Did anyone else keep the pacifier late, with success?

I just read the earlier topic titled "struggling with daughter's behavior" and it reinforced what I know, one of my DDs cannot function without her paci. She is highly emotional and sensitive and can't settle herself without the paci. I mean, a tantrum would last hours if I didn't give her a paci, and I've tried. I limit the pacis to nap and bedtime only, and when my one DD gets super upset she gets in her bed to have her paci and settle. The dentist told me last spring to get rid of them this summer, but I haven't pulled the trigger. One DD would be fine, but the "difficult" one would be that kid that wouldn't sleep and would cry for six months. I just can't handle that right now.

Did anyone else let their kids keep it until four, and was it even harder to get rid of it then? I feel like she'll learn to cope with her emotional swings better when she can verbalize better and as she matures, but I'm really just looking for any justification to not go through the sleep/crying nightmare. They only have slight bite issues because I've limited the paci from very early on, so that isn't an emergency.

I also figure that I sucked my thumb until I was nearly six, and it didn't kill me.

Any other 3 - 4 year old paci users out there who can make me feel a little better?

 

One of my good friends is a dentist and so is her husband. Their oldest son slept with a pacifier until he was 3.5. They said it was better than him learning to suck his thumb for comfort, because you can take a pacifier away but you can't take a thumb away. Some kids need that kind of comfort...

 

I cut the tops off of my boys' pacifiers this summer. They were exactly 3.5. I told them their teeth were so sharp they were cutting holes in their pacifiers. :laughing: They couldn't believe it when they went to their bed that night and there were holes in their "di's" as they call them. That was all it took for one of them. Sullivan was done with pacifiers, he took a little bit longer to fall asleep (and still does - he has to wind down with books and toys in bed now that he doesn't have his pacifier). Finley continued sucking on his pacifier, even with it cut in half, and I just don't have the heart to get rid of it. It usually falls out by the time he's fallen into a deep sleep and if he needs it to actually fall asleep, so be it.

 

My girls were 3 when I took them away I had been only letting them have them at nap and bedtime months before and was scared to take them away but we had been telling the girls that on there birthdays we would tie there paci to ballons and send them to the babies in heaven, it worked one dd didnt do as well at first she loved her paci and some how would sneak and get a paci during the day before we sent them off but thankfully it was mild after that day BUT my son who is now 13yrs old WOW it was hell getting his away, he was 5 1/2 yrs old and boy am I paying for it now with braces lol his teeth are pretty messed up Good luck!!!

 

We let DS keep his to 3.5. He was only using it at night then and it wasn't an issue.

 

We took them away - I think around 2.5 and now one of them sucks on his finger the other not much of an issue

 

My oldest dd was much like yours, absolutely nothing would calm her down except her paci. She also got overwhelmed really easy in new or different situations, and people scared her. Even at family functions she would get herself so upset and worked up she would be sobbing her little heart out, until we gave her her paci back.

She was a little over 3 when we finally took it away and she did much better with it than she did at shortly after she turned 2. 4 hrs of heartfelt sobbing that first night, and it ruined her bedtime for almost a year, even though we gave in and gave it back to her. She used to sleep with the light off, pitch dark, with only lullabies and a fan running. After that first attempt she had to have the light on, door open, she was terrified we were going to disappear or something. It took weeks to get her to turn the light off, then we worked on turning the hallway light off, then the bathroom light, and then closing her door again, and even now at age 5 sometimes she wants her door left open.

It was a truly traumatic experience for her, and I'm sad we tried to take it away so early just because "everyone said so". When she was 3 it went much better, she cried a bit the first couple nights but did much better.

My twins are 2.5 yrs and still get theirs at night time. When they get up they pass them to me before they leave their room. I will probably try to take them away late this fall when they are close to 3 yrs old. Thankfully they aren't near as attached as Kaelyn was.

 

So I just got rid of our daughter's pacifier about 6 weeks ago. I thought it was going to be horrible since she wanted it all the time and was so attached to it. She had it all day, and night. She would want it 24/7. If I took it from her she would whine until I gave it back.

Then one day, out of the blue we were at the disney store. She really wanted this Ariel stuffed doll, and I told her if she gave me her paci I would give it to her. That night for bed she wanted her paci, she even tried to give me Ariel back. I told her that she threw it in the garbage when we were at the mall and now the garbage man had it so I couldn't get it. She only cried for 1 hour...and that was the end of it!

However, the one thing I must mention is that she will not take naps anymore. She basically needs to crash and burn at night....right now my twins are sleeping until 6:30am - 7:00am (used to be 7 or 7:30am)...no wake ups and sleeping by 7:45pm. Hope this helps!

 

My son will be 4 this month and he finally gave it up end of August. He only had it in bed. We kept talking about the binkie fairy to him. One night, we couldn't find any binkies and we gave him a pep talk about big boys and he went to sleep fine. Never asked for it again. The dentist back in April told me he'll give it up soon. It's better than sucking their thumbs. Good luck!!!!

 

I agree with everyone else in that my dentist and pedi said it was fine, (better then thumb sucking) and no real reason to take it away until they were ready. Although I will say I WAS done with them, they drove me nuts...always searching for one, freaking out about where it was blah blah...it was a huge hassel so we did the binky fairy. I was so worried it was going to be just horrible and they would freak out-but they didnt.
We talked it up for a few days and then asked them what they wanted the binky fairy to leave for them and we told them the fairy would come and take the binkies to all the babies that needed them, how they were big kids now. Then we decided to take them on a camping trip (their first one) because they were finally big kids and we hung the binkies on a tree and left. We figured for this to work we had to get out and be gone for the day and night. My son cried for about 20 minutes in the car and then after that neither of them has ever asked for it. I really thought they 'needed' it and it turns out they didnt. It was easy!
Good luck, but dont feel badly if they have it going in to the 4th year, no big deal.

 

Thank you very much for the advice. I really feel that letting my sensitive and emotional DD keep hers longer is the right thing to do as she still needs the extra comfort and soothing it provides her.

 

I sucked my thumb until I was 10. :blush: Yep. Kids need a soothing method. Sounds like it isn't a 24/7 thing, so I'd say let her do it.