Pacifier while weaning?

BackseatDriver

My son who is 14 months old would like nothing more than to suck on a pacifier all day. For the past couple months we have been trying to limit pacifier use to sleeping only and keep them out of sight otherwise. I am currently trying to wean but my son is really resisting and I'm wondering if giving the pacifier back would help or hurt. My main reluctance with the pacifier is with regards to speech and tooth alignment. Thoughts?

RootBeer29

Our dentist told us that as long as the pacifier was gone before 2 it wouldn't impact her teeth.

JJ1973

We started weaning pacifier use with my oldest child at around that time. We started by cutting out daytime completely, which wasn't too hard to do. Nights were more difficult and we did not achieve that until after 18 months (after I weaned from breastfeeding - we gave it time and did one at a time gradually). He had a million pacifiers, because we used them to help sleep train him at around 8 months which required putting about five of them in his crib each night (so he always had access to at least one for soothing). So when it was time to wean them for nights, I took a shoebox and decorated it with pictures of babies. I told him that each day we would be "giving a binky to the babies." Each morning he would say goodbye to one of his pacifiers and put it in the box. It probably took a month because there were so many, but we finished the process with the last three he had in his crib. On the final night he got a "big boy pillow" for his crib. The next morning we gave the box of pacifiers to his old daycare teacher in the infant room at his school. Of course, she didn't use them but he didn't need to know that. He was REALLY attached to his pacifiers which is why I took such a sensitive and slow approach. He really had a love affair with them, so giving them up was hard for him, but this gradual process made it easier.

JJ1973

Forgot to mention that our pediatrician said cut out daytime use by 12 months and nights by two years.