How can I get my 2 year old to give up the pacifier?

Question

My 2 year old son still uses a pacifier for his naps and bedtime. He will not fall asleep with out it unless he's in a car, no matter how tired he is. He will just lay there and cry until you give him his "Paci" then he's out within seconds. So far its not bothering his teeth but I would like for him to be off of it before it does. That and his daddy continues to give me hell over it. It breaks my heart to hear him cry like that. He just turned 2 so its not like I can really reason with him just yet. Any auggestions??

Answer 1

I remember my mom telling me that i could not do without a pacifier till i was 2 years old, i needed it all the time, and the moment it fell of my mouth i would bawl. She tried every way to get rid of my habit, until she started coating it with the syrup of bitter gourd, i started hating the taste and finally gave up on it. Thats what my mum did, may be you could try something on the same lines.

Good luck with it!

Answer 2

I've heard many, but haven't tried any since neither of my kids would ever even take the pacifier...

One is to have a "Pacifier Fairy" come to take it, like the tooth fairy. Make a big stink out of the fact that the pacifier fairy is coming tonight, put the paci on the windowsill or somewhere in the room, then swap it out for a toy.

Or I've heard you can snip the end off it - they don't get the sucking pleasure, and figure it's not worth it.

But my personal opinion is to go cold turkey. It'll probably suck for a while, but with stuff like this, I think it's the best bet. Of course I'm also a "cry it out at night" type person, which I'm sure will earn me many thumbs down, but I think that's the way to go. Just because you let your child cry over something like this doesn't mean you're a bad mom, especially if you have his best interests at heart. :)

Answer 3

My sympathies - it's awful when you're trying to get a 2-year to give up something as comforting as a pacifier! My son gave it up a couple of months after his second birthday, but it was a long, slow and sometimes frustrating process!

What eventaully worked was making the pacifier less visible during the day. I gave him the paci when he was crying or needed to settle down to sleep, but would hide it otherwise and try to distract him with games/stories instead. It didn't work intially, but after a week or so, he stopped asking for his paci quite as often and eventually, forgot about it altogther. What helped was gradually replacing his bedtime pacifier ritual with another ritual, such as an extra bedtime story etc.

Answer 4

Thank you for this question. It was interesting to read all the responses because our 2-year-old son is exactly the same. All you have to do is mention "night-night" and the first word out of his mouth is pacifier. Unless we're in a car, there is no other option for getting him to sleep. And I'll be honest, I haven't had the heart to make him go cold turkey.

Problem is, we've noticed that if he doesn't get his pacifier when he wants it, he has started sticking his hands in his mouth -- no, not thumb-sucking but the whole hand. He ends up drooling all over himself. Now, we hate the pacifier but we hate this habit even more and are considering re-introducting the pacifier, as our dentist has told us at this point it can't ruin teeth.

We haven't try the pacifier fairy or other options yet because of this hand-sucking issue...but I've heard they work. I only hope we get to try them.

Answer 5

We recently took the pacifier from my son (about to turn 2). He was using it for naps/nightime and was starting to want it more during the day so we took the decision to take it.
What we did was to change his routines so the times he automatically expected to receive it didn't happen. We changed the nightime routine so he had his bottle in bed rather than on a lap, changed his story to be in his bed after his bottle rather than during, that kind of thing. That way he never noticed the point he usually asked for it so we didn't give it to him. He didn't settle as quickly for the first couple of nights but he didn't cry his dummy.
For the first few days we also made sure he was extra busy, we were off out doing lots of new things so he didn't ask during the day either.
It seems by about day 3 or 4 he'd forgotten completely.

Hope this helps. :0)

Answer 6

You cant reason with him! Exactly. Do it now before he learns how to reason with you, and makes you feel even more guilty for it. Just say the pacifier will be gone in x number of days, and keep reminding him until it happens. And then let him pick out a toy at the store as a reward. Rewards work wonders for small children, and I think it helps them feel good about themselves.

Answer 7

I agree on biting or cutting little pieces off of it. It takes away the "suck" to it. I am glad that you are doing it now. My sister has her little boy SO spoiled that when she tried to cut the end off of it, he said go get one from the store. He is 3 and a half and STILL has it. I just hope they get it away from him. He now knows where they come from and so on and makes it harder. just be patient and yeah u will haer him cry. try even replacing it with a stuffed animal. Let him go pick out something at the store that he REALLY likes. and then tell him if he wants it he has to give up his paci. good luck

Answer 8

i also had a hard time with my son, we finally got rid of it when he was 3 years old. What I did was make a big production out of it, we collected any we found in the house and at grandmas and he had to say good bye to each one because he now was to big for them and he personnaly had to throw them in the garbage. Any time in the past if I threw them away he would cry, but by giving him the job it was so easy that I wish I had done it earlier. For my daughter all i did was told her I lost it and there were no more in the store, I kept her away from the store and she quickly stopped asking for her pacifier, she was younger than 2. Good Luck!

Answer 9

I'm still fighting with my 3.5 year old but slowly he is giving it up on his own. To be honest, as long as he isn't walking around with it all the time I don't see the harm. You said he's keeping it confined to nap and bed time so just have him leave it in bed when he leaves the room. He's still a little one and eventually he'll realize he doesn't need it and it will be over. You could also try at Christmas to have him leave it for Santa if you celebrate Christmas that way. Best of luck and let the little guy have it!

Answer 10

First of all...why do you want to take it away??? let him.... pacifier won't do anything to his teeth. I strongly recommend the "NUK" kind, this one won't bother his teeth at all, trust me, my 2 daughters have wonderful teeth and they used it till about 31/2 years old. The only thing I did was to give it in private, because I know they were kind of 3yrs old... but you know what? it's a calming thing that they really need, you can see the results, right? I told my kids that they can use it when we were not around people, you know litle by little. They used it when in the car or naps or bedtime, but when I went shopping they lwould leave it in the car, they understood this deal. But don't torture your child...they need it, what's the harm? this time...Dad is right.........