I also posted this on the toddler forum. Any advice is much appreciated :-)
Hello,
DD is 2 yrs. and 3 months old. Her best friend and first love is her pacifier. Six months ago, it rarely left her mouth. We started taking it out when she was happy/calm then. Since, we've scaled down to it only being used for sleeping. It stays in her crib at home and in a drawer at DC when she's not napping. It's not always easy as she asks for it when she's board and even cries for it at home, but she does seem to understand it's only for bedtime now that she's older.
I'm expecting DD#2 in late January. I'd really like her to be off the pacifier a month or two before then......(three reasons: the potential of it messing up her teeth, she wakes up at night screaming for it sometimes, and she's 2 - she doesn't NEED it)
I'm thinking of having her wrap up her pacifiers for her little sister in December. (I'll throw them out, but this way, she's part of the weaning process and feels like a big girl etc)
DH is gone for the first ten days of December. (Sometimes we find it's easier for her to do what we want when one of us is gone) I know I'll be in for a few nights of tears when she cannot fall asleep with the pacifier, but I think she can eventually do this.....
How long should this take? (Note: daycare will not give her the pacifier either) A few days? a week? more?
Re: NBR - pacifier weaning
In my defense I was going to take it away over a long weekend in July when he was a little under 2.5 yrs old, but since I was pg, we ended up using the weekend to move him from the crib to a bed since we were going to need the crib. Then we went on vaca in Aug, and then a long weekend getaway in both Sept and Oct, so we didn't want to do it right before vacation. Then he started potty training in Oct.
Then we were having DS2 in January, so we didn't want to do it then, bc well, his new brother was a big change
So finally, after his third bday, which was a few weeks after the baby was born, we ran out of excuses, lol.
He was only using it for nap and bedtime. And the DC stopped using it a few months after he turned two. They didn't have one to give him bc he chewed up the one he had and they kept forgetting to ask me for a new one, so after a few days of doing fine, we decided not to bring another one in when they finally remembered to ask me for one.
For about two weeks, we were telling him, no more binki after the last one breaks. That binki's were for babies. Every time one broke (we cut them to break them) he would throw it away. One by one he threw them all away until they were gone. He was so proud of himself and was never upset.
He asked for about three nights. The first night he fussed a little when we told him they were all yucky and he threw them all away. After the first night, he was fine! Never took the babies paci's either. If you can get the baby different paci's from the ones your LO is using, maybe that might help?
Anyway, sorry so long. GL! Stay strong!
BFP #2 01/10/10 M/C 01/31/10
BFP #3 12/24/10 M/C 01/20/11
BFP#4 07/18/11 EDD: 03/24/12
We took DS's binkies away on his 3rd birthday. Like your LO, he was down to only using them when sleeping. We talked it up a little beforehand and how he was going to be a big boy and needed to send them to babies that needed them. After his party, when he was all high on fun and gifts, etc., we put the binkies in an envelope and sent them all to the binky fairy. He put the envelope in the mailbox. He was completely on board and all was good....until bedtime. He screamed a little bit, but we said the binkies were already gone. He finally fell asleep and we never had another issue.
I think your plan is pretty similar so hopefully it will work too. Just make sure you talk about how she is a big girl now and doesn't need them anymore.
Good luck!!