Pacifiers

I am thinking that my on my next school break (Mardi Gras in six weeks) I am going to go through the process of getting rid of the pacifiers. I know it will only take a few nights but I still have some questions. I am almost positive DS will start sucking the fingers. Should I wait a little longer for him? How did you go about the day times? My twins sometimes start fussing for no reason (not time to eat, not tired, not dirty) and they will settle Dow after we give them the pacifer. They both have strong sucking needs. DD I may have an easier time with b/c she also has a bear she sleeps with, but she fusses more during the day. Will this ease ip?

 

I wish I could help..at 27 months my boys still use one to fall asleep.

 

I don't know...for me...I don't see what the rush is for getting rid of the pacifiers. My boys were 19 months old when we got rid of them. They only used them at bedtime/naptime. That was it. They didn't run around the house with them, and they didn't have them when we were out in public either. It is what soothed them to sleep. And even then, it wasn't like they were waking in the middle of the night to find them. That was never an issue.

When the boys were infants, we had the pacifiers for when we were out and about. I brought them-just in case! LOL! Especially if I was solo, I always had them. Like you said-it helped settle them down. If it wasn't feeding time, it helped satisfy that sucking reflex, even if for ten minutes. I don't know, without knowing more as to why you want to get rid of them, it's tough to say.

I think if you don't want your ds to suck his fingers-you with pick the fingers or the pacifier. Others will say, you can take away a pacifier, you can't take away fingers. People will also say that the longer they have them, the worse it is to get rid of them. In my case, it was not an issue at all. We told them for about two weeks, here and there, that they were big boys. And big boys don't use pacifiers. They would tell us they were big, not babies(one word/sentences). We told them their sister, Annabella(just born), was a baby and she used pacifiers. So one night, dh told them they were all done, and they walked to Annabella's PNP, dropped in their pacifiers, and the rest is history.

If there is a specific reason why you want to get rid of them, then you need to have a plan in place on how to settle them, or to not have them suck the fingers, etc. And like with anything else, I would think that once they are use to no pacifier, it would ease up. They will hopefully find other ways to soothe themselves.

Sorry-I'm probably no help and just rambling! Only you know your babies. if you think one won't do well with the taking of them away...wait. You can try when they are older, or notice they aren't needing them as much anymore. In any case-good luck!

 

I never gave my babies paci's ( I know...mean mommy! LOL) and they both suck their fingers.I don't mind it at all, in fact it's kinda nice, they can self soothe without my running to give them a pacifier. They are 5 1/2 months.

My guess is that they may start to suck thumb or fingers if they like to suck. I hope it goes well for you!!

 

My boys have pacifiers AND suck their fingers. Sometimes they try to fit both into their mouths at the same time! I don't think they are too hooked on the pacifiers though. I may wait to see if they just lose interest.

 

My 4 year old was a thumb sucker.. he just stopped a few months ago. Trust me, it's cute when they are babies, not so cute when they get older. If they'll take the paci and seem to need to suck still... let them have it. It's easier to take away a paci later than to get them to stop taking their thumb or fingers because they always have them. At least once they have an attachment to the paci they hopefully will lose interest in the fingers and you won't have to break them of the habit twice..

Both of my girls require a paci to soothe but once they are asleep and it falls out, they don't wake up because it's gone usually. But if they wake up in the night and it's missing they want it back.

 

I had serious problem with pacis. We used them until the twins were 3 months. I threw them out just like that. They didn't care. Now I give them one, they just its just one of their toys.

I would say get rid of it really.when they fuss, you can give them something else like toys (light and music ones), sing a song, make animal noises (cows, pigs),night time just sleep train them.one step at a time

Oh my dd used to be a strong sucker.she loved to suck. After I threw away her paci, she sucked her thumb to smoothe herself at nap and bed time.I was worried that shed be addict to it. But after 6 months, she's done. No more thumb suck!!

This is my opinion. If you're ok with paci, then let them.if it bothers you,then get rid of it. You know the best for them.good luck!!

 

I was just thinking of cutting out the paci for my girls too. They're 5.5 mos. Allie really has quit taking her since being sick. She couldn't breathe through her nose so she had to spit out her paci. Maddie still likes her sometimes. I don't like having to stay on top of pacis. Where are they, are they clean, which belongs to which. I have enough to deal with without having to worry about pacis. I'm thinking my Maddie is going to be a thumb sucker because she tries to get that thumb in there. She will spit the paci out to suck her fingers or thumb. So I think if it's going to happen it's going to happen. I rather cut the pacis out now and teach them early to self soothe. To me there are too many other things in the world to worry about than a thumb sucker.

 

agreed christinam!

 

We waited until 16 months. My kids loved to suck and for us it was a tradeoff between sleep and pacis. Pacis seemed like the lesser of two evils. I am glad we waited.. for us it was always good to have a surefire way to calm them down. When they stared being more of a problem than they were a soothing device we cut them off cold turkey. They started tossing pacis out and we had to go in and get them fifty times before they would go to sleep and during the day they were throwing them out or fighting over them. It took two sort of sleepless nights and a few fussy afternoons before they more or less forgot about them.

 

We cut Hannah's out at around 6.5 months and she did well with it. She only used it to fall asleep and I wanted her to learn to self soothe without it. Now all she needs is her blankey She does not suck her fingers and actually she doesn't put her hands in her mouth as much as my 2 years olds do...they never even took pacis but the constant finger chewing has got to be as annoying as sucking bc once they start to move you never know what they touched before putting it in their mouth!

 

We started giving pacifiers only at night and naps around 5-6 months. Around 10 months, we took them away at night and they only get them for naps. We have tried getting rid of them for naps, and they won't go to sleep. But, our guys are terrible nappers and always have been - an average day for us is two 40-50 minute naps. So I guess we will keep giving the paci to them for naps. We may try taking them away again this summer when I done with grad school for awhile and DH is off from teaching. I don't have the energy to fight it while I'm trying to do schoolwork, too,

There are two approaches you can take. You can just take them away cold turkey. My brother and SIL just did that with my nephew, who is 19 (almost 20) months, and they said by the second night, he was fine. Or, you can try cutting them out slowly. First make them only for sleeping, then only for naps, and then take them the rest of the way away.

 

ours used pacis until right at 24 mo. it took a day or two and they were fine. both of ours were totally addicted to them! and it had become a bit annoying when they lost theirs in the night etc. we limited to just crib time pretty early. well, the only places we let them have them were at church - to attempt to keep them quiet, we quit that at maybe 6 mo? and about the same time we started to limit their use in the car too.... only if it was extremely necessary.

I didn't want a paci user forever, yet I really didn't want a thumb sucker either... so for us it worked to wait and enjoy the great soothing of the paci until later.

 

We use ours at sleep time only. They use it as a sleep cue and it helps to settle them.
Much easier to get rid of a pacifier than a finger or thumb :laughing:
!

 

My boys are 2 now and I got rid of the pacies just after their birthday. I started letting them have the pacies only for nap and bed time around 1 and then I decided 2yrs was the limit for sleeping. I just took the pacies, said to the boys that the pacies were all done and going bye-bye and took them away. Jonathan had no problems. Just started sucking his thumb instead. Riley had a bit of a problem. For a few nights and naps, I had to go back in and tell him the pacies were gone and that it was night-night time. He is fine now.