How to Wean Baby Off of the Pacifier
Parents come to love the soothing power of the pacifier. Sometimes it’s almost like popping a cork in someone’s mouth and experiencing instant silence, like a “mute” button.
It’s not all parent-serving though. Fussy babies actually do love their pacifiers! But as your child ages, pacifiers can become a not-so-healthy crutch. No one wants to see a 7th grader sucking on a pacifier. Here are some tips to get your little on to give up the pacifier life once and for all.
1. Take it away sooner rather than later – The longer you allow your children to use the pacifier, the harder the transition will be when it’s time to take it away. When they get older, they’ll have new ways to express their displeasure and negotiate with you. Plus, younger children have shorter memories. After a day, they’ll forget about it and find other ways to soothe.
2. Just throw them away – You can’t cave to your child’s demands for a pacifier if you don’t have any. This will force you all to push through the transition without giving in and starting all over again. Don’t hide them in a drawer or a box; just toss them out.
3. Make it taste bad – To turn your child off to the idea of a pacifier, you can buy safe-to-eat bad-tasting products at the pharmacy to apply to the pacifier. After a few sucks on the end, your child will prefer to leave it alone.
4. Make it a big deal – If your child is old enough to understand the concept of growing up, host a little ceremony where you say goodbye to the binky because big girls/boys don’t use them. A little trick is to tell them that you have to return the pacifiers to the doctor for all the new babies.
5. Do it gradually – This has to be done just right for it to work and you have to be strong. After six months (keep it for six months to help prevent SIDS), start giving the pacifier only during nap times or when he/she is really fussy. Don’t let them walk around the house with it all day. Slowly phase it out over time until you eventually just toss them out.
6. Introduce a lovey – A lovey (otherwise known as a “transitional object”) is a stuffed animal, blanket, or other crib-safe item that helps your child cope with changes. Typically, children use the pacifier to soothe and calm themselves down, but a lovey can help as well. Introduce an object that you want to be the lovey early and bring it everywhere until your child begins to depend on it.
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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventors of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
Interested in writing a guest blog for Sleeping Baby? Send your topic idea to pr@sleepingbaby.com.
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