PR: Pacifier weaning
bigbootyjudi
member
Ugh, I hate that I'm about to have this 'conversation.'
Sergio (~10 months old) is addicted to his pacifier. I mean, he wants it, all of the time. He'll wake up in the MOTN, crawl around his crib almost completely asleep, just to find this dumb thing, find it, and back down he goes. He won't fall asleep without it. He uses it pretty consistently throughout the day too. It's almost always in his mouth. If it's not, he's looking for it...and he'll find it.
What's the best way to ditch this thing? Should I just go "cold turkey" and stop letting him have it during the day? Gradually take it away? Let him have it x amount of times during the day? Only at night?
ETA: What age would you start weaning? His pediatrician is the one that told me I should start now.
SCANDAL!
Re: PR: Pacifier weaning
We had great success with the "Bye Bye Binky" method (google it). I like the idea of this so much better than cold turkey, which seems so traumatic to me if the child is truly attached to it. In short, you start out by poking a pin hole in the tip of the binky and gradually add more holes, then a snip, etc over the course of a few weeks. This makes the brain disassociate the pleasurable sensation from sucking because the binky loses its suction. After a few weeks of no longer getting that "pleasure" the child is ready to ditch it on their own. It really did work for my 3 year old.
eta I also think your baby is really young and I would advocate letting him keep it longer, but that's just me.
I don't really care about him having a pacifier. I'd rather not deal with the weaning process right now while we're introducing more table foods, trying to get used to the sippy cup, and teething. His pediatrician is the one that told me I should start restricting/weaning pacifier use right now. I don't really have any IRL friends that have kids, besides my best friend whose son never used one, so I'm not sure when the "normal" age is. I don't see too many kids over 1 with them in around here, so her advice seemed to make sense to me...but maybe not?
SCANDAL!
I would go cold turkey during the day and only have it in the crib for naps and bedtime (and one in a secret spot in the diaper bag for when you're out). I don't know how you can 'wean' from it during the day - only give it for x amount of time and then take it away? I don't see that working.
bfp#4 3/19/2014 edd 12/1/2014 please let this be the one!
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We waited until DD was 18 months old, and took it away cold turkey. It was a tough few days and nights, but well worth it and we never looked back.