Katie Boo-sie Boo-sie Boo (my latest nickname for her) likes the paci.
See, neither of the boys were pacifier kids so this isn’t something that I’m accustomed to.
And yes, it has it’s advantages, like being able to stick in in her mouth while she’s playing on a blanket outside knowing that with it inserted she cannot put grass and clover in her mouth and then later spit it out (that didn’t really happen. Okay, maybe it did…)
But I’m also already worried that it will be hard to give up someday. I myself was a thumb-sucker and I was an ancient EIGHT years old before I gave that up. I remember that I had a special “blankie” that I rubbed while I pacified myself and that I would look for it when I got home from school every day. I used to think back on that and say to myself, “oh my, how stupid,” but now I have kids and well, not so stupid anymore.
But I digress.
Baby K uses the paci mostly to settle before naps and bedtime. She usually drops it out or we take it out of her mouth before she lays down to sleep. BUT, lately I’ve been giving it to her just randomly when she fusses, etc. And there have a been a couple of times that I’ve laid her down with it in her mouth (shhh, don’t tell).
I kinda feel like her “dealer.” he he.
Anyway, I wonder if any of you have any tips for me. Should we try to quit the paci now or wait until later? I know she’s only a mere 6.5 months old but I’m not interested in fighting the good fight to get rid of it later if I can nip in the bud now. Plus, as I mentioned, I have ZERO experience with this previously so I need y’all to weigh-in.
So, lay it on me. Give me your paci advice. Stat.
Any and all is appreciated…
Well I will say start early. Only because I didn’t and it bit me in the butt.
But I would recommend that you keep to the just before she sleeps.
I think the best time to give up is when you transition from bottle to cup. So maybe around the 1 yr mark. Not long after that.
Well, I don’t have kids (yet!) but my preggo self just read that when they sleep with a pacifier it reduces the risk of SIDS, so it must not be bad for them to sleep with one. I wouldn’t worry too much. Not all kids have trouble giving it up.
I just knew we had some sort of deep connection. Former thumbsuckers unite! Hanging my head in shame, I sucked for 12 years, no joke. My kids, one paci, one thumbsucker. The paci was easier to break and cheaper at the ortho to fix. Grandkids, both paci, although Jakie uses it way less than Joey ever did. IMO it wasn’t that hard to break them. At 12 months it never left the house with us and was strictly for naps and bedtime. Do what you need to to keep your sanity and stop listening to the naysayers.
Iz had hers until like 20 months, and Nat still has hers at 18. Now, it’s just when going to sleep and in the car (a couple rare exceptions). I think drs say it needs to be gone by 2. We sent them to the paci fairy the first time. It worked really well. And, the good thing is, you can take it away, and it’s gone. So, they can’t go back to it if they don’t have one!
I wouldn’t worry about it right now.
I took J’s from him at 18 months. He slept better with it, so that’s why I wait that long. Also, by 18 months, he finally started self-weaning from the paci…so I just followed his lead and started laying him down without it.
I think as long as you get all of the paci’s out of the house by 2, it will be fine.
Super cute pic, btw.
I totally have you beat!! I stopped sucking my thumb when I was 11 and had braces put on!
Anyway, I had a thumbsucker (who just stopped at 9 when she had her expander put in), and I had a binkie girl who stopped on her own accord at about 20 months. I was scared of the binkie in the beginning. But we only used it at certain times: bed/naptime, long car rides, and passed the age of about 9/10 months it didn’t venture out from either the bed or the car. I only had 2 binkies that she liked (and Gerber doesn’t make them anymore). So when we were down to 1, I told her that when it got a hole in it, it had to go in the trash and then no more binkies. The day it got a hole, she actually came and told me and then put it in the trash by herself and I never heard another word about it.
So that is my experience with a binky. I think that they can be sanity savers, but if she isn’t overly attached to it and you fear fighting over it in the future, then take it now.
I’ve only had one paci baby and it was super simple to wean him. When he turned two, we just threw them all out and we had now problems! Now, my finger and thumb suckers are not so easy. (They are 8 and 4 and still sucking away). Paci’s are so much easier than fingers/thumbs.
Every kid, as you know, is totally different. You can’t anticipate how hard/easy any transition will be. Both of my girls were completely attached to binkies, and for each of them at 12 months old we restricted it to naps/bedtime only — and to our utter shock, both of them did fine with it. With my older daughter, she still used it at night until she went to the dentist at 3 yrs old and the doc said we should stop. I used that as our “out” — “The doctor said you have to stop!” And that did it, she never looked back. My younger one still uses it in bed and we’re probably going to stop it altogether far earlier than we did the first time around.
The only advice I would really give is to make sure you don’t take it away when any other major stuff is going on, like potty training, moving from crib to bed, etc.
Everyone here has said what I would say. My one kid that took one had no problem when we took it away at 2. She was only sleeping with it by then anyway. I have a thumb sucker who is 6 and while he is much better about not doing it as often, he is not completely done either. I have no idea how we’ll solve that problem.
Kamden used one in much the same way – just to kind of fall asleep, he actually spit it out himself. We took it away just after he turned a year old in the middle of a major kitchen reno we were doing ourselves. Hubby decided to take it away and I thought he was freaking nuts. Kamden could have cared less.
As long as you limit the time they use it, I think it’s not ever going to be a big deal but that’s just my humble opinion!
When mine start walking I snip the tip, which makes it tough for them to hang on to and it loses the suction action. I try to limit mine to sleeping (helps prevent SIDS, they say), but it also comes in handy to keep barbie shoes and legos out of the rover’s mouth. Not that I keep legos and Barbie shoes laying around, but occassionally they will end up on the floor!
Let her have it. Push it…whatever it takes for peace and sanity. Eventually…and it may be when she is 10 she will not want it any more. It happens suddenly…one day she will just decide she is too old and that will be it.
At least that is what happened at my house. Rhett was 3 1/2. And overnight decided to give it up.
I stressed about it for years. RELAX! No big deal. whatever helps you guys have a peaceful house.
Every child is different, so nobody can tell you what to do (start early, or wait). But my advice is to relax and not stress about it.
My experience was a good one. Ethan had a pacifier and loved it. It was also great for his gastro reflux, as the sucking helped soothe the pain. I used to worry about how difficult it would be to take it away, but I needn’t have worried. At about 1 year of age, I decided to limit its use to bedtime only (I do think this is a good idea, and will make it easier to remove the pacifier when they are older). Ethan soon learned that when he woke up from his nap or in the morning, he had to take his pacifier out and put on the shelf by his cot. It wasn’t to leave the bedroom. When he was about 2 1/2, Rob decided to just cut the end off it! I thought we would have tears and tantrums and a night (or 50) of crying, but he was TOTALLY FINE. Never asked for it again!
Tyler wouldn’t take a pacifier (much to my disgust!) but he has a “blankie” (it’s actually just an old cot sheet with teddy bears on it). He still sleeps with it now, age 5 1/2. He’s never dragged it around the shops with him or anything, I made sure it was limited to bedtime or couch (watching TV). It doesn’t go out in public and was never taken to daycare. Nana has an identical blankie at her house for when he stays the night, and of course we do take it when we go away. I don’t really think it’s a problem for him to still have a comfort item. A pacifier is different because it can interfere with speech development and can damage teeth, but a blankie is harmless, so I won’t be worrying about taking it off him any time soon.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Hannah
I’d say get rid of it now. It will be a lot less traumatic! Neither of my sons liked the soother (though not for want of trying, believe me!), but I have friends that had terrible times trying to get the soother away from their 2/3 year olds. Good luck!
My golden rule for parenting: if it bothers YOU, then change it.
I have one thumb-sucker and one paci-feind and I’m OKAY with it. Totally!
It’s comforting and I know that they’ll eventually outgrow it on their own terms. I’m also not that worried about the ortho. Given their genetics, braces are an inevitable part of their future anyway- thumb, paci, or otherwise.
However, if you’re totally anti-paci, then ditch it early and don’t let anyone talk you out of it.
Good luck with whatever decide!
I agree with many of the above mentioned suggestions. My only paci kid, Emerald, gave it up fairly easily. We limited it to bed/naps & if she got really hurt around 13 months. We took a major trip at 15 months of age, so I let her have it thru that trip, for both our sanity. Around 18 months we told her it had to go to baby “______” and she was fine with that. In fact my friend just did that when Zach was born, used him as the baby that needed the paci. That little girl still says “baby Zach needed my paci”.
It is so much easier to keep older kids’ toys out of their mouth with a paci in. I can see a problem with speech if after a year they carry it around all the time. I also agree with the SIDS thing, if it is one more thing that might help her, keep it for now. It really isn’t too hard to give it up later, I promise! At worst a day or 2 of sad, maybe. My friend had a “Bye-Bye Binki” party with cake and all (good excuse for cake, yum). Get some helium balloons and attach the pacis to them to float away to the storks for the new babies. Just make sure when you decide to do it, get rid of ALL of them in the house, diaper bag, car, etc. One lapse can be bad.
I never used one with my son. Our pediatrician recommends no use past 12 months. I would think it would be easiest to do at the same time you transition off the bottle.
Grace is my only child who has not either sucked her thumb or used a paci.
Tommy and Ben both had pacifiers. I basically let them have it whenever they wanted. Then as the got older (closer to a year), I wouldn’t let them have it out of their crib (they would drop them all over the house and they would just get dirty and icky). So they only used them for bed. Then as they got a little older and were moving to a big kid bed I told them that they couldn’t move to a big kid bed until they got rid of their pacis cuz otherwise the pacis would fall out of the big kid bed. They were both SUPER at getting rid of them. They both dropped the habit just like that. No problems. So I’m afraid I’m not much help there.
I say for now, let her have it. I wouldn’t go over 2 years old (or around there) with a paci but for now I think it is fine.
My boys were both pacifier babies, which was really nice. As they got closer to a year we limited use of the pacifier to just bedtime and naptimes. Then by 15 months or so we take it away. I figure once your kids start talking they definitely don’t need a pacifier anymore!