Taking away the pacifier - Page 3

[Rose-Roget]

Originally Posted by Purplegal

This is something I carry guilt around about, and wish I had read responses like this sooner! I REALLY wish I had not pushed it like that now.

Like I said, ds developed irritation on his chin that wasn't healing well, so I decided to take it away altogether. He was not ready to give it up.

Also, I wonder if it's an American thing to insist on taking them away so early (for kids who need them). Visiting my husband's family in France, I saw plenty of "older" children sucking pacifiers unabashedly. This helped me feel better about letting him keep it until age 4, when the world was telling me to snip the nipple off, send it to the pacifier fairy, whatever.

[Lady Lilya]

Rose, my Russian MIL was pushing very hard to get us to use the pacifier with DS. She had a horrible fear that he might become a thumb-sucker and that we wouldn't be able to get him to stop. She told me that DH had used a pacifier as a child, and they forced him to stop. They cut it into pieces and threw them outside in a field, while he watched. Then that night he was so inconsolable they were out with flashlights trying to find the pieces, but couldn't. Anyway, she wanted me to get DS hooked on one, but then when he was around 18 months she started trying to make him feel ashamed of using one, and was pressuring me and DH to take it away.