I’ll admit it. Two of my children are paci-kids and I really didn’t mind. I weaned my daughter off of the paci when she was three. I tried doing it sooner but found that she clung on to it even more when her baby brother was born.
The solution? The Paci-Fairy. I bundled up all of her pacifiers and told her the story of the Paci-Fairy and how it was her duty as a big girl to give up her pacis in order to help all of the newborn babies around the world who needed them. So, we put the pacis in an envelope, mailed them and then in the envelope’s place (the next morning) was a gift from the Paci Fairy! My daughter was quite enchanted with this ritual and embraced her “big girl-ness” after that.
Now, my youngest is three and it is time for the Paci-Fairy to strike again. However, I have a feeling that she may have met quite the challenge! He is being very stubborn about this process. Unlike his big sister, he does not want to embrace being a big boy. In the beginning, I restricted his paci use to night-time only (or on car trips). However, as he has gotten older he wants it more and more.
Fellow moms, any words of advice?
We took our daughter to build a bear, she put her paci in the bear. She sleeps with the bear to this day almost 7yrs later.
For both of my kids I ended up cutting the tips of them off so they wouldn’t work anymore. They would suck and suck and nothing. When they would bring it to me I would say it looks like it’s broken and I would let them throw it away instead of me throwing it away.
The Build A Bear idea is super cute!!