Bye Bye Binky
As our daughter’s second birthday approaches at the end of this week, I keep thinking how much she needs to get rid of that little baby thing… the binky! Neither of my kids took a pacifier as babies, they preferred Mommy and I was ok with that. Our oldest transitioned well after weaning, but my daughter, weaned at 17 months, had a much harder time. I thought that offering her a pacifier might help the transition, but now I wish I had never started down that path. What I thought would be a helper during naptime and bedtime has turned into a constant obsession with the “beep beep”.
I thought about using the “Paci Fairy”, but as smart as she is, I think it might be a little over her head at barely two. I thought about just throwing them away, but that just seems incredibly cruel. So, now the goal is to keep them up and out of sight during waking hours and only bring them out for sleep times. Basically, it’s like weaning from the breast all over again, just without the physical pain for me. Hopefully in the next month, we’ll be totally binky-free.
This is just what we chose to do, but here are a few other prevalent ideas out there for saying “bye-bye” to the binky:
Binky/Paci Fairy - Have your toddler collect all their pacifiers in a bag and hang them in a tree or put them in the mailbox before they go to bed. Explain to them that the fairy comes and gets all the old pacifiers so that the new babies can have them and in return the fairy leaves a special toy. (Personally, I’ve only had one friend have success with this one, but her little one was almost three years old when she tried it.)
Cold Turkey - Like every other definition of cold turkey, this method involves just taking the pacifiers away all together with no prize or reward.
Pacifier to Toy Swap - This is an interesting method that involves having your toddler gather all of their pacifiers and taking them to a toy store to use their pacifiers as money for wanted items. Let your toddler pay for their toys with a bag of pacifiers while you slip the cashier the cash. (Similar to the Paci Fairy, except it’s a direct exchange that the child has some control over. This could be very useful for independant children.)
Weaning - Basically, this was my method of choice. Slowly offering or allowing the pacifier less and less until it is no longer wanted or needed. This may be the slowest method, but makes it a little less traumatic for the toddler.
How did you say bye-bye to the binky in your house? Did you try any of these methods without success? Any advice for us novices?
Photo Courtesy of timsamoff
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We took our son’s binky away on his 2nd birthday. We did it the “cold turkey” way. I thought it would be horrible, but it wasn’t. He cried at night for it, but that was it and trust me…he was OBSESSED with it. He was at the point where he would have one in his mouth and holding another one. It was actually a little sad taking it away from him. Ha.
My daughter is now 14 months old and she loves to have one too (not as much though) and I’ve been thinking about taking it away from her early. There is a part of me though that doesn’t mind her having it until she’s 2. It’s kinda cute.
While we were lucky and our daughter never really used a pacifier, I read an idea in a magazine once that I would have used if it was needed. The parents took the child to Build a Bear and the child got to pick out a bear, and the child put the binky inside the bear. I thought that was a neat idea.
A friend of mine had her daughter pick out her favorite bink and then went to Build a Bear and when she put the heart in the toy she also put her bink in there too this way she always had her favorite bink without actually using it. i thought it was a great idea and am keeping it in the file so to speak for when and if we reach that point–so far my daughter isn’t a fan of the bink.
We went binkyless at 1.5yoa. My son was fairly easy to transition early on to only taking a binky at nap and night night time. One day I decided it was time, for no special reason, and took all of them away and stored them in a safe place out of sight except for one. The one we kept mysteriously had a run in with a pair of scissors and had the tip cut off. I placed it back in his bed right where he left it and when he laid down for a nap he reached for it, popped it in and quickly realized that something was wrong. With the tip cut off, he could not form the necessary suction to make the thing effective. He took it out a couple of times and eyed it curiously before trying it again. after a day and a half he completely gave up on it as it was “broken”. I had an “in-tact” binky on standby in case he had a total melt down, but he, luckily for me, just decided “oh well, it’s broken and I’d rather not use it that use it like it is.” My mom had told me that’s how she did it and I thought that there was no way this would work, but she was right…… Don’t tell her I said that. Good Luck.
I was having major problems with my son’s binky use; well actually it was more like an addiction! My friend absolutely raved about the cut method, and all of the psychology behind it. She found it on http://www.bye-bye-binky.com which is great that it was free. Desperate with nothing to lose, I tried it. OMGosh… worked beautifully for my son with NO tantrums, not even one! Thank you God. Five days later he did not want anything to do with his binky. Highly recommended! I am also interested in others experiences…. Bella
Hiya Bella,
I also used the bye-bye-binky.com method and it worked great. My son held on to his binky like it was a lifeline! We actually started out by only giving it to him during naps and when he was real fussy, but as time went on, he seemed to want it more (it went from a suckle need, to a want). My mom found the bye bye binky method (www.bye-bye-binky.com), printed it and suggested that we go with it. At first I was a bit mad at my mom, but I soon got over it. The method worked amazingly well. My son stopped sucking on it after 4 days! He proceeded to carry it around for another week, but never put it in his mouth. He then got tired of carrying it and simply lost interest. Mom was right, it worked, highly recommended!