Weaning off the pacifier

[AKA_PI]

This is totally my fault but something has to give:

By 14 months, I had my son completely weaned off his pacifier and sleeping quite now. He ended up sick with the flu really bad around 15 months and the pacifier was the only thing to soothe. I gave in and let him have it. Now at 19 months, he refuses to give the thing up. When I try not to let him have it, he screams bloody murder for hours. And I do mean hours. He's gone as long as two hours before. Any recommendations on how to get him off of this without me losing any hair?

[Katie T]

Wait for him to decide on his own to give it up. This is what I do. They have it longer than most people think is needed, but they do (usually) outgrow the need for it. My first gave hers up with no tears a day before she turned 4yo.

My second did it just before 3 1/2. It wasn't a slow process for either of them. One day we were getting ready for nap and I told DS to get his bink and he told me he didn't want it. I really thought he would come get it after we laid down because he had been taking it most of the day up until this time but he went to sleep.
Then for bedtime that night it was still laying on the floor so I once again told him to go get it and he told me once again he didn't want it and hasn't had it since.

For a couple weeks up until this point he had been chewing the nipples into pieces and when he did I would tell him he had to throw that one away (we had a huge stash lol) I think he was ready but not sure and then just decided himself that yes he was.

It has been almost 2 months and they are now all gone and he is totally cool with it.

This approach is for those who are comfortable with letting a toddler have a bink, I did make DS take it out of his mouth to talk and he does have great speech so I don't see any ill effects from the way we do it.

Good luck

[applecider]

If you do a search here, you will find that I posted this EXACT same thing only my son was more like 2-3. The advice given was to just wait until he is ready. He was ready this year at 4 and a half. It was much longer than I wanted, but he gave it up very easily and without fuss. So I will give you the same advice! When they are more ready, it is very easy to do. I agree to do it slowly over time. I think we only let him have it at bedtime and naptime for awhile. Then after he quit taking naps, only bedtime. He had a special spot that he put it when it was not in use. And either I could put it there or he could, but it had to go up. I guess it was a bit hard, but by the time he gave it up all together, he was ready. We agreed upon a date and talked about it a lot and he was happy to cut the tip off on January first of this year!

So anyhoo, I would agree if he's that worked up about it, maybe he's not ready.

[AKA_PI]

Thanks for the advice, mamas! I've pretty much decided to let him wean himself. Considering how he only really wants it when he's sleeping or during the night, he'll probably just hand it over to me one day and say "all done". Thanks!

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

OK, seriously, i posted the EXACT same thing today. Guess I should have done a search first, eh?