Opps ...I now see the "advice" section. Sorry if I posted this q in the wrong area.

:)

have you tried poking a hole in the pacifier so that the suck is different? Some have cut off the tip.

Others have had success in a paci fairy (kinda like easter bunny/santa claus). You gather them all up, then you put them outside on a tree or front stoop. At night the pacifier fairy comes and takes them to all the new babies that need them. Then they leave a big kid treat (stuffed animal/toy) for them being such a big kid.

Have you been able to limit the time he can have a pacifier to say bedtime/naptime? Good luck, I am fighting a thumb sucker!

I am going through the same thing except Jordyn is 2 1/2. We are working with the "Princess" right now. Every night before we go to sleep Jordyn has to put a pacifier under her pillow. In the morning the "Princess" has taken the pacifier and left some type of reward on the pillow.

Based on my experience, I recommend reducing the attachment in stages. Start by just cutting back on how much he uses it. I started by putting it away when he ate breakfast. Out of sight, out of mind, he didn't use it for a while, sometimes all morning.

Then back it off until he only uses it for nap/bedtime. This is where my son is now. He knows to leave his pacifer in the bed when he gets up.

Honestly, now that he hardly ever uses it, I'm not going to go further until he's through potty training. I don't want to throw too many new things at him at once. Since his speech and vocabulary are on target, I'm not concerned about him using it for sleepytime.

One more thing about speech, when your son tries to talk with the paci, calmly tell him you can't understand him with the paci in his mouth. If you stick to this, he will take it out to talk even if it's just a second.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

My 2 1/2 yr old had a hard time with the paci too. We vowed to NOT buy anymore and we got down to ONE! It was lost and we NEVER bought another. You really HAVE to be consistent! It will be tough, but you can do it! Some suggestions I read would also be to maybe box them all up and "send" them to paci "heaven" or to other "babies" that need them, since your toddler is now a "big kid" The only thing that worked for us was just sticking to our guns and NOT getting him another one. I worried that he might want my youngest sons paci but he never did because it was a different type of paci. We still have to cross the hurdle of getting the younger one off his now.

I've had a few friends with binky-babies and I'll pass on a few of their weaning tips since I thought they were cute. My one friend took her daughter to the Build-A-Bear factory to make her "Binky Bear". There is a stage in the animal-making where the kids get to put a little "heart" inside their bear before it gets sewn shut. They put her binky inside the bear instead. Now when she wants a comfort object, she has her "Binky Bear" that she can hug instead of sucking on the actual binky. It worked like a charm for them.

Another friend of mine let her little pick out some new toys, the catch was that he had to "pay" with binkies. He was really into Thomas the Train and he had a lot of binkies to "purchase" with, so he got a bunch of new pieces for his collection. He was really cute about it. He was showing me his new trains and telling me how he "bought them with me binkies!" I thought that was a neat idea too.

Anyway, hope some of this helps! My daughter never took a binky or sucked her thumb, not even when she was a newborn...she's a blanky girl, lol.

I am reposting this from a past journal entry and discussion post:


Okay, I struggled with bye-bye paci for a long time. I tried to take my daughter's paci away when she was 2 - but we wound up giving in and giving it back to her after about a week (due to sleepless nights for everyone!). And then just after her 3rd birthday, we had a "Paci Party" for her. It was still really hard but we all stayed strong and I am happy to report that she is paci free. I have cut and paste my journal entry from my "paci party." I hope this helps.

FROM JOURNAL:

I thought I had attended every possible occasion for a party imaginable but last night, we hosted a Paci Party at our house. That's right. Our daughter said, bye-bye to her paci.

My husband had been stressing about the pacifier use in our house and informed our 3 year old daughter that she's a big girl now (she turned 3 on Nov. 6th) and that we would have to say good-bye to the paci. This was a very traumatic announcement. We've been talking about it for a long time. I even went out and bought her a beautiful new big-girl bed to entice her (see my previous journal entries) she loves to jump up and down on her bed, but wants nothing to do with it, if she can't take her best-friend, Ms. Paci. So, into the crib she goes each night. Plan A was clearly a failed mission.

Onto Plan B: Well, Plan B was to take Calli to the pediatrician for her 3-year check up. In which the doctor informed Calli, "No more paci! It's not good for you anymore." Calli screamed very loudly at him. And in the car she said, "I don?t like that doctor!"

And Finally Plan C: Paci Party! We started the party by tying the pacifiers to a large bouquet of helium balloons. Calli said her farewells and she and Jaxon let the balloons go up into the night sky to Grandma Sandi (my Mom). It was a little sad but then I presented the silly string and the kids went crazy! They LOVED it. It's the first time they had ever seen anything like that. And then we went into the house to have cupcakes and goody bags! Jaxon loved the party so much, he wanted to throw another party and say good-bye to one of his toys. He didn't quite get the concept.

So all is good until bed time, of course, when as soon as the lights were dimmed, Calli started screaming, "I want Paci!" And this went on for about 2 hours. I felt so, so bad for her. She was in agony. And there?s just nothing worse than watching your child suffer. I held her and consoled her for hours and was in and out of her room most of the night. She did sleep a good solid chunk in the middle but was up very early and could not go back to sleep. She never needs her paci during the day, it's really only for sleeping and sometimes long car rides -- so I knew the day would be a breeze.

Calli is still a big napper and I was dreading nap time. All the way home from school, she muttered, "I'm so tired, I'm so tired." So as soon as we got home, I put her down for a nap but she popped right back up. She refused to close her eyes. So, no nap today.

Tonight, she cried for about 10 minutes. I rocked her to sleep and it's now 11:00 and all is quiet on the western front. However, I better finish blogging, because I have a feeling, it?s going to be a very long night again. Wish me luck and I?ll keep you posted.

**Also, have you tried cutting the tips off the paci's? I know that a lot of people have luck with that! And when your son comes to you with his "broken" paci, you say... "oh that's too bad." Don't buy him anymore and slowly cut the tips off of all of them.

Good Luck! "

no real help other than to give you something to think about... my son becomes more attached to his paci when he is teething, it's soothing for him. Just make sure nothing like that is going on when you are adding the stress of removing the pacifier.

Thanks to everyone ....the advise is working and the princess fairy comes to take and give back pacifier accordingly and hopefully will be free of that darn thing next week!! WOO HOO!!!!

Thanks everybody. I haven't tried anything major yet. I do think about the teething since he's having a raw behind again lately. But he just wants it when he's stressed or tired the worst but he really wants it all the time lately.

My oldest son was just a little over a year old when we just simply told him he was a big boy and did not need a paci anymore. He threw it right down and never touched another one. But my baby son is now 2 1/2 and we have tried everything to get rid of his, but he has to have it. It is my quest to break him of it before he is 3 though. I know a guy that put texas pete hot sause on the tip of his 3 year old sons paci. He said the poor boy spit it out of his mouth and never touched another one. I would never dream of anything like that, even if my son is still sucking on one when he is 50!

That's still a thought though. Make it taste unpleasant. hmmmmmm.....lets see, what might be good?

We love passy's in this house, regardless of what any doctor or dentist may say to the contrary :)

With my oldest, I had him weaned from his passy just before he turned 3 (I know!!!), or so I thought. One day, he found two in his toy box and the whole process started all over again.

Make sure you've collected them all and put them out of reach. Check everywhere...car seats, toy box, bath caddy, under and in furniture, backyard....everywhere.

On the second go-around I kept three and threw the rest away. Each week, I'd cut the tip off of one and give it to him as if nothing were wrong with it. He'd hand it back and say "bokeded" (translation: broken). I'd say, "Okay, let's throw it away," and he'd go to the trash and throw it out. By the time we got to the third passy on the third week, he'd pretty much lost interest in the whole thing & gotten frustrated with passy. It worked....now I've got a 1y.o. and I learned from that experience. We still love passy's...they work for us & frankly, I enjoy browsing the passy isle and selecting new colors and patterns...I need to get a life :) In any case, with #2 we just started him out right off with passy only in bed. I take it out of his mouth before I get him out of his crib and leave it in his bed. Who knows when I'll even begin to think of weaning him from it, but I hope this set-up will make things a little easier!