Almost 5 and STILL loves his paci : (
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Almost 5 and STILL loves his paci : (
| Tue, 01-17-2012 - 3:18pm |
Hi everyone! I am almost embarrassed to even post about this, but I know this is the place to do it - and to get feedback from people who have been there before or at least know how hard it is to break bad habits! My son will be 5 next months and STILL loves his pacifier!! Ugh. I never thought it would get to this point. He has always loved it and every time we would try to wean him, he would get so sad (and so difficult) that we just let it go on longer.
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Welcome to the board! No need to be embarrassed- I think we all have little things like this that we are working on but don't quite know how to solve.
One tip I've read about when trying to wean a child from a pacifier is to clip a tiny bit off the tip of the pacifier each day. After a while the child no longer cares for the shape or texture of the pacifier and eventually stops using it.
I've also heard of parents having a pacifier party when they formally say goodbye to the pacifier (and the child usually receives a gift or something to help replace it).
Best of luck to you! It is hard situation to be in. No parent wants to see their child upset but I'm guessing that at this point a little tough love and upset days are going to be the only thing that will break the habit. You never know, it may not be as bad as you are thinking it will be.
Keep us posted on how things are going!
I was convinced my son would NEVER give up the paci-He was 3 and looking at 6 months til preschool. We started out with 'only at bedtime' rule, which worked pretty well. I would also tell him, if he asked, he had to get give it up before school starts- only big boys get to go to school. I was on my husband about getting rid of it and he had the same response- he will quit when he quits! We went to the dentist and while he didnt harp on us, he did say we should get him off of it. That night, we decided to try, and somehow it worked! No crying, minimum whining. I should also note- we have a daughter who is 15 months younger, which was part of my hesitation. I knew if we got him off, we would have to break her cause that would be too tempting for him. She also quit cold turkey, no crying, no whining. They asked for the next night or two but that was the extent of it all. A month or so later,my son found a 'binky' (as we called it) in the car and i stopped and made him throw it out. He thought it was funny and didnt even fight!
So that was my story and while your son is a bit older, i think that will work to your advantage. Give him a time limit and then stick to it. If you dont want to make the start of school a possible negitive thing in his mind, maybe make it his birthday (cause who doesnt want their birthday to come!) or maybe another set time and plan a party. We also would see babies with them and point it out. I think that helped associate that they were for babies and he did not consider himself a baby!
Good luck!
I wanted to just tell you what we did.....
We have talked about what the blanket represents to her. She says that it provides her with a sense of peace & comfort that she isn't willing to give up when she sleeps. Sounds a bit like what your DS has told you about his paci. I would focus on eliminating his ability to have anytime but bedtime & unless it is affecting his teeth then don't worry about it. It's likely that he will let go of his paci as it's not as easily hidden as DD's blanket was when she was rooming at university.
I could have written this post!
Terri-Lee
http://theramblingsofadisturbedmind.blogspot.com/