I read this advice somewhere on the internet when Wendy was a toddler, and gave it a try. Within a week, she was completely Binky-free, with zero tears. Now that David is that age (our pediatrician recommends weaning from the pacifier by 18 months), I've done it again. And guess what?
It worked even better. He is Binky-free after only a few days.
How did I do it? It's easy!
When your baby/toddler isn't watching, cut about 1/4" off of the tip of the pacifier. That's it! That's all! Let your baby have the pacifier at all the usual times, without any restriction. In two days, if baby is still wanting the pacifier, cut another 1/4" off. Repeat as needed until baby decides that the pacifier isn't necessary.
My favorite thing about this method weaning from the Binky is that I am not the Mean Mommy. The decision to give up the pacifier came from the baby, and I didn't have to fight any battles over it.
Two additional points:
*Make sure that your cut is smooth. You don't want baby's mouth to get irritated if he decides to keep sucking on the pacifier.
*Make sure to keep the pacifier clean. Once the bulb is cut, it can trap all kinds of dirt and germs.
Good luck! For more tips and advice, visit Works-For-Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family!
7 comments:
I tried this with one of my kids, I think my second one, and I swear she sucked on that thing until there was nothing left! She never chose to get rid of it. (She was pretty attached apparently!)
With my oldest we used a different tactic. She stopped using a binky at 2 months, and I thought I was home free. I saved these two extra small Winnie the Pooh binkies for her baby dolls. When she was 2 or 3 she picked up one of those binkies and popped it in her mouth! Like that she was hooked on a binky! Somehow we had ended up with a third one by that point, and what I ended up having to do was sneak in after she was asleep and steal the one she was using. She woke up and looked for it, couldn't find it. She replaced it with another. Repeated that two nights in a row. The third morning when the 3rd was gone, she looked and looked and asked where it was. I reminded her at nap time they were all missing. And at bed time. She knew they were missing because she looked for them herself. So she just gave up. It was sneaky. But it worked. ;)
I wish I'd had this tip when my oldest was addicted to his pacifier! It didn't help that he was a very tall child, either...from the time he was about 12 months old, I would hear comments about "Isn't he too old to have a pacifier?" My middle child never took a pacifier, and my third gave hers up on her own when she was about 5 mos. old. I suspect, based on what I know about her as a 4 year old, the taste changed from use or it felt weird with teething and she didn't like 'em anymore. ;)
Thanks for stopping by!
Uggghh. I am embarassed to even tell you how old my middle one is who is very attached to her binky. She loves them so much...
We did the same thing!
Ha! I'm definitely going to try this!!
I have heard of this before but didn't know if it worked!! Getting rid of Ali's was an arduous process - I'll try this with Noah one day!!
We have 27 month old twin boys who were quite attached to their binkies... but we are happy to say that we are now binky free after just one night! We spent about 2 weeks talking to the boys about giving away their binkies and replacing them with a new toy. We had them put all of their binkies into a box which we then wrapped. Our friends brought over their 7 month old baby and the boys gave the box to her as a present. They then got their new toy Woody dolls. They were so excited that there has been no whining about "where's my binky". We had dreaded the day for months and it ended up being a piece of cake!
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