paci question

ok. HOW do i ditch the paci.
my LO doesn't talk much and we're trying to encourage more chit-chatting. do i start by ONLY doing the paci during nap/bedtime or should i just get rid of it altogether? im nervous how it will affect him at the babysitters. not sure how long it will take either. does it take long to wean off?

 

We just took ours away cold turkey one day. I had tried weaning them down in the past and I think it was confusing for them because they would get it sometimes and not others and it led to a lot of screaming. Miles was SO attached to the paci, I was envisioning weeks of screaming when we took them away. But after 2 days he was fine. They mostly just fussed at bedtime and during the day I am sure there are times where a paci would calm them down but they've found other ways to distract themselves. They'll still get upset if they finds one around the house and I take it away from him, but it's short lived. I would just explain to your babysitter what's going on and I am sure she'll enforce the rules.

Taking away the paci was the best decision I made! No more fighting over soothers, no more rescuing thrown soothers, no more public meltdowns when one throws their soother out of the stroller. It's great! Good luck!

 

The only one of my kids to take a paci was my dd. At about a year we really restricted it to the crib and the car.
I'm a fan of the pacifier and was fully ready to have her go through the "Paci Fairy" when she turned 3. I had it all planned out :laughing: Probably my first mistake.
Well at 2.5 she gave it to me after her nap one afternoon and said "all done". I asked her numerous times what she meant and she said "all done, throw away". So I did. She had no problem with it. That night I thought for sure she would want it back and she mentioned it and I reminded her that she threw it away. She said okay and went to sleep :blink: :woah: This girl had never spent a night without her paci and she loved it. But apparently she was done. We never looked back and she does ask about it, but I just say they are gone and she's fine. It still shocks me to this day that that happened but since then I've heard of other toddlers doing the same thing.
I wouldn't worry about it once they are kept in the cribs and car.
Good luck!

 

We went to cribs only (and 2 emergency ones in the diaper bag), at around 18 months. They may fuss for it some if they are tired or not feeling good, but overall it's no big deal. They know if they want their sucky they have to get in their crib. Sometimes I'll put them in there, they'll sit and suck on it for a few mins and then want out again. I don't mind

 

We restricted it only for naps/bedtime and it worked bread for us. It was hard the first couple of days as they would whine and whine but we stuck trough. Now the next stage for us is to get rid of it completely and I am not ready yet in a couple of months maybe

 

I heard the best solution the other day. Someone tied the pacifier with a short string to a door knob, so the only way the child could suck on it was if they were standing up right at the door. Then they told the child they could use it as much as they wanted. It made me laugh when I heard about it. It gives the child some control over using it, but makes it kind of uncomfortable and very inconvienient.

We have usually gone gradually to first just for naps and bedtime, then just at night, and finally losing it all together. That didn't work with my twins. We had to finally just go cold turkey.

Spencer lost his pacifiers for a week, and didn't sleep well at all. He was a little more cranky during the day, but did ok. Then I was cleaning the living room and found them under the couch. He was so excited and has sucked on it much more in the last couple of days than he had in the whole last month. On the plus side, he sleeps soooooo much better. So right now I'm not pushing the issue.

 

that is HYSTERICAL! love it! we restricted fairly early to just the crib, and we made them put the paci back in the crib themselves. worked fairly well. at about 2 yrs I realized my dd's were choking hazards so we immediately took hers away, and I freaked out and had to run and buy a new pack. but then didn't use them. basically we just took them away and it was time, so nice to be done with them. they get to be a pain when the kids throw them out of the crib and then yell for them! one reason I kept them was to hopefully avoid thumb suckers... for us it worked.