Nap issues after taking away pacifier
srh08.05.06
member
My girls are 18 months old and at their well visit, the pedi told me I should have taken the pacifier away before a year old. I wish they would have told me that then! Anyway, one of my girls never took one, but the other took one just for naps and at night. I never let her take it out of her crib.
We took the pacifier away cold turkey and just gave her a stuffed animal to take to bed. It's been just over 2 weeks and nights are going completely fine. She usually falls asleep pretty fast and always sleeps through the night. Naps, on the other hand are not going well. At first it was taking her an hour to fall asleep, then 40 minutes, then at the end of last week, she was down to 25 minutes. Her schedule got messed up on Saturday, to where she didn't nap the whole day. Now I'm having trouble getting her to nap again.
She's been in her crib for over an hour now and is just rolling around, talking and whining a bit. I've tried going in there to rub her back and nothing is working. Did anyone take away the pacifier and have trouble with naps? If so, was there anything that worked to calm them down to fall asleep on their own? I'm sure there's no one magical trick to get her to sleep, but I'd appreciate any advice - thanks!
Re: Nap issues after taking away pacifier
we made the paci for bed/naps only around 15mo... and didn't take the paci away from bed until close to 3yo - we saw no reason to mess with good sleeping.
IMO- doctors are great for medical advice, but as far as child rearing - they aren't always experts. if all is fine with your kid's mouth - there is no reason to take it away so young if they are only using it at bed time (and/or nap).
when we took it away from my son he was 3mo shy of 3yo- and he understood- so we had the paci fairy come and bring him a big present he wanted - and he was happy to trade his pacis for it - and never looked back. We'll do the same with the twins this spring.... i'm in no hurry to mess with sleep.
We just took our boys away a few weeks ago and DS1 did great and had no issues. DS2 is not doing well at bedtime and nap-time unless he is totally exhausted. I think the pacifier just helped soothe him and calm him down and he is struggling without it.
My boys are in toddler beds and in separate rooms. He occupies himself for awhile with books but he fights going to sleep. He starts having tantrums and has been using every trick in the book ("I need a new diaper, I need water, etc)
We have been doing the Super Nanny technique where we just go in and do not talk to him and keep putting him back in bed. It eventually wears him out but it is not fun for anyone. I know a lot of this probably doesn't help you b/c of the age difference and the crib/toddler bed difference.
Do you think a board book would help or a glow worm in the crib? Or maybe doing a similar routine that you do a night like reading a book or maybe playing some classical music?
I hope you get some relief or that someone can offer some better advice :-)
This is my plan. I tried to take them away cold turkey because sometimes my girls throw them. The other day, A threw hers out of the crib, so I figured I woudln't give it to her and see what happens...it was a diaster!
My friend's dad is a dentist and he said to get rid of it by 3 yo, so that's my goal.
Thanks everyone for your replies.
Goldie & Amanda - I really wanted to wait until E was older to take away the pacifier. For some reason, my DH was all in favor of taking it away early - but of course he's not the one staying home with them all week - I am! So as soon as the pedi gave me that advice, I caved. I have heard it's much easier to get rid of when they're older. Now I'm not sure what to do (give it back or not), since night time is going so well.
Omalley - thanks for sharing your experience. I've tried reading to E before putting her down, but it doesn't seem to be working. I've never tried the glow worm and always wondered if that might work to soothe her. That's an idea I may look into if I don't cave and give the pacifier back!!
We took the pacis away at 13 months old and yes naps were messed up for a while. One got over it in about 4 days the other smaller twin took almost 3 weeks before she finally got back on schedule and napping well again. Stick with it. You got this far, you can get the rest of the way. For right now if she is not napping well during the day, put her down earlier to bed at night. This will help her catch up on the missed sleep during the day until she starts napping better. I had to do this with mine. Instead of bedtime at 7pm, for her it had to be at 6pm for a bit until she finally got over the no paci change and went back to normal.
It is rough, believe me I almost broke so many times because I was so used to her napping easily. But I stuck it out and things were great once it was over. Of course now my smaller twin is addicted to her lovey, but that is fine because it doesn't leave the house. I think she will take her lovey to college.
Thanks for the encouragement! E (who is the only one who took a pacifier) is my smaller twin and just has a harder time settling herself down. It's good to hear that even though it took about 3 weeks, your smaller one eventually got back on schedule. And I don't think a lovey is a bad thing to be addicted to
Also, thanks for the advice on an earlier bedtime. Anytime E skips a nap or takes a very short one, I'll be sure to try that out to catch her up on sleep.
Today, I gave E a sippy of milk before putting her down for a nap and she fell asleep within about 20 minutes without me going in. Not sure if that is another bad habit to get into, but it worked today at least! The good thing is she doesn't need that at night, so we are able to get her teeth brushed and she goes to bed fine on her own.