When did you kick the pacifier to the curb?

[Birdie]

DS is 14 months old and I just realized we should start thinking about this (eek!!)

Articles I read online say we shouldn't use it past 6 months (pffftt). Others have said they've seen 3 and 4 year olds still using them (no). But then I read an article stating that kids have more of a cognitive attachment to the binky after 18 months.

So I think I want to make it my goal to kick it by 18 months, but he's about to move up a room at daycare and with that comes a lot of changes. So pacifier rehab won't be until after the dust settles from that.

So when did you lose the pacifier? Any sage words of advice?

[madringal]

Just get rid of it. No fanfare. It will be three days of crying for it, but then it's done. Once they can call it a cutesy name, you are screwed.

[motzie]

Right at 2. My pedi said by 18 months, but then there were teeth coming and we were moving so I waited. She only ever used it for sleep. Around her birthday I realized she's bitten a hole in it anyway, so I just stopped giving it to her and she didn't ask for it for almost a week. When she did I told her it was broken, and she let it go from there.

[degal99]

At 15 months we're down to car rides and sleep. Daycare is planning to stop nap pacifiers soon. I don't have a strong desire to stop the others so we'll reevaluate at 18 months and then 2 years if she still has them.

[aspentosh]

DD stopped showing interest around 9mo so it was thankfully never an issue for us to wean her off it.

I would actually make sure you stop usage before the transition to the new room. He'll cry for it but will forget about it quickly.

[arch01]

2.5.

He used it for naps only and it was restricted to his room past about 6ish months. Honestly, he associated the paci with "it's time to STFU and GTFTS", so I wasn't in a hurry to drop it.

[thebreakfastclub]

Mine still uses it for sleep only at 26 months. I think we will get rid of it this summer. The pediatrician didn't ask about it - their target is age 3.

My son is awesome with transitions, and I don't feel like dealing with it yet. He sometimes asks for it when he comes home, but I can redirect. If he is busy he doesn't ask or notice.

I will suck it up in the next few months and drop it, but it's hard to mess with what works for perfect sleep at night.

[underwaterrhymes]

It was gone at 18 months. It didn't even faze him, actually, which surprised me.

He's still breast feeding, though, so that may have something to do with it since it's mostly for comfort at this point.

[countthestars]

We are still using it at 22 mo - just in the car and at home. She stopped using it at daycare at a year because I forgot to send it one day and she didn't need it.

The pedi and pediatric dentist have absolutely no concerns about using it until 3 so I'm not in a rush. She loves it.

[Deleted]

Most kids I know give it up about 2ish. either naturally in their own or because they understand bribery. Ha. I world make it quick no matter what. work to bed time only at least or something along that line.

Both my kids gave up the pacI early but ds still getting a bottle and its an impossible fight right now. I plan to wait until 18 months and reevaluate. Hopefully he understands more then or finds a new sleep crutch...lol. if not that I will bribe him at two. Cold turkey didn't work for him because he screamed and screamed and that's bad bad news for him. I can't do anything more than cold turkey because it's two bottles a day at nap and bed...I'm out of gradual.

[ssmjlm]

Just before 18m, but she only ever used it for long car rides and naps.

We actually did it by accident. We were at my parents and put her down for nap and forgot to give it to her. She cried for maybe 20 minutes and by the time she fell asleep we had only just realized why. So we never gave it back to her.

[kdubs923]

Apr 29, 2015 7:03:44 GMT -5 countthestars said:

We are still using it at 22 mo - just in the car and at home. She stopped using it at daycare at a year because I forgot to send it one day and she didn't need it.

The pedi and pediatric dentist have absolutely no concerns about using it until 3 so I'm not in a rush. She loves it.

Exactly this, except DS is 18 months. He uses it for sleep & in the car. Our pedi isn't concerned until 3, so neither am I.

[water*drop]

2.5. She never got it outside of bed or the car. She didn't STTN until she was over 2, and we just weren't risking taking away the one thing that helped us get better sleep. We decided to pull it at 2.5 because we wanted a good 5ish months between getting rid of it and the new baby being born. Honestly, it was rough for a few weeks because she'd ask for it in the car, but I think that was really harder on us than on her - it was just hard to listen to her sadly ask for it.

[meltoine]

At seven months when we used Ferber to sleep train, as per the instructions. That was DS1. DS2 used it for about a month, from 6-10 weeks, then discovered his thumb and decided he liked it better.

[jeaniebueller]

8 months because she was spitting it out like every hour overnight and waking herself up crying. We did it in conjunction with Ferber.

[Deleted]

Sometime between 2 and 2.5. Pedi dentist wanted it gone by 4 so that wasn't going to be an issue. I waited until he was finished getting his molars and then told him it was for the babies. He asked for it and had a couple of rough nights but it wasn't a big deal. It would have been much worse had I tried to get rid of it while he was getting molars!

[sjh722]

Our pedi said she's not worried about taking it away until 3, but to work towards using it only in the car/for sleeping vs. letting them walk around with it all the time.

DD1 (a little over 2) is kind of attached to hers, but with the transition of having another baby being a little rough on her the pedi said not to try taking away a comfort object at the same time. A few extra months is not going to stunt her development or ruin her teeth.

[boxerdog]

Following this.

Our pedi told us at DS' 9mo appt that he likes them gone by 1. I was surprised! And that is in two weeks and so not happening. 18 months sounds more reasonable.

I have heard cold turkey is the best way to go.

[rikki]

E quit (and did great) at 12/13 months --cold turkey. He found one a month or 2 ago and I haven't had the energy to take it away. He is getting molars and it helps make him more pleasant. I wanted to quit again before the new baby but it's not gonna happen.

[undecidedowl]

Apr 29, 2015 6:46:59 GMT -5 arch01 said:

2.5.

He used it for naps only and it was restricted to his room past about 6ish months. Honestly, he associated the paci with "it's time to STFU and GTFTS", so I wasn't in a hurry to drop it.

This exactly...only DS1 is 3y3m .  I keep meaning to take it away but there is always some reason I put it off. He has only used it in bed since 1 yo and the pedi and dentist didn't seem to care. 

[Deleted]

DD has hers only for bed time and traveling (car/stroller). I make her put it in her bed when she gets up and make her take it out of her mouth when she is 'talking'. I have absolutely zero plans of getting rid of it any time soon. I cannot stand pacifiers in the mouth if she is just walking around. If DD really wants it and pulls it out of her crib, I tell her it is okay if she wants it and put her in the bed with the paci. She stays for a few minutes and then has me get her back out.

[mlt]

We took DS1's away cold turkey at around 18 months because he chewed a hole in a NUK and I freaked about choking. It was an unpleasant couple of days but not that big a deal. He wasn't that great of a sleeper before the paci and he wasn't that great of a sleeper after the paci. He did get a lot more attached to his stuffed animal comfort object after we took pacis away. Maybe just a coincidence.

[leonard131]

We failed at getting rid of the paci.

We did it for night time with no problems at 2 years and he was just using for naps but then we went away and he was sleeping so bad at night we gave it to him. Now his still uses for naps and night time. It is bad.

We need to go cold turkey and just take it away again. Our Dentist did say that just at night and naptime while not great isn't too bad but try and get him off by the time he is 3.

[zarapipe]

Apr 29, 2015 7:23:40 GMT -5 sjh722 said:

Our pedi said she's not worried about taking it away until 3, but to work towards using it only in the car/for sleeping vs. letting them walk around with it all the time.

DD1 (a little over 2) is kind of attached to hers, but with the transition of having another baby being a little rough on her the pedi said not to try taking away a comfort object at the same time. A few extra months is not going to stunt her development or ruin her teeth.

This. We took it away the day after her third birthday. Around 2.5 we only let her use it in bed and as a last resort other times when I just couldn't deal with her

The baby was always meh about it so we took it away at 4 months because she just didn't care for it a lot.

[geek96]

I'm in trouble. DS started really becoming attached around 16 months. He was a late teether so we had no problem with him using it. Now at 19 months he only has 10 teeth and is always asking for his paci. We do use it to keep him quiet when we are in a restaurant or out in public and he is whiny.

I plan to start right after 2. I am hesitant to do it now with baby due in 3 months and us giving her a pacifier.

[Birdie]

I like to hear that all of these pedis are saying by 3. That makes me feel better. These websites saying to drop it after 6 months can GTFO.

[Birdie]

Apr 29, 2015 7:23:15 GMT -5 @awinter said:

Sometime between 2 and 2.5. Pedi dentist wanted it gone by 4 so that wasn't going to be an issue. I waited until he was finished getting his molars and then told him it was for the babies. He asked for it and had a couple of rough nights but it wasn't a big deal. It would have been much worse had I tried to get rid of it while he was getting molars!

I didn't even think of this, but holy cow. DS is cutting at least one molar, if not 2-3 and he still needs to get his bottom two outer incisors. He has been a big ball of pissed off the past few days. I probably shouldn't piss him off more lol. He's already about to stage a revolt because we're making him wear shoes now to prep for moving up to the next room.

[greencrayon]

DD is 15 months. I will be dropping it sometime this month. She basically only uses it for naps and bedtime, but occasionally during one of her tantrums.

[nomad]

Crib only at a year then it disappeared for good around 15 m. Shockingly it went very smooth, they loved their wubs but it was no issue.

[NothingWrongwithOhio]

Oddly enough, when she transitioned to the toddler room at 18 months, they forget her pacifier in the other room and she dropped it for naps without anyone even noticing.

We got rid of it at night time this past Christmas. H made up some story that Santa needed the pacifiers for something and that she'd get a special gift if she gave them up. She asked for it the day after, but we told her Santa took them and that was that. No tears or anything, just a "oh, ok" and then right to sleep.