Weaning My Toddler Off Of The Pacifier

Well, the time has finally come where I can discuss what it was like weaning my toddler off of the pacifier.

My daughter is 2 years old and will be 3 years old in a little over a month, so we knew that it was time to get her off of the pacifier.

But taking away the pacifier from a 2-year-old was a lot harder than we thought it would be.

Could we have taken the pacifier a lot sooner? Probably.

But it became something that my daughter really loved and found comfort in when she was really upset and crying.

So of course, we didn’t want to just rip what soothed her away from her.

Which meant we were just going to have to deal with it and hope she weaned herself from it whenever she was ready to.

But my daughter was not showing any readiness whatsoever to let go of her pacifier and it was starting to affect her language development.

My daughter loves to talk and talks a lot, but with a pacifier in her mouth, it was becoming much harder.

When I got pregnant, I set aside some goals that I would love to accomplish by the time our new baby got here.

The first goal was to transition her to a toddler bed so we could use her old crib for the new baby and we were able to do just that.

The next goal was to get her potty trained so that we didn’t have to buy diapers for both girls and we were to do that as well. (Blog post coming soon on that)

And our last goal was to wean her off the pacifier, but that did not really happen until the very end of my pregnancy and the first couple of weeks that baby girl was here.

We chose to wait later on the pacifier because helping her adjust to her new baby sister required some level of normalcy and her pacifier provided that for her.

But we eventually got rid of the pacifier for good and have not looked back.

Here is everything we did and what it was like weaning my toddler off of the pacifier.

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Are Pacifiers Bad?

Before I get into my tips for weaning your toddler off of the pacifier, let’s discuss if pacifiers are really that bad.

Because pacifiers are not all bad if you do a little research into them.

I know some parents who are terrified about introducing a pacifier to their baby because they don’t want to have to deal with taking it away.

And I get it.

My daughter had her pacifier for 2 and a half years before we started the weaning process and it’s been tough.

But even I have to admit that her pacifier came in handy when she is extremely fussy and upset because she was able to soothe herself with it.

Pacifiers are not only great for soothing and providing comfort but according to Mom Loves Best, they have been shown to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Especially when used at bedtime between age 1 month and 6 months.

The periodic sucking helps keep your baby in a lighter state of sleep, reducing the chance that she will stop breathing.

That stat alone could bring a lot of comfort to moms who struggle with that anxiety and suffer from postpartum insomnia because of it.

So pacifiers do have their benefits for your child when they are younger but after the age of 1, pacifiers can lead to other issues in development such as speech development as well as affect their incoming teeth.

Which is when her pediatric dentist recommended that she get off of her pacifier.

But as you all know now, my daughter did not get off of her pacifier until after she turned 2.

Now that we know that pacifiers are not all bad, let’s get into what I did to start weaning my toddler off of the pacifier.

Weaning My Toddler Off Of The Pacifier

So the way I’m going to dive into this is by discussing everything we did, whether it worked or not, to finally get my 2-year-old off the pacifier.

Switch Over To A Orthodontic Pacifier

This was probably not the first tip you were expecting in a post all about weaning your toddler off of the pacifier.

But my first tip is to switch over to an orthodontic pacifier.

When my daughter turned one, I already knew that she was attached to her pacifier and that it was going to be tough trying to wean her from it.

Like I mentioned above, her dentist recommended that we take away the pacifier when she turned one, but that clearly was not going to happen.

So he told us to switch to a pacifier that decreases the risk of dental issues and supports our daughter’s growing palate and jaw.

An orthodontic pacifier has a flat bottom and round top that mimic the mother’s breast that creates a natural suck when used.

Since we knew that we weren’t going cold turkey with the pacifier, we opted to get these pacifiers during the weaning process.

The kind that we got is these Orthodontic Pacifiers from the brand NUK.

Going Cold Turkey

While we are on the subject of going cold turkey, we did try to go cold turkey with the pacifiers when my daughter turned 2 and it was very ineffective for us.

Our daughter cried and cried because she physically saw us take all of them and put them of out her reach.

This was probably our fault because she saw us trying to get rid of and hide away the pacifiers, but we were hoping that a couple of days later she would be fine and forget about them.

But she clearly was not fine and did not forget about them.

If you have a toddler, like mine, who very is attached to their pacifier, going cold turkey probably will not work.

You will more than likely have to take a more gentle approach to get rid of the pacifier like we had to do and we were able to see the success that way.

Cold turkey is more effective with smaller babies than toddlers.

But I do know parents who have had success with going cold turkey with their toddlers so I wanted to at least mention this tip here.

Replace It With A Different Comfort Item

While we attempted to go cold turkey with pacifiers, we tried to replace the pacifier with another item that she liked in hopes that she would prefer that.

We tried a small blanket and even a stuffed animal and put those in the bed with her.

She loved having those items in the bed with her, but she still wanted her pacifier as well.

She was not going to give it up, so we abandoned trying to replace it and removing all the pacifiers and decided to take a more gentle approach.

And that started with narrowing down when she could have it every day.

Limit Its Use To Naptime And Bedtime

The next thing we did was limit the pacifier’s use to only naptime and bedtime.

Your toddler does not need their pacifier during the day when they up playing around and getting into things.

But they will probably look for it when they are tired.

At least that is what my daughter did.

When it was time to go to sleep, my daughter immediately would look around for her pacifier to soothe herself to sleep.

By doing this, you are slowly cutting down its use to certain times and with time, you will be able to break your toddler from its use altogether.

Once we had our daughter only taking a pacifier when she was taking a nap or at bedtime is when we moved on to this next tip.

Cutting Down The Nipple Of The Pacifier

Our dentist actually recommended we do this once we were ready to start weaning our toddler off of the pacifier.

He told us to cut off a very tiny piece of her pacifier and gradually over time, trim it down more and more until your toddler did not find it satisfying anymore.

We did find success with this method and were able to eliminate a few of the pacifiers in our home because our daughter started to have a preference for only one or two of her pacifiers.

But eventually, she got used to those pacifiers being trimmed down and still wanted to sleep with them.

Once we realized that the trimmed nipples no longer bothered her, we did this last tip and found success.

“Accidentally” Lose The Pacifier

If your toddler is like mine and very attached to their pacifier, they probably brought it with them whenever they left the house.

My daughter brought her pacifier everywhere she went, not because she wanted to have it in the store, but she wanted it on the car rides to help soothe her and fall asleep.

In fact, my daughter would take her little backpack everywhere we went and would put her pacifier in her backpack whenever we went into the store.

So she was very aware of it and had come to realize that she did not need it whenever we were out and about.

Well one day, she accidentally left it on the shelf when we were in the toy aisle and we had already left before she realized it was gone.

Instead of us taking away the pacifier, the responsibility fell on my daughter for leaving it behind and we were able to use that as a learning opportunity as well.

Of course, my daughter was sad and wanted her pacifier for a couple of days, but the gradual weaning process helped her get over it because she wasn’t using it as much anyway.

Have A Farewell Party For The Pacifier

And my last tip for weaning your toddler off of the pacifier is to have a farewell party for the pacifier.

We did not do this with our daughter, but I loved this idea from the writers over at Your Kids Table.

So what you do is set up a date and have a going-away celebration for your child ditching their pacifier.

Make sure you prep your child a few days in advance so that way they are prepared for when the day comes and know that they are giving up the pacifier

What they suggest is having your child kiss their pacifiers goodbye and place them in a box to be “shipped” to another baby to use.

Obviously, you don’t ship it, but that is what you tell your child in order for them to be ok with you taking the pacifier.

If my daughter had not accidentally lost her pacifier at the store, we would have probably done this method.

Your Turn

Well, there you have it. That is everything we did in weaning our daughter off of the pacifier, but now I want to hear from you all. What did you all do to get rid of the pacifier from your toddlers? Let me know in the comments below and while you are still here, check out my previous post. Until next time!

• Read More: My Postpartum Body After Having A Second Baby

Love,

Just Jass