Oh boy. This is going to be LOTS OF fun! But, I do think it's time to take away the pacifier. I am afraid that it may be hindering his speech. He tries to speak through it, but that's not quite working. Does anyone have any tips, stories about pacis? I had no problems getting them away from the others when they were small, but we are talking about WAY different personalities and that always makes the difference.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Suzy Richardson,

I could never get my two to take one-try as I did! I have a nephew who is 4 and still uses one every now and then. I have heard people say not to push it too hard too fast. To hide it and try to stretch out the times between using it and get it down to when they really need it and then ease those out. I think w/ my kids gradual has always been better than "cold turkey". This is one,thare are not many, that I have not had to deal w/ though.

I am going through this right now. My daughter is 2 1/2, and since she was 2, she's been weaned from the paci during the day, and she only got it at nap and nighttime. Her speech seems quite delayed for that of an average 2-year old, (that's my biggest concern about them), so I told my husband it's time to let the thing go altogether. I had been looking online about ways to do so, and here's a couple of ideas I found...

One said to have your child help put the paci's in a box and "send it off" to a baby who needs them. This one, I know, would not work for my daughter who is very stubborn, and is having a hard time sharing with her baby sister, let alone a baby who does not exist.

So I took this method:
Last week, Thursday, I believe, I took her pacis, and cut the very tip of them off before naptime (making sure she didn't see me do it). When it was time for nap, and my daughter asked for the pacis, I gave them to her. She stuck it in her mouth, took it right back out, and showed me the paci's "boo-boo". I sympathized with her, then kissed her, and left the room. I could hear her whimpering, but she fell asleep shortly after. Nighttime was the same. DAY 2: Before nap, I cut a little more off the paci, the same thing happened. Day 3: I cut off the rest of the paci, so only about 1/2 inch of it was left. My daughter has to hold it in to keep it in, since there is not longer anything to suck on. She didn't take a nap, but went to sleep at night after crying hard for about 5 m inutes. Day 4: I know, when she actually falls asleep, it's not in her mouth, and she has no longer complained about them being so short. I think it's a matter of days before she'll give them up on her own. That way, she made the decision to give them up, and I'm not the bad guy for taking them away.

So far, I have found this method to be wokring quite well for her. My daughter is quite unique, and alot of different things that would work for the average child, does not work for my daughter.

I hope this helps, and good luck!

I have 2 Daughters and 4 grand-children.
My girls did not like the binkies but 3 of my Grandkids did.
They are all over the age of 4 now but we just let them keep them till they didn’t want them anymore.
I think the one was around 3 ½ and the other two were around 3.
It will not effect the speech and the dentist said as long as it’s gone by the time they are 4 or 5 it will not hurt the teeth.
Ask your Doctor and dentist for your won peace of mind and tell them to be honest with you….Dr’s have a way of the same old same old thing.
(Just like when they tell you to get all the shots at the same time we didn’t do that either we made them spread out the shots so they didn’t get them all at the same time)

I think we try to make the kids grow up to fast these days, I am 48 and I remember my childhood as so much fun no worries at all just playing not running around to different sport programs or must be here must be there things, and today all the kids are worried about are getting to do things that I didn’t do till I was much older…….

I know today it’s different and we all want the best for our kids so I think your child will tell you when they are ready.
Is it really going to hurt if he keeps it 6 more months?????????
Don’t care what other people think he’s your child.

We started at about age 1 just giving it to him at night. He was fine with that because they weren't giving it to him at day care anymore (can you imagine trying to keep track of 10 kids' pacifiers?). Then a good friend of mine was having a baby, so we had him pack up all his pacifiers to give to the new baby. It worked and he never asked for his pacifiers again. I think it was so easy because he was ready to give them up anyways. With my 10-month-old, he uses pacis, but he's not as attached to them like my older son was. I think we could take them away tomorrow and he'd be fine.

My daughter is 3 now and she had her 'binky' at night and nap only until her 3rd birthday. I told her when she turned two that the binky was then only for nap and bedtime...she fussed alittle but no big deal. Then at about 2 and a half I began letting her know that when she turned three the binky had to go because when your three you don't use a binky anymore. We didn't just talk about it once in while either. They kept their binkies in a 'binky box',(just a cute little trinket box), right beside their beds and about three nights a week we would just casually say, "you remember when your three no more binky right?" then sometimes we would talk more about it if they asked questions and other times they just say "I remember". This worked with both of my girls that were completely 'hooked' on their binkies. On the morning of their third birthdays we put all the binkies away to be later "given to a baby". That night both of them talked about their binkies but never really asked for them because we had made it so clear that you just don't have them when you're three.

I think if you prepare them for the 'binky seperation' ahead of time you will have the best results. Let them have the time to process not having it anymore and enjoying it while they do have it.

Good Luck Suzy.