The time has come… I kept telling myself we’d wait until after Christmas vacation and for the new year before I’d “make” my baby give up the pacifier. Now is the perfect time, right? We got him off the bottle months ago, he’s graduated to a sippy cup, so the natural progression should be to break his binkie habit! I haven’t been really pressed to force the issue, I mean up to this point he only “officially” has 5 teeth! Yup, 5 teeth on the brink of being 18 months, but over the weekend, I saw a couple more sprouting out of his gums, so I can’t use that argument anymore. Then, we took a week-plus cross-country vacay, so I didn’t want to try something “new” while we were away. Interestingly enough, at one point during our trip I thought he had lost of all his pacifiers, so I was faced with the dilemma to buy more, or start the habit breaking right then… Well, I caved and bought a couple more, because I sure didn’t need him raising a ruckus and screaming down my sister’s house in the middle of the night. I do think it was the right move!
So now, here we are back home and back to reality, and it’s time for my baby boy, who’s more like a toddler man-child to give it up! It was a pretty seamless process with his older brother, who had to deal with one day all of his pacifiers disappearing. He didn’t put up much of a fight and resorted to biting on his “lovey” when he needs to…that thing (lovey Mr. Elephant) is another story! However, with Isaiah I anticipate it may be more of a process and probably a good week of a struggle before he accepts they are all gone.
In preparation for the challenge I’ve found a few ideas on what to do to break the habit.
- slit the tip of the pacifier
- dip the pacifier in something that doesn’t taste so great
- offer your child the opportunity to trade in the pacifier for a big-boy or big-girl toy
- gradually reduce use
- cold turkey
I guess I’ll go in order, until the deed is done. Please share and let me know what worked for you, or if you have any additional “binkie breakup” ideas!! Wish us luck…