mouth, then he cries, then I have to put it back in. It's a horrible cycle and nighttime is miserable. It's become much worse the last few days. Does anyone know if it's too soon to try to wean him from it? Any tips to help replace it? He's becoming overtired and fussy because he's not sleeping well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Zmommy2

The only thing I can think is that you can try to get your baby to soothe himself with his thumb or fingers... Though that is much harder to break them of down the road.

mistyflame

I don't know about weaning... we didn't wean DS1 until 18 months. But I will say that the older they get the better they do at holding it in thier mouths. I know it's hard now, but it does get better.

missmuffin87

I think it's too early to try to wean from the pacifier. Like PPs said, better the pacifier than the thumb, and they do get much better at keeping it in as they get older. For now I sleep with DS in the RnP next to me and I reach over and put it back in his mouth when he starts to cry.

staebells

@missmuffin87 same here. Last night I slept with my hand over the side of the bed against the pacifier, but every time I fell asleep it would fall out of LO's mouth, he would wake up, and I would wake up. It was more times than I can count!

ravenclaw1

Have you tried multiple pacifiers? Maybe there's one that's easier for him to grip?

fhgrl21

We have day and night pacifiers some are shaped differently and stay in their mouth easier when laying down. I find the ones with a curve stay in better in the crib

MamaInMN

fhgrl21 said:

We have day and night pacifiers some are shaped differently and stay in their mouth easier when laying down. I find the ones with a curve stay in better in the crib

What kind do you use for night?

fhgrl21

MamaInMN said:

fhgrl21 said:

We have day and night pacifiers some are shaped differently and stay in their mouth easier when laying down. I find the ones with a curve stay in better in the crib

What kind do you use for night?

We use nuk at night which has the curve on the end

bumpuser9130703

fhgrl21 said:

MamaInMN said:

fhgrl21 said:

We have day and night pacifiers some are shaped differently and stay in their mouth easier when laying down. I find the ones with a curve stay in better in the crib

What kind do you use for night?

We use nuk at night which has the curve on the end

Same. She loves the Soothies but she can't keep them in at all so we introduced the Nuk. It took a few days and lots of tries but she finally got the hang of it. Most nights she can keep it until she's in a pretty deep sleep

Funny story though. Last night she coughed but didn't wake up. When I looked at the video monitor she had her chin tilted back and the Nuk was resting perfectly right on the tip of her chin. It was so cute I almost took a picture of the monitor!