Babies are born with a sucking reflex and while it helps them latch on to a bottle or breast for feeding, it is sometimes so strong that sucking on something other than a food source is needed for comfort. As a breastfeeding mother, I was advised not to introduce a pacifier or bottle for the first 4-6 weeks to prevent nipple confusion.
Before I had children I would cringe when I saw two year olds with binkies in their mouths. I still do. I also know how hard it is to break habits and can understand why parents allow it. Parenting is hard work! We want our kids to be happy and sometimes it is just easier to let things go. I’ve never seen an adult walking around with a pacifier in their mouth so kids must give them up eventually, right?
Still, I didn’t want to start a habit that I knew would be hard to break. Luckily my children didn’t have a strong sucking reflex. My son used a pacifier for a short time-about a month or two- but only because my husband was sure he needed it. He lost interest and we didn’t have any problems. My daughter on the other hand has never been given a paci. She sometimes nurses for comfort which may be a “bad” habit in itself. I am not concerned though. I am happy to be able to comfort her and know that she will naturally outgrow it in the next couple of months as she becomes even more interested in food.
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Hubby was unsuccessful. Breaking his habit was easy for me. I stopped giving it to him during the day. He had it while sleeping and taking naps. I took a clean pair of scissors and cut the tip off. I never gave it to him right away, I waited him out. Then I would supply him with the alternated noonie (bink). He looked at me as if I lost the best part of my mind at first. After a while he didn't want it. With the tip missing it took all of one week. The evening and nap ween took a week and some change, honestly.
with my first she had a strong sucking reflex she came out with sores on her hands from where she had been sucking on them in the womb. She was breastfed but i HAD to give her a paci from the start because she wanted to nurse nonstop.
It was hard for her to give it up, I am embaressed to say she was 3 before she finally threw it away on her own. it was a long process, at around 2 1/2 i quit letting her have it during the day when she got up in the morning she put it on the pillow and it didn't come out until bedtime. on her 3rd birthday i was laying in bed with her talking about how she was now a big girl and asked if she wanted to throw away her paci she got up and walked to the kitchen and threw it away and never asked for it again.
my other 2 kids have never really been interested in them, i tried giving it to my second and with my third i'm like you i nurse her for comfort.
Just a note the other day i saw a girl who looked to be at least 4 still sucking away on a paci, now that is pure laziness on the parents part 🙂
I also just cringe when i see an older 2yr old (or older child) with a binkie…my son wasn't that interested in the binki and gave it up at about 5 months. our problem is he has picked up smalle "unstuffed" animals that we call huggsies and began chewing/sucking on them…and it is just as bad as a binkie actually probably grosser because it is fabic. he is 16m and we can't get him to give them up, we are working on it but it is hard….
Anon- My son also picked up that same habit- we called it "Stinky Bear". It didn't matter if I washed that thing every day it still looked dirty and gross and it was always wet from him chewing on it. I didn't let him take it out of his crib so I have no idea how it even got dirty looking to begin with. He would fall asleep on it and his face would get all red and irritated. My hubby decided enough was enough and we took it away cold turkey. I felt bad but he got over it very quickly.
Both my boys were HUGE binky boys (we called them binky's too). I do however feel strongly about kids losing them by age 2. I recently saw a 4 or 5 year old with one in his mouth and I was horrified!
With my first I tried EVERYTHING to lose it and NOTHING worked. I was told about the cutting the sucker off and thought that was cruel since it was a security item. However I ended up doing it and it was the thing that worked for BOTH kids!
I cut the entire plastic sucker part off and handed the rest of it back to my child. They realized they had nothing to "hang" onto and threw it away. They said goodbye to it and occasionally went back to say good bye but it worked!
My little one just naturally stopped caring about a pacifier. Mostly when his teeth came in. He's 14 months, and we're trying to break the bottle habit. I breastfed for two months, but there were problems with that and I couldn't keep it up. But he has to have his bottle when he goes to sleep. Tonight we're trying to give him a bottle of water before he goes to bed, then put him to bed when he's done with it, without any bottle.
I think the way we took care of the binky problem was that if he wanted to suck, we just gave him a bottle instead of a binky. So now that he's on a sippy cup except at bedtime, there's no fuss about any lack of a binky.