Who doesn’t love the pixelator?
This is my youngest with his patented double pacifier move. I’ve seen him juggle more, happy as a clam. We’ve told him that when he turns 3 and has his big “Duckie Party”, it will be time to say goodbye to his pacifiers. We told him that we will attach them to his birthday balloons and say goodbye. He and I both dread the day. Rather, I dread the night after his symbolic pacifier floats up up and away.
It was much easier with his older brother. Sometime around 2 all his pacifiers were dirty at the same time and then he never asked about them again. I chalked it up to something right I must have said or done. My second child is my humbling child (and for that I really do thank the little scamp). We’ve tried the dirty trick, both on purpose and by happenstance, but no dice. He practically chained himself to the kitchen gate until we figured out a way to sterilize, STAT!
So do your kids use pacifiers or do they all gnaw on organic Birch wood stumps lovingly hand-carved by your partners at night as you both don’t watch television? I am not defensive about these little plastic orbs I swore my children would not use, nope, not at all!
If you are like me, and you succumbed, when did your kiddos stop? How did you help them with the process both before and after? And what did you use to pacify yourselves?
Paper Dolls for Boys 
“do they all gnaw on organic Birch wood stumps lovingly hand-carved by your partners at night as you both don’t watch television? ” – love it!
It’s widely known that I don’t have any real live children but my brother and his wife are going through this. Their little girl, Molly keeps one in her mouth and one in her pocket….and yes, sometimes two in her mouth like your pixelated little one. So, that’s just to let you know that you’re not alone.
I’m afraid my little guy spat his out at four months and never took one again. Definitely nothing I did – I actually tried to get him back in the habit.
I feel for you! and for him. My kids were thumbsuckers – so consider yourself a little lucky. Can’t send that off with a balloon. My oldest just plain stopped sucking his thumb, around 2 or 3, the younger, well, we are saving up for orthodontia. I, however, was a child offered the Green Machine in exchange for my pacifier. I remember handing my pacifiers over to the garbage man. I turned out OK, but the event is obviously memorable.
I am often swayed by the power our youngest has over us with his emotions. And I know trying to avoid getting him riled up doesn’t really help anyone in the long run.
I recommend if he uses the pacy during the day – just start implementing it as solely a bedroom object/sleep time object soon. He can use it if he’s in his room or ready to sleep.
I certainly know folks who cut holes in them to make them less satisfying. That way you “run out” of good pacifiers, much like the dirty ones – but you can’t fix broken ones like you can clean something dirty.
Duck and cover! and invest in some good earplugs. ; )
Oh, man, you make me laugh. All I can say is that with both our kids we tried to give them pacifiers and they each spat them out and subsequently gave us the evil eye. (!) And neither of them has been attached to any lovey or stuffy or fingers or anything. What’s up with that, I wonder? I was a two-fingered-sucker-and-stuffed-duckie-loving girl back in my heyday. Hmmm…
Good luck to you! I think Becca’s comment has some good tips in it…
This is so funny because my little boy is always putting 2 pacifiers in his mouth, and his favorite one is pink. I laughed so hard when I saw the pink in your boys mouth too.
You are too funny!
Jessica went through the same thing with Katie. She was almost 3 before she gave it up. And like you, Jessica swore hers would never be a child walking around with such a thing in her mouth.
What did it for her…while she was at my house I might add…was we put the passy inside of her care bear and stitched him back up. That way when she would ask for it, we told her it was in Care Bears Belly all safe. She could press on his belly and feel it and know it was there with her. It satified her and that was the end of it…close by but gone!
Your cousin Greg fed his to Pop’s dogs!
You are ridiculously funny. Gosh. If only we didn’t watch TV. If only we carved from Birch. Sounds so… Wholesome.
My first wouldn’t have a bar of the dummy (or pacifiers as you call them). No siree. He spat them straight out.
As for my little punk, she went through a stage of digging them. Then just started spitting them across the room (like a little cannon firing out of her cot). Recently she found one at her cousin’s house and adopted it (nothing like sharing is there?) and so now I have had to wrangle them off her. She gets super excited when she sees them (she has an eagle eye for them!). So we’re kind of teetering.
Well, neither of mine use pacifiers or watched tv so we didn’t have to deal with all that, but if it makes you feel better, they became addicted to im-ing, video chat, Guitar Hero, having “sleep-overs” (I mean parties), and 6-hour movie-thons with wild friends and more junk food than Store-24 when they became teenagers. So, maybe a few painful days of giving up the passy will turn out ok in the end.
lt may be a sad 3rd birthday, good-bye balloons and all, or maybe he will surprise you and be cool about it. He’s a sturdy guy!
There’ll be wine and commiserating company waiting at my house for you to escape to 😀
Our oldest one was riding in the back seat of an LTD, in the country side of Kansas. I said, “Oh, look at the little baby calf; I bet he wishes he had a pacifier”. The window was down, and out flew the beloved bubbie. There was a slight whimper…then; that was it. Never asked for again. As for me being pacified, I always found that gin and tonic does the trick!
Birch stumps here, can’t help you.
Well, OK. Older son, nothing, younger son, thumb. I decided not to worry and he stopped around 5. You could go with that method. He probably wont take a paci to kindergarten, and if he does, public mockery will shut his habit down.
My boys didn`t care for pacifiers, BUT they are bottle addicts. My 3 year old is particularly attached to his “pacha”. I`ve tried the dirty thing, the lost thing . . . we even threw out all but two pachas at one point. Let me just say . . . they both still have them. 😛 I did get them down to drinking just water, though, so that`s a plus.
My point? Good luck. 😀
Because I am perfect, my kids stopped using them early enough not to fight me about them – kidding…for some reason they were not that attached. I don’t know if I used a pacifier, but I did suck my thumb for some ridiculous time period. My Mom used to put some weird liquid on my thumb to try and deter me, but it didn’t work.
There is the Binky fairy that leaves a nice toy if you send them to other children. Can he cut back, maybe just for night time?
Our oldest required the Binky Fairy to come visit and leave better toys on his bed when she took the binky. One was a gloworm, so he could have a little nightlight friend. He was completely fine.
Our second would never have allowed that. We narrowed it down to one binky, and were saying we were going to “lose” it, then we actually did. It sucked for a while. Ha, pun… anyway, I remember she had a hard time and slept with me more than usual. But she was okay.
This third one, I am her pacifier. I have to shut down the Nursing monster several times a day by not sitting down, offering snacks or outside play, and at night, just telling her it’s sleeping time, not nursing time. It’s hard. She has never taken a pacifier.
we have a little binky addict in our house too. her 3rd bday has come and gone and alas, binky has remained. it doesn’t help that we’ve recently lost her favorite stuffed fish comfort item, so we’re at a loss.
I’m off to hand-carve a birchwood stump. Let me know if you find a solution 😉
My son used his index and middle finger of the right hand. We decided to not do anything for the longest time, when he got older and went to preschool and kindergarten he became more selfconcious and rarely did it in front of other kids. Shortly before he turned 6 he decided that now he was too old, and just stopped (at that point he had only been doing it to fall asleep). – I think we were very lucky he worked it out by himself…
i was my daughter’s pacifier for almost 3 years, she still (at 7) sometimes likes to lay on my belly for a while before she goes to sleep — whoa, and that girl is getting heavy!!
Visty, I really like your binky fairy!
I told my daughter when she was almost 3 that pacifiers were just for sleeping. Every time I’d see her with one I’d say, “Ok, time for a nap!” Then she’d get upset say that she didn’t want to nap and I’d hold out my hand. She’d give it to me and off she’d go! After a while she got used to just having them to go to bed or to take a nap. Then once she’d fall to sleep I’d go pull it out of her mouth. In about a week she didn’t seem to need them anymore. Oh, on occasion she’d ask, but it all seemed to transition nicely. Good luck!!!