Pacifiers replacement suggestion

[lovelylisa]

Hoping you all might have a suggestion for me... I  have seen threads about weaning children from pacifiers but I wonder what you guys might be able to suggest for me. My son just turned two and has always used a pacifier for naptime and bedtime only. I went to get him from his nap the other day... and he has bitten off the nipple part of the pacifier! I thought it was possibly because he had used this particular pacifier for a long time. I gave him a new one for bedtime... and he bit off the second one. So now we are taking them away for good. I am too afraid he will bite them off and choke! Naptime and bed time have been pretty rough for the past two weeks without it. He can fall asleep but he wakes up screaming cause he can't find it.Is there something else I can give him?  He loves to chew and suck (even though he has all his teeth for his age) that might help soothe him?

[UmmRiyam]

I'd love to know as well.  I am having the same problem with my 2 year old daughter.  She has also bitten off the end of her pacifiers, and she is extremely picky and only wants that one pacifier until the end falls off completely, and then she cries for us to fix it until she finally accepts a new pacifier.  I'm afraid to take it away from her completely. 

[hakeber]

No ideas here.  You might want to have this moved to the Toddlers forum though.  This doesn't seem like a discipline question.  You might get more responses.

[lovelylisa]

Thanksm I'll see about moving this

[McGucks]

DS1 was weaned from a paci by our poking a tiny hole in the end of it.  This eliminates the ability to get "sucking satisfaction" from it.  Hope this may help.

[JudiAU]

Does he understand? Because at 2 he might be able to understand that chewing it is such a no-no that he can't have it. That is the first approach I'd use.

Other than nursing, there really isn't a substitute. Some toddler like a bottle but if he doesn't already have that relationship, I wouldn't introduce it.

[lovelylisa]

Thanks guys. I'm kind of at a loss.  I guess there really isn't anything to do until we can get through the hellish naps. Nights have gotten much better, but he really wants his paci for his naps :( Poor guy.

[beebalmmama]

Do you think a different brand would be more sturdy to his chewing? I'm not sure since I don't know what you currently have. Just a thought.

[cristeen]

Does he want to suck or does he want to chew? For chewing, my 19 mo loves his chewy tube. They were developed for older kids, so can really stand up to the biting. Ours still looks brand new and its at least 6 mo. Its definitely not for sucking though.

How about introducing a knotted doll for sucking?