Sleep Training/Pacifier question

watermellens

LO is not old enough yet for us to sleep train, but I'm sensing we might need to at some point. He uses a pacifier to fall asleep for naps and nighttime (once he's asleep and it falls out at some point, he doesn't usually need it back).

I'm wondering if we have to try sleep training, if we're going to have to ditch the paci all together....I know when he cries and it falls out, he's going to have a hard time falling to sleep. So he'll have to learn to fall asleep on his own without the paci? 

watermellens

wow - just realized there is practically an identical post a few threads down, but the title of it didn't really clue me in - doh!

Rosebean

DS used a Paci for naps before we did sleep training. We used the Ferber method and decided against using his pacifier to put him to sleep. In Ferber's book, he talks about sleep associations and creating the ideal environment that you want your LO to learn to go to sleep in. If the pacifier is a common issue for night wakings, then using Ferber to retrain your LO to sleep without it is a consideration. 

 Honestly, if your LO goes to sleep with it and can easily make sleep stage transitions without waking several times a night looking to have it popped back in, then don't worry about it. There should be no reason to sleep train without it, unless it becomes an issue and more disruptive. 

Since we have dropped the use of his soother, he has found his thumb. I still use it here and there, but on rare occasions and he will never keep in it for very long. Now when DS puts his thumb in his mouth, I know he is tired.