Goodbye pacifiers

Came across Colin's favorite pacifiers during clean up and decided to throw away all these for good. :)

Goodbye pacifiers

When we decided to offer Colin the pacifier (to save my poor nipples and everyoone's ears), I knew that someday we would need to wean him off too. So I began listening to others.. I've heard a few methods others did and picked one that might work for Colin.

(1) Tell the child that the birds came in and took it away, or make up any other interesting stories.
(2) Go to a toy store, get child to pick a toy of his/her choice, pay for toy with pacifier.
(3) Explain to the child that he is a big boy /girl now and does not need a pacifier anymore. Then get the child to snip off the pacifier teat and bin it.
(4) Wait for the child to be ready and give up at own will.

I picked option 3. And this was how we weaned Colin off his sleep partner (aka pacifier).

One fine Monday evening in Jun 2013, just a week or 2 after he turned 1 year old, I decided it was time to wean him off his pacifiers, which he has been sucking since...he was 4 day old. I sat him down near the dustbin (with some trash inside), looked at him in the eye and explained to him that he has turned 1 year old was a big boy already, and that big boy means no longer a baby, only babies needed pacifiers. Then I told him that we are going to cut and throw the pacifier away, and that he will learn to sleep without it tonight.

So I proceeded to hold the scissors with him, and together, we snipped off the pacifier teat. I let him try sucking the pacifier but he could not do it cause the teat was too short. Then explained to him that we were done snipping off the teat, the pacifier was spoilt and it was time to bin it! Opened the dustbin lid and he threw it away. I look at him in the eye again and told him that he threw away the spoilt pacifier so that he will remember.

Here comes the test - BEDTIME. He had problems dozing off without sucking the pacifier. Cried and cried to tell me his frustration, and his scream-cry lasted for 2.5 hours. I carried him and explained to him what he did earlier, how he snipped off the pacifier teat and threw it into the bin. Dad came home halfway, got frustrated, and wanted to give his pacifier back. I got frustrated as a result but did not give in. The saving grace was a new toy (given by one of our guests during his birthday party) to distract him. He kept pressing the buttons of the toy to hear the songs. But I think Colin fell asleep cause he was tired out from all the crying.

Learning point: The most important thing was not to get softhearted and let the pacifier re-appear. Cause then the kid will think that crying like mad will eventually bring back his pacifier. Which makes it even harder to wean the next time.

Following day, I was prepared to receive the scream-cry for his morning nap but to my surprise, he was totally okay, as if he knew that crying won't make his pacifiers come back. He played with his new toy, pressing and pressing for music until he fell asleep. The same thing happened during his noon nap and bedtime... and there, goodbye pacifiers! :D