This is Caroline and she’s addicted to her binky. This was after a five minute binky fit where she stands and points to their “hiding” place and says “bibi” 175 times until one of us gives in…usually me!
Before I had Caroline, I was one of those moms who said, “My kid will NEVER have a binky past the age of one.” Welp…foot…let me introduce you to my mouth! The binky has been a lifesaver. We were blessed with a bad sleeper (like she JUST slept through the night last week…) and she has this awful moaning habit. I’ve mentioned it before but it’s a gruntish noise that lasts for a couple of hours a night. Anyway, Mr. Binky has been awesome at 3 am when she’s moaning. BUT this blog isn’t about how we became addicted, it’s about what we’re doing to break the binky habit because I know it’s something that a lot of mamas struggle with. So, here’s the Barry plan for kicking her binky to the curb and if you have ANY suggestions at all…puhhhllleeeaaasssseee comment below.
1.) We’re trying to make it a nighttime thing ONLY. She wakes up uttering the words “bibi bibi” so we’re going for the insta-distraction in the morning. It truly helps her fall asleep, so we’re not quite ready to take that jump, but we figure a little less in the morning will help the weaning process.
2.) We’ve started to tell her that it’s yucky. I’m not sure if this is a “Mother-of-the-Year” approved approach, but I know if someone told me something was yucky, I wouldn’t want it. I’ve started calling it her yucky bibi. We call a lot of other things yucky, too so maybe she’ll start associating yucky with bad.
3.) We’ve tossed 75% of our collection. Two months ago, at any given moment I could pull a binky out of thin air because we made sure they were always in reach, but now we don’t want to have them as accessible. This is a test to see if Caroline is okay when it’s not a provided method of soothing.
Wish us luck and like I said above…PLEASE offer any more words of wisdom!
The best advice I can give you is cold turkey for 2-3 days. Maybe start on a Friday night. I know it’s going to be tuff but it worked for me when taking the bottle away from my boys. I was blessed with two bad sleepers and neither one wanted the paci but as soon as they turned one I took the bootle away. My older one I had no problems just 1 day and he never turned back. My little one on the other hand took 4 days of some crying at night, throwing the sippy cup at us but he’s offically off the bottle and accepting sippy of milk at night.
Our son was a tiny bit older, but not much – we wrapped up his paci and “gave” them to a friend who was recently born and “needed” them. We explained that he was getting older and Sidney needed them now…he was all about giving them to her.
Another friend wrapped her son’s up and left them in a gift bag on the porch for the paci fairy who took them to other kids who needed them.
just a couple nights of reminding them how good and nice they were for giving, and they were fine with it.
Good luck! Be strong!
My daughter was also a paci addict. We would literally have to be equipped with multilple pacis on the go in case shed drop hers. And it had to b the one that they supply you with at the hospital when they are born! She wouldnt take any other one. Anyways, it was afyer the year when I had been trying to get her to aleave the paci. I tried just taking it away cold turkey, but either my fiance or I would give in. finally, I just snipped off the tip of it, gave it to her, and saw the confused look on her face as she tried to figure out what was wrong with her paci. She gave it back to me and went along her way! I threw away all her supply of pacis and kept the cut one and took it along in her diaper bag. each time she would ask for her paci, we would give her the cut one and she would look at it, and give it back to us like “nevermind”. lol it was super easy and I have no idea why I did not try that soo much sooner!!! Maybe this method will work for Caroline. 🙂 Good luck!
Ps…my daughter had another addiction. She cant be without a grey hippo doll that we won for her at a dave and busters when she was 6 months old. Two and a half years later…this old raggedy thing that people mistake for a dog is always by her side. Its like her comfort blanky. She sleeps with it and plays with it and calls out “pippo” if she cant find it. Its too cute but cant imagine the day we ever lose it or rips apart. Dont even want to think about that day!
My sister-in-law had success by slowly cutting the tips off of hers. Before she knew it, my nephew was sleeping with just the little nub in his hand, lol.
I also remember reading a blog about a mom and daughter who “planted” the paci’s to find that lollipops grew in their place! Wow! 😉 http://constancemarie.net/2011/647
My son was 15 months and ALWAYS had his dang binky in his mouth. ALWAYS. I finally said to heck with it and went cold turkey… It took about 4 days of fussing and crying and finding alternative distractions/comforts but he finally forgot all about it. Best wishes to you! I hope whatever you try works out! 😀
Cold turkey is hard and really radical. Best way is the three step method. I learned about it in a guide ‘How to help your child give up the pacifier’. It consist of three periods which can be as long as you need, but you have to be of course consistent in every period and especialy after skiping to next period.