Getting Your Toddler to Give Up the Pacifier

My first son didn’t have anything to do with a pacifier or his thumb.  My second son was a HUGE thumb sucker.  I would have to grab his hand before any picture and pull it out and hurry to take a picture before he could put it back in.  I was so worried about having to break this habit, but unfortunetly for him, both his hands were burned and they were wrapped up in bandages.  Even though his thumb wasn’t affected, he never sucked his thumb again.  That’s another story!

Then came our daughter.  She loved the pacifier or “baba”.  It didn’t take me long to find this picture of her.  She always had it and never put it down.  We had them spread out all over the house, in drawers, purses, cars, and counters.  She (and I mean we)  never wanted to be without one.  She always had several in her bed so if it fell out she would be able to find another one.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with that.

I dreaded the time when we had to let baba go.  Since my other two kids never had one, I had no idea what to do.   It kind of happened by accident.  I wanted to tell you because this could work for you!   I was out of the house shopping or getting my hair done.  I don’t remember now.  My husband was at home and called me.  He couldn’t find a pacifier.  They looked in all the regular places and nothing!  There was a mini panic attack.  She (and I mean me) was going to be miserable if she didn’t get her nap.  Well, when I got home, she was asleep with no pacifier.  She was 2 1/2 so she understood that it was lost.   She slept fine for the entire nap, which was 3-4 hours.

We found the pacifier and the rest of the day was normal.  The next day I had my husband put her down for her nap.  We told a little fib and told her we lost the pacifier.  She fell asleep even quicker this time with no issue.  I had my husband put her down again because I wasn’t going to mess with what worked the first time.

We changed our routine for awhile and my husband started putting her to nap and bed without the pacifier.  He works from home this was a HUGE bonus.    The combination of “losing” the pacifier and him putting her to bed WORKED and it had worked without a lot of frustration.  We had our moments, but it was actually an opportunity in disguise.  What I had been dreading had turned out not as bad as I thought.

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