from the toddler board: sleep time paci weaning

dglvrk2

DD (2.5 yrs) is great about only using the pacifier at night and nap times.  We've had to work on weaning her, but it's been successful.  She was well behaved but definitely tired by the end of the day yesterday.  DH is out of town; (I don't think both of us need to endure the crying that goes with taking the paci away from DD at night.)  So I decided to take it from her.  I told her that one of her favorite characters took it to give to a new baby when she asked about it.  She cried for over a half hour before she fell asleep.  However I didn't give in then.  I felt good about this until midnight when she woke up screaming and cried for another half hour.  Beyond tired and feeling terribly sorry for her, I gave in... I'm eight months pregnant and exhausted; working more than full time and taking care of DD on my own this past week hasn't helped this much.

So do I try again tonight? Just cold turkey?

Should I try a different method like cutting a hole in the paci?

Or should I just wait and see when she'll give it up on her own?

The only reason I want her off of it while she sleeps is because she doesn't need it and I know she can develop better coping/soothing mechanisms.  

I've spoken with a could of dentists and an orthodontist who claim that using the paci for sleeping is not affecting her tooth development etc.

Any ideas welcome!! TIA

Ilumine

My daughter is a thumb sucker.  She has been under a care of a Pediatric Dentist since she was 1 (military medicine is great for that).  

He told me that as long as her sucking was only for falling asleep, she should be ok.  So for us, we monitor that.  And now at almost 5, she really only does it for like 15 minutes at night (while we read books and then the 30 seconds to fall asleep). 

If your dentist is not finding developmental issues right now, maybe give it another few months and then do the cutting of the top. 

mwd

DS is a finger sucker, and only recently our dentist has talked to us about it, as it is affecting his bite. DD loved her pacifier, but we broke from that habit  at 2 1/2 because we lost the one she liked. That being said, I would either wait until your dentist says something, or wait a few months after the baby comes, pointing out what a big girl she is. She might need some comforting when the baby comes.  good luck! 

Worcbride

I can only tell you what worked for us--I cut the tip off the paci and left it when the LOs could find it (I did this for both my kids)….when they picked it up and tried to suck it there was no suction…to which I replied "oh no, it's broken!"  I left it around for a week before tossing it.  Every now and then they'd try to suck on it again to no avail.  We had no crying, no trauma.  I tossed it without them knowing and after they'd gone 2 days w/o touching it.

dglvrk2

Update: Thanks!  My dad is a dentist - and a gentle but VERY honest grandparent.  He's with us for the holidays and looked thoroughly at DD's teeth a couple of days ago.  He found nothing wrong.  :-)  With the new baby coming in less than four weeks (YIKES!!!!) he said it's not a good time to wean her, especially since she only uses it for sleep and often spits it out once she's asleep.  That being said, if she doens't give it up on her own by her third brithday (June), I think we'll give it an agggressive try then.

veetveet

Google- bye bye binky

MesmrEwe

I tend to agree with your Dad... 

One idea might be to do a "Build a Bear" with her and put the paci in the bear before stitching it up to give to the new baby as her gift or for her just to keep instead for a bedtime snuggle bear...

shelley1002

I have planned to follow Bye-Bye Binky with DS1 and had a date I wanted to start it.  We had some hiccups in our normal schedule I wanted to get past first.  Well a few days before the planned start date we lost his favorite one and the other ones we had wouldn't work for him.  So after a couple days he was done looking/asking/fussing for it.  So we ended up doing cold turkey when he was 18 months.  Luckily DS2 is not interested in pacifiers.