Hello all,
[name_m]Just[/name_m] popping in to get some advice on weaning your toddler off the pacifier. My youngest will be 3 in [name_u]June[/name_u] and seems to have no intention of giving it up no matter how hard we try (My oldest never used one so we never had this problem). It feels like we’ve tried every trick in the book. We tried introducing a new “comfort stuffed animal” at night to be the comfort part of her routine and it didn’t work; she wouldn’t let us take the paci from her. We tried putting her down with it in and taking it out when she’s just about to fall asleep but she just cries and carries on. She literally refuses to sleep without it, and I eventually have to relent because I feel so guilty listening to her crying. Last night we tried for an hour to get her to sleep without it but she’s just so stubborn about it!
I’m worried it’s going to start to affect her teeth soon if we can’t wean her off of it. Plus, she’ll be starting preschool in the fall and IMO she’ll be officially too old for it then. Any suggestions, mamas? What are some tricks you used to wean your kids off?
Probably not helpful given we are past [name_u]Christmas[/name_u], but I know lots of people that have used the “[name_f]Santa[/name_f] trick” to get their toddler to give up their dummy. They bring the child to see [name_f]Santa[/name_f] for a photo, and then the child has to give [name_f]Santa[/name_f] their dummy in order to get a special present from him. It works surprisingly well every time.
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About a month before my son turned 3, I started to tell him that when he turns 3, he won’t be having a dummy (pacifier) anymore. I explained that he will be a big boy when he’s 3, and 3 yr olds don’t have them.
Then I said that there are so many little babies in the world that don’t have dummies, and maybe he could post his dummy to one of those babies.
I then would tell him all that every few days, until the day after his 3rd birthday.
Then, he "wrote " a letter to a baby girl who had no dummy, said goodbye to it, and he put it in an envelope and he posted it in the letterbox.
The next day, he had a letter from the baby saying thankyou, and that she would like to buy him a new ball as he was so kind. So off to the shops we went, he picked a new ball and was so proud of himself.
This worked for my son as he’s very empathetic and the idea of a baby with no dummy was so sad to him. And almost a year on, he still talks about how he was so kind.
I was surprised that it worked so well to be honest. He took a little longer to fall asleep the first few days, but the thought that he’d helped someone helped so much.
Maybe you could do something similar; find a story that would appeal to your daughter’s personality, and help her be involved. My son was the one who wrote the letter, posted the envelope, checked the mailbox etc. I think it gave him a sense of control.
We also would talk about how he would be sad and miss the dummy, but it’s okay to feel sad and that he could talk to me about it any time.
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I did a combination of the above posts, but at [name_f]Easter[/name_f]! Perfect timing if you want to give I tr a try. My daughter was 2y3m and only used the dummy at sleep time. I prepared her about a month away from [name_f]Easter[/name_f] that we were going to put her dummies (we had a bunch) in [name_f]Easter[/name_f] eggs, and the [name_f]Easter[/name_f] [name_f]Bunny[/name_f] was going to leave her special presents and give her dummies to babies who really needed them. That night we replaced all the dummies with chocolate and threw the dummies in the bin so we wouldn’t be tempted to give in. It worked!! There were no tears, no asking for it, nothing. I couldn’t believe it.
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Another option is to always snip the tip ever so slightly without them knowing. It’ll lose its appeal!