Most of the advice I’d heard as a mom about pacifier weaning was that it was a lot harder on the parents than the kids. Cut it cold turkey they said. Maybe I’m a wimp? I just didn’t really care to force it on them early. I enjoy the peace that comes with a soother. Surely he wasn’t going to need it in college!!??
I’m hardly an expert on this. My experience consists of accidently weaning one child from their paci. Regardless, I hope this one experience makes it easier on one mama out there. The haters can hate. A pacifier isn’t going to harm your child (in fact its proven beneficial for babies). When you’re ready, I hope this post helps. Or if you’re deciding you’re not ready, I hope this post helps too! I’m thankful I waited until our communication skills were developed enough to decide to quite the paci.
How We Became a Pacifier Lover
I collected pacifier samples as them came in while I was pregnant with my first and stored them in a little ziplock bag. Having a soothing mechanism on hand was appealing to me as was the benefits of a reduced risk of SIDS. We tried various options over the early days. Most of the time, he gagged on the pacis. Sometimes he held it in his mouth for a couple of mins. During a longer then usual car ride, I reached he last sample paci I had. A MAM pacifier.
Now I don’t know what was s magical about this particular paci for him. I can’t remember exactly how old he was, but he was old enough I was willing to accept he wouldn’t be a binkie baby if this one didn’t work out. I’m grateful it did work out though. Car rides, boat rides, plane rides, sleep, everything was a bit easier by having a paci on hand.
As he got older, we dealt with a handful of comments about it. Generally, I didn’t really care what people had to say. I didn’t generally feel some push to drop the paci until he started to speak in complete sentences. My son had the ability to communicate something was bothering him, but instead asked for a “binkie pass.” I did genuinely want to help guide him in facing things that upset him and help him find ways to cope through communication rather than a pacifier. Although I felt this way, I really just fell into weaning him. I didn’t actually know the last time I gave him his paci would be the last time.
Our Pacifier Weaning Story
18 Months – No Pacifier Naps at School
When my son was 18 months old, his teacher told me about how he was always one of the last kids in the class to fall asleep for nap time. She mentioned proudly that he would practice counting up to ten or so. I thought this was hilarious but also so strange. He has always been a great sleeper. How could he be resisting naps at school?!
OH. She must not be giving him a paci.
It clicked that the older classroom didn’t allow pacis for naps. We always gave him his paci at home for naps (and if we forgot, he’d ask for it). It was nice to know he was capable, but I didn’t really care to push it at home. He slept great, why change it? We kept on going along.
3 Years old – Talk With the Dentist
Around two and a half, I started to think more about weaning him from the paci. I wasn’t really sure how, but I also didn’t want to disturb our generally pleasant sleep and car rides – ha. Plenty of our friends told us they had replaced pacis with car screen time… or the paci fairy… or just simply taking it away. I tried to eliminate pacis in the car and it was generally just miserable. I think at this point he might not have been able to understand that when I said I didn’t have a paci for him right then in the car, I couldn’t fix it.
One piece of advice I thought sounded great was having another adult talk to him about it. We hyped up the dentist and asked our dentist to talk to him about dropping the paci at his 3 year appointment. Our dentist was so sweet. She did tell us his teeth looked great and there wasn’t a need to push it BUT if that was our choice, it was an idea she’d support it. I also don’t know if he totally understood what she said, but basically we decided to make it a goal that he’d drop the paci by his next dentist appointment. Maybe it did help though?
Almost 3.5 – We Broke our PACI!
Fairly recently, I noticed my son chewing on his pacifier. It was weird, but I let it go. A couple of weeks ago, I put him in bed for the night and he handed me his paci and said it was broken.
“Oh. There’s a hole in it. It broke when you chewed on it bud.” I told him.
“I need another one. Can you go get me another one?” he replied.
Genuinely, I was just a little too tired to deal with it. I said to him. “Sorry, that’s the one we’ve got bud. I don’t have another one.”
He got up, put the paci in his nightstand drawer and laid back down. He told me it was broken and went to sleep. I definitely didn’t expect it to be that easy. I thought for sure it was a fluke.
The Aftermath: Pacifier Weaning
I kept that broken paci in his room. For a couple of nights, he still did ask me for another paci and I just pointed to that one and said that’s the one we’ve got. He decided he didn’t want that one. He typically plays for a while in his room independently before bed and that’s just the way its gone. I think we probably could have forced it earlier, but I really like that our journey was fairly painless. I probably understand the paci trimming method a little better now.
Once I acknowledged we were fully weaned, I went into his bedroom and snapped a little picture of him. I wanted him to drop the paci, but I’m still a little sad he’s a little more grown up now. I may or may not have teared up a little bit. Why does growing up have to be so bitter sweet?
Regardless, glad to know he won’t still be sucking a paci in college like the haters said 😉 Let me know if you have any questions in the comments. Good luck with the paci weaning journey!