True love (I am talking about the dummies)

Only five months to go until you are four years old and it is time to throw the dummies into the sea for the baby fish.  Enjoy the last few months my babies, its all down hill from here.

(Adam is kneeling on a chair, which is why he looks taller. They are exactly the same height.)

Comments

[Lisa S.]

Good luck, Tertia. We took away the "binky" right after Charlie turned 3. I had been dreading it but we picked the day and stuck to it. It went much more smoothly than I expected. The first couple of nights, especially that very first night, he cried and screamed for it for a while but the next night, less so, and then he never mentioned it again.

Let us know how it goes!

[Judy]

Travis asked for his for NINE MONTHS after we bid it adieu...I don't think he wanted it, it was just part of the bedtime routine by then. The funny thing is, the kid will be 9 in a couple of weeks, and we found his FIRST PACI in his drawer the other day! He thought it was hysterical - of course, it is TOTALLY nastified at this point and he's mortified I'm going to put it on his birthday cake now, but it sure brought back some memories for me...

[Sam]

I traded the pacifier for a hamster. He REALLY wanted a hamster! Until he got it and realized that hamsters are assholes.

[heather]

Emma was 3 1/2 when we got rid of her dummies she loved them, but her teeth were starting to buck out to the shape of the dummy

on christma eve she wrapped them all in paper and left them for santa to come and take the to the poor babies i know what a thing to say but it worked, the odd time shed cry and ask for it, but we reminded her that the babies had them, now and again at 5 shell still say i really miss my dummy. her teeth still are slightly miss shapen but they seam to have slid back a bit

good luck

[andrea]

Ah yes I said that about my daughter's bottle - she's 5 next week Lol!

[Vicki]

Good Luck,
I am following heather's lead. My 3 year old (just) has teeth in a perfect circle shape. I sucked my thumb until I was 14 and never needed braces so I underestimated the effect of the evil dummy.
We have started telliing her that her grandparents will bring her a camera (digital thing, much cheeper in America where they are going on holiday) if she give her dummys to the babies who have none.
She is all for giving things to poor babies so within 6 weeks I hope to have cracked it. She only has them at bedtime and in the car, but asks for one whenever she is tired or sad. She actually has 2 and rubs one on her nose so I am going to hang on your every word in order to sort this!
I think it was easier to give up smoking than take dummy away. Help.
And again, Good Luck.

[Vicki]

My smoking that it. She can't quite manage a lighter yet.

[Bobbie]

I think my nephew was five (and still using a pacifier) when my sister took him to the dentist for the first time. The dentist took one look at the shape of his mouth and turned to my sister. "He's not still using a pacifier, is he???????" The pacifiers were thrown away that night (and my nephew never needed braces).

[Jenn]

Tell them that they need to send their dummies to babies that need them. Maybe have them wrap them up and mail them to Grandma who can in return mail them a special gift. Or tie them to balloon's and let them release them into the sky. They are at the age that it should be pretty easy to get rid of them if you make a big deal about them being big kids now!

[Lisa]

We told Alex that the Bappy Fairy comes on the night you turn 4 and takes all your bappies away because 4-year-olds are too big for bappies. We started telling him this, just as an aside, when he was about 3 1/2. We ran around like madmen trying to make sure we found ALL the bappies (they were legion) and put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer just in case he freaked the next night.

He fussed a little bit the next night, but not too much once we reminded him about the Bappy Fairy. We kept the bag 'o bappies in the freezer for about a month though. Just in case.

[Gina (Meet my Brother )]

I wanted to take my daughter's away at her 4th birthday. She was not looking forward to her birthday. I let her keep it and trade it at Christmas. I told her Santa would take it and give it to a baby who needed it. This way Santa took it and not me. We wrote a note and put it in a special place. She got a DVD left in the same place with a note from Santa (written by a friend of mine) saying how proud he was of her. She never asked for it again and she loved that thing.

[sister Mel]

Baby seagulls remember, not fish. Throw the dummies and the bread at the same time. The seagulls swoop sown to fetch the bread and they think its the dummies. Get Marko to pick them up and throw them away when they are not looking. Do not keep them, I don't trust you not to give in, WUSS!

[Anna]

cold turkey, as I said before. you'll survive.

[cooler*doula]

Cold turkey... And get them out of the house so you can't back down... Three days of pain... And you'll likely be done...

[Krista]

I have always liked the idea of giving them to the dentist....I mean you can't really f*^k with the dentist :)

[nola]

I did it the easy way. Made a small snip in the teat and every time it was sucked it collapsed. I told my kid he was so big and strong that he popped the dummy. He dumped it because it didn't give the same satisfaction. I did keep a spare one incase he got sick or really difficult.

[mommo4.5]

Two of my four were tied to their soothers (that's what we call them in Canada). They had never learned to go to sleep without them. We did the withdrawal thing shortly after they turned three. The first time we went through it, my daughter agreed to throw hers in the garbage after we talked about the big girl thing, etc. The second time, with my son, I had heard that if you cut a piece off the tip and then every few days cut a little more off they would just lose interest. I guess that might work for babies, but it didn't fool him a bit. He took one suck and said "I don't want it, it's broken." So I jumped on that and said, "Do you want to throw it out them?" He said he did. (So I guess it was a good idea after all!)

For both of them the actuality of what they had done hit them rather hard and neither of us got much sleep those first couple of nights. But in a very short time (3 or 4 days) they were over it. (And it was only difficult at night, days were fine.) I kept one for sentimental reasons and still have it somewhere.

When you decide the time is right to go for it, I advise you not to give in to their pain. It will be short lived and giving in would only make it harder on the next try.

Here's to the next stage in growing up for Adam and Kate! I'm sure they'll do just fine.

[J from Ireland]

Haha the very best of luck to you all. My eldest daughter gave her dummy to Santa's elf at age 5, she was grand until my nephhew was born a year later and she stole his many a time for a sneaky suck.

[anne]

There's a brilliant book called the Last Noo Noo by Jill Murphy, one of my favourite illustrators. My daughter and I read that quite a few times before she gave up her beloved dummy. It's about a monster (Marlin) who gives up his dummy when he's good and ready to (although he did plant a few to grow a dummy tree - just in case). She was three. It went well, really, but it was her decision.
But to teach me that things never ever go smoothly with kids, my son is now three-and-a-half and he still sucks/loves his thumb. Evil evil thumb. There's no throwing a thumb to the seagulls unfortunately. And the long-term damage to his teeth and palate are much more dramatic than from a dummy. Sigh.
Anyone got any suggestions how to give the thumb the, er, finger?

[louise]

Haaaaa! Too funnie!!!

[cat]

The naughty mouse came along each night and chewed a little bit off the dummy until it was so uninteresting (ie nothing to such on nay more - no teat left) that she threw it away herself. Never asked for it again - but still looking for that mouse.

[V]

I am so glad that my two never took to the dummy at all. It was strange that both of them just did not like having something in their mouth!

[Adelaide]

When I would not give up my pacifier, my mother cut a little bit off the end of it every other day until it was gone. Worked like a charm.

[Amy]

Good luck. We have not slept since (6 months and counting),.

[kristylynne]

I still remember the day my mom threw my binkies away. I remember standing on the curb and sobbing as the garbage truck drove away with them inside.

But I am now a normal and well-adjusted human being, so there you are.

There are some great suggestions above. I'm sure they'll get over it quickly and do fine!

[Jan]

What @Adelaide said. My kids both refused a pacifier as babies, so it's been a non-issue at my house, but a good friend had a binky-lover and they did the cut-a-bit-off-at-a-time technique until one day there wasn't enough left for him to suck on it. He had a brief moment of "fix it, Mommy" and when she said, "I can't fix it, that's just the way it is" that was the end of it. Voila.

Another approach is to allow them only for sleeping. Another friend got a big cookie jar and filled it with all kinds of pacifiers. Part of the nap/bed routine was to pick out a binky. Then it got put away afterwards. (I know this doesn't make them get rid of it completely, but my personal opinion is that I don't care what they do to get them to sleep calmly. I honest to God wouldn't care if they went away to college still sucking on one before bed.)

[Amy]

We cut off little bits every day or so to help our 4 yr old addict kick his binky habit. At that age, he understood "broken" and it just wasn't the same. We told him he was too old and they wouldn't let us buy any more. :-)

[Bobbi]

Just a bit of a warning...we did the "cut a little off at a time" bit here, but my beloved son still refused to give it up. He still had to sleep with the damn thing (holding it, not sucking), and I was going in there countless times a night when he would lose it to help him find the stupid thing. One night I got pissed and it got "lost" permanently. He was upset for a couple days, but then it was fine. Wish I'd have done that sooner...