Parenting Toddlers

There are three kinds of parents in regards to pacifiers:

1. Those that use them religiously.
2. Those that use them sparingly.
3. Those that refuse to use them (and then wind up using them and becoming a #1 type parent).

I was more like a #2 type parent. My children had a pacifier whenever they went to bed (including naps) and if something happened where they wound up being inconsolable. The older they got, the more we withheld the pacifier. It was only to be used for naps and bedtime and would be left in the crib (or bed) after they got up from their nap. When they got hurt or upset, we soothed them without it. For instance, if they had a scratch or a bump, we’d break out a cold washcloth or a cold pack. Before my children were 2, the pacifiers were gone.

I guess that’s why it bugs me a bit when I see people letting their four year olds walk around a store with pacifiers in their mouths. In reality, a pacifier isn’t necessary after a certain age. It actually can cause a lot of mouth problems and even problems swallowing. It’s not that difficult to get rid of hte pacifier, and, like many things with parenting, it seems like it will be a bigger ordeal than it really is. In order to get rid of the passy, start limiting it. Allow it only for nap times and bed times and let your little one know that the passy has to stay in the bed.

As for getting rid of it entirely, there are plenty of ways to do this. When my won was little I was a bit of a moron and left the safety scissors out one day when I went to take a shower. He walked into the bathroom with the passy clamped between the blades of the scissors. I used this golden opportunity and showed my son that the passy was broken. I had him throw it in the garbage and then quickly hid the other passys so that he wouldn’t see them. We had one difficult naptime and then that was it! When it came time to wean my daughter off of hers, I had been watching and had seen how Supernanny used the “passy-fairy” technique. We decided to do the same thing. Babygirl left her passy in a little bag on the bureau and when she woke up in the morning, a My Little Pony was in there! She felt great knowing that some other baby who needed the passy would get it, and we felt great because she got something in exchange for being a big girl.