Breaking The Pacifier- the easy way

This is another where I can’t stand seeing the 3 and 4 year olds with the binky in the mouth. And sad to say with at least one of my children I was one of these parents. It was pretty easy breaking one of my children. I thought it would be easy with the other. So I’ll give you both stories and you can be the judge (this one is the easy way). I would be interested in hearing how you broke your child from the elusive pacifier. And for you moms who didn’t give your baby one- you suck!! Just kidding! Kudos to you! But seriously I think there is almost nothing more adorable than a baby with a binky.

Okay with my older. He was about 18 months. I knew he didn’t need the pacifier, he wasn’t really that interested except when he saw it. It was to the point where he was helping me with everything. I got him to help me pick up and throw things away. I started seeing all kinds of things in the trash. Things that didn’t need to be thrown away. So it was to the point where I had to check the trash to make sure there was nothing good before I pitched it.

Then I had an idea. Gavin picked up a binky off of the floor and stuck it in his mouth and I was like “ooh yucky that was on the floor, it’s dirty, throw it away.”

He ended up throwing away all this pacifiers. When it came to the last one he threw away and it was bed time- he asked for it I reminded him it was dirty and gross and he had to throw it away. I told him we didn’t have anymore, maybe we could look tomorrow and he went to sleep. I gave him his stuffed kitty (that I later fried in the drier) He never asked for it again.

Breaking The Bottle

If it’s one thing I really can’t stand it’s seeing a 4 year old with a ba ba. I mean seriously are there that many medical reasons a 4 year old would have a bottle? Sippy cups are your friend. I suppose I shouldn’t judge, but I had both of my children broken from the bottle before they were a year old. I must say I did much better at that than the pacifier.

Here was my trick. I introduced the cup early. As soon as baby was able to hold the bottle on their own I began to put formula in the sippy. I made it with out the non spill thing at first so the baby could get the formula out (and baby made a huge mess, so be sure to have spit rags nearby to clean up). You have to find what works for you though, because sometimes baby doesn’t like it to come out so fast. Once the baby knew what was in there I put the non-spill thing in it. I alternated for a while with one cup a day for a while, to two, three, and by time baby was a year old we had no more bottles.

Also, my grandma let the babies drink from a regular cup. They did okay, but it was very messy, too. What am I talking about? All babies are messy when eating!! They liked it. Maybe that helped with the sippy cup, too?

I did that with both and it worked like a charm. It was getting started was the tricky part, but once we got used to it, it was so much easier. People complimented my “grown up” babies.