Giving up the pacifier

JustcallmeGG2 · January 2014

Hi everyone.
I need advice on how to get rid of our pacifiers.
my twins depend a lot on their pacifiers, especially one over the other.our general rule is that they should only have them during nap time or sleep. but the one twin that favors it more really should be getting rid of it because he's little behind with speech and also I think it's affecting his Teeth.
So... whats the best way? everyone says just take it away and they will cry for a little bit but then it will be ok.... but they are not dealing with 2 screaming kids at once. any suggestions?
also, my kids are not at the age where I can explain it to them.
like I said my son is very dependent on his so this is going to be difficult

kjsmith9 · January 2014

If you don't want to deal with 2 screaming kids at once, why don't you do the easier LO first? After she's good, you can start working on it with the other one.

I don't know any good ways besides taking it away, and I don't know that many other ladies will have advice either. There are other posts down the page about taking the paci away... Seems to be a common thing lately.

I have heard of poking holes in the paci so that it deflates when they suck on it (which, in theory, makes them not want it anymore)... Not sure if anyone around here has tried that.

We took the paci away at nap time right after christmas, and she did great. She got an Elmo stuffed animal for a gift and was suddenly attached to him, so we kind of traded them out and she's been fine just sleeping with him. Do either of them have a lovey that could be used for comfort instead of the paci? We were planning to take it away at night this weekend, but haven't done it yet... Time to bite the bullet!

Caseyk1127 · January 2014

We are weaning my son now. The daycare advised that one by one (he's got like 10 paci's) we cut the tips off and let him find the paci. So far every time he's found one with a cut tip he throws it in the garbage and says broken. Seems yo be working.

zbeesma86 · January 2014

we are waiting a little longer. DD uses it for nap and bedtime. It is usually just to fall asleep then it falls out of her crib.

if she is teething she wants it and will wake up and cry for it

I think we are going to wait until her last couple teeth come in and she understand a little more.

It's hard

jpeterson015 · January 2014

I have an 18 month old son and I've been thinking lately about trying to wean him off of it too. We are due to have another baby in June so I am thinking the sooner the better because it might be harder after the baby is born if they get one too..

arilevine · January 2014

I'm going through the same thing with my 15 month old- she only uses it at naps & nighttime. I tried to not give it to her at naps this weekend & it didn't go so well. My pedi says it's making her two front teeth stick out but it's so hard to wean her right now.

arilevine · January 2014

Caseyk1127 said:
We are weaning my son now. The daycare advised that one by one (he's got like 10 paci's) we cut the tips off and let him find the paci. So far every time he's found one with a cut tip he throws it in the garbage and says broken. Seems yo be working.

How old is he?

lindslalala · January 2014

I started weaning DS off his during daytime first. He was obsessed with his paci so I started by making him go 30mins without it, then we worked our way up to an hour, then longer and longer until finally he was off of it. At some point we cut a little hole in the tip and that made him a lot less interested in it. He cried a ton and it was miserable for both of us, but I'm glad I did it. Naps and bed were actually a breeze because he kept throwing his paci onto the floor to get us to come back in his room so we just stopped giving it back to him and let him cry and sort it out for himself. This all happened right around 12 months.

JustcallmeGG2 · January 2014

Thank you girls!!!!!

*LrCg* · January 2014

I don't know how old your kids are, however with my 3 kids we had them give it up by 2 and it was never an issue. They only used them for naps and bedtime (it never left their cribs). So when they were a little over a 1 1/2 years old, we just stopped doing it for naps (said we couldn't find it) and then at 2 we got rid of it completely. Really it wasn't an issue- a little bit extra time of rocking but really that's not a bad thing.

If I understand your post right, I think you said your twins only have it for naps and bedtime too so I really don't think its effecting their speech. Please understand there is a huge speech growth at @18 months (and being you have twins it may be later @ 20 months). My kids were more physical (they were all walking by 10 months old) so they said maybe 5-8 words prior to 18 months and literally within a week of that time they went from 5 words to 20, 30, 40 and just kept going.

Caseyk1127 · January 2014

arilevine said:

We are weaning my son now. The daycare advised that one by one (he's got like 10 paci's) we cut the tips off and let him find the paci. So far every time he's found one with a cut tip he throws it in the garbage and says broken. Seems yo be working.
How old is he?

He's 2 (28 months) ... At about 16 months he gave it up except bed time or nap time at home but didn't take it to daycare. I wanted to get rid of it sooner but he has a 14 month old sister and I was focusing more energy on getting her to give up bottles and sleep all night in her bed. So now we are back to paci's ... Luckily his sister has no interest in them, lol.

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