getting rid of that pacifier?

Question

my son is 4 years old, how can i get him off the pacifier?

Answer 1

At 4, you may just need to hide it. My daughter kept losign hers so I just quit quying them.

Answer 2

I don't know how it would work for a 4 year old but when my niece turned 1, I took all her pacifiers and threw them away. I just told her that she wasn't a baby anymore and she didn't need them. After a few days, she just didn't really care anymore. 4 might be a little bit old to try something like that though, since he has had it for so long. I was not a big fan of bribing her at all. When we did away with the binkie and the bottle at 1, they simply got thrown away and she was told no more.

Answer 3

I was asking ur same question about a month ago here on Yahoo Answers. My 18 month old was strongly attached but kept feeding them to our puppy so I finally said no more. Cold turkey i gave him a clean chewed up pacifier with no nipple. He screamed and cried with pretty much no naps and long bed struggles for 3 days. 3 long hard days and then I read on here to put him down with a sippy cup of water for a month and then eliminate the water. It worked like a charm.

So I advise you to either cut the tip of the pacifier and give it back to him or try the cute little binkie fairy story. Be strong and it will be all forgotten in no time. Good luck!

Answer 4

My children never had pacifiers, so I can only tell you what I have seen work for others not my own personal experience.

One friend just cut the tip off of her child's pacifier. They no longer wanted it.

Another let her child "exchange" the pacifier for a new toy. They went to the toy store and picked it out, and she pretended to give the pacifier to the cashier when they checked out.

I say just let it disappear. If he misses it, try and distract him. It will probably be hard for the first couple of days, but he will forget about it eventually. Just be strong and do not give in!

Answer 5

Wow, my son is only 6 months, and even now it seems hopeless he needs it in his mouth every second, i hate the pacifer hanging out of his mouth ! You know what you should do ask your son if he wants to give it to a baby who doesnt have a pacifier, tell him if he leaves it somewhere for another child to find he would be helping someone....it may work, kids are pretty sensitive about these sort of things. You just have to see what works for your son, i hope you can get him off it, i hope i can too haha. Good luck xo

Answer 6

Wow, 4 yrs old, that is going to be tough. A friend of mine did a "pacifier" fairy with her 3 yr old son. She said that they had to put his pacifier under his pillow before he went to sleep, and then the fairy came and took the pacifier and left him a little bag of presents, like matchbox cars. Good luck!

Answer 7

I'm not sure if this will work for all kids, but I know someone who's daughter was still on it, and one day she said that the pacifier is for babies, and you need to let other babies have it, and throw it in the garbage.... (I would keep a spare just in case)
That worked seeing she wanted to be a big girl, and when her mom said it was for babies, she didn't want to be like a baby.
I dont know, worth a shot I guess

Answer 8

You have to just cut him off. However it is hard being a mother and seeing your child cry, you HAVE to have the upper hand and break this. Think about his teeth and his health. Cold turkey is the only way. You can make it fun by telling him the the binkie fairy want the binkies back or soemthing of that sort. You must be strong and take them away.
I did this with my son at 2. One day they were there and the next they were gone. He cried and cried and cired but it old him that other babies needed the binkies. I didnt ignore him when he asked I told him that he was to old and that they needed to be with new babies now that need them. I will tell you girl, after one week he just forgot.

Answer 9

Trade something for it...something he REALLY wants or likes.
We did that with our kids and it worked like a charm. With one it was a bedroom decorated in their favorite characters..ie. Thomas the Train. For another it was a special toy to sleep with...pricey but again, it worked.
We also told them we weren't throwing the pacifier away...kids see it as a "friend". We said it would go away with the baby things we kept. We actually still have them somewhere and when the kids graduate we'll take them out as a joke...if they haven't deteriorated by then!

Answer 10

There's a really great article which I've put the link below to entitled "Taking away the Pacifier... How to do it with ease." Hopefully the steps there will help you do it with ease. :)

Answer 11

One of my kids REALLY loved his pacifier. My wife got some string and tied it to the headboard on his bed. That way, he could still have it, but ONLY in bed. He started going to bed on his own so that he could have it -- which was very nice:-). Since it was tied to his bed, it often came out of his mouth while he slept. He started to show less and less interest in it, and a few weeks later, we cut it off his bed and made it disappear. He didn't like that when he noticed, but by then he was no longer really attached to it, so he was over it within a couple of nights.

I hope this helps!