Weaning from Pacifier

hushpuppy201

My LO is 4 months old. What is an appropriate age to try to wean a baby from a pacifier?

My LO requires a pacifier to sleep most of the time. Over the past few days, I have been able to put him down for a nap without it and he will sleep about 30 minutes. Once he wakes up and realizes he doesn't have it, he starts crying. I try to calm him down without giving him the paci but most of the time nothing works. The problem is that he has reflux and it has gotten worse over the past couple of days. I don't want to take it away from him right now if it helps his reflux.

When his reflux does improve, any tips/advice/suggestions on the best way to try to wean him off the pacifier? Any methods that have been successful for anyone that has a difficult/fussy baby?

jenmae123

I see two, three and four year olds with a pacifier, I wouldn't worry too much about it right now.  

Some kids like the paci and some don't.  My daughter would rather suck on her fingers or her thumb.  

DTNZ4Ever

We did it around 14 months with DS1. At that point he was only getting it at naps and overnight. We did cold turkey. We had about 30 minutes of crying the first night then 15 minutes the second and about 5 the third and he was done with it. I didn't want to wait too long. It's funny now that he is 5 and sees DS2 with a paci he had to ask what it was so he doesn't even remember it.

hushpuppy201

The only reason we are entertaining the idea of weaning him from the Paci right now is that it interferes with his sleep. When it falls out of his mouth he wakes up and starts crying and it's hard to get him back to sleep.

We also think he is going through the four month sleep regression right now so we are having to go in and put it back in his mouth 5 or 6 times a night.

roo1oo

Give him a couple more weeks and he'll be able to put the pacifier back in himself. Put extra pacifiers around his crib and work with him during the day on how to hold and put the pacifier in his own mouth. Also maybe try a wubbanub to keep the pacifier in at night.