Even if your baby is the most peaceful in your loving arms and in your presence, you also have a friend to rely on, other than yourself, to calm your baby down: Pacifiers.

POSITIVE IDEAS, HAPPY INDIVIDUALS

Easy ways of weaning off pacifiers

Even if your baby is the most peaceful in your loving arms and in your presence, you also have a friend to rely on, other than yourself, to calm your baby down: Pacifiers. This/her friend in arms that is always within arm’s reach, ready to help, is also recommended due the fact that it reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome during the first few months of your baby’s life. However, when it is time, you must part ways with this/her very useful tool for the sake of your baby’s jaw structure and dental health.

So long pacifier!

There are many easy ways of weaning your baby peacefully off pacifiers. These tried-and-true tactics can break your baby out of her habit and you can peacefully say your farewells to your baby’s pacifier. To begin with, you must try to break your baby out her habit of pacifiers in the shortest time possible. Your success rate will be higher if you act early. In this/her process, you should keep in mind your baby’s deep attachment to the pacifier. You should show the same care and sensitivity in weaning your baby off the pacifier as you did when you were weaning her off breast milk, and from bottle to cup.

Do not forget... Not every tactic will suit every baby. If you think the best choice for your baby to wean off the pacifier would be going cold turkey, then do so. After all you are the person who knows your baby best, and what is good for him/her.

Positive suggestions

Take an easy step into a pacifier-free world. Don’t fret about it. After all, your baby won’t be using a pacifier when she turns 30. She will eventually break out of this/her habit, maybe not today but soon.

You can start the process by restricting the use of the pacifier to certain times. To give an example, you can let her have her pacifier only when she is in bed for sleep. To begin with, you can limit the use of the pacifier to the afternoon nap and nighttime sleep and then allow it only during nighttime. This is the way your baby will gradually get used to be separated from her pacifier.

You can earmark a specific day like her birthday to say goodbye to the pacifier for good. You can explain to your child that she is now older and only young babies need a pacifier. Draw pictures similar to writing an address on an envelope and place the pacifier in this/her envelop and tell your baby that you will be sending the envelop to babies without a pacifier.

Replacing a beloved item that your child says goodbye to with something new will reduce the pain of separation. So you could hand the pacifier over to, say... a “Pacifier Fairy”! You can tell your child that it was time for the pacifier fairy to take back the pacifier but in its place the fairy will be leaving a surprise present. Tell your baby to place the pacifier under her pillow at night and when she falls asleep quietly replace the pacifier with a special gift under her pillow to be discovered by your baby upon waking up in the morning.

Or you can say your goodbyes ceremoniously. You can tie the pacifier onto a flying balloon and tell your child that the pacifier will soon be on its way to discover the clouds or even Space (or anything that will convince her) and tell her to let go the string of the balloon. Your child may even derive some joy out of saying goodbye to her pacifier when it starts making its way up to the sky, and if your child wishes, you can also send paper mockups attached to other balloons to accompany her pacifier.

You can tell your child that doctors, fire fighters or people from any profession that your child is in awe of, have been collecting pacifiers from older children and drop her pacifier off at a hospital, fire department or any other center you may choose.