Pacifier Weaning Highlights - August 2017

What you need to know about weaning summed up all in one place. Summary, Soothing Gestures, My Experience and Disclaimer listed below.

How to Start?

Start by giving it only for sleeping at naptime and bedtime. After a couple of weeks, stop offering it at naptime. If your little one fusses, try giving them a cuddly toy instead, or comfort her through rocking and other soothing gestures (listed below). Once your child is adjusted to napping without the pacifier during the daytime, it is time to tackle nighttime. Also, make sure family members, friends and caretakers are on the same page with how to handle the pacifier situation.

Soothing Gestures:

Patting back while the child is laying down, soft singing, a stuffed animal or lovey, a teething ring or vibrating teether, a gentle swinging motion, and gentle massage are some possibilities. Sometimes just having your presence around can be calming. Some crying or objections are okay at first. If a child is hysterical, comforting them using other methods may take a little longer, especially the first night, so be prepared but don't give in and give the pacifier because your next attempt to wean will be harder if you do.

My Most Recent Experience:

Pacifier weaning took a couple days from start to finish. The first day was awful. It took an hour to get him to fall asleep initially and he woke multiple times screaming when there was no pacifier. (So, lots of soothing and longer periods of it) The next day was the same. The third day, once he was awake for the day, I told him "no more pacifiers". He was 14 months old. Throughout the day I kept telling him things like "pacifiers are all gone", "bye bye pacifiers", "no more pacifiers tonight" and had other people do the same who saw him that day. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DOING THIS BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF WEANING.

Babies understand a lot. He had two days of seeing that something was changing, and he did not like it. On the third day, the conversations throughout the day really prepared him and that was his first night without the pacifier that only took 30 minutes for him to be soothed to sleep and every time he woke he had some soft on and off cries that lasted less than a minute or two and fell back asleep on his own. I did not need to help soothe him at all after he fell asleep initially. After a few days, he was a "no pacifier pro". His age helped because before age 2, children transition to major changes better.

Disclaimer:

Every child is different. There are multiple factors that affect pacifier weaning such as overall dependency on pacifiers at the start, whether or not they have pretty consistent days/nights, family members responding to soothing in discussed ways, age of the child, and what they've used or been taught to use the pacifier for whether its proper use or not, but weaning can happen in a peaceful, educational experience for everyone involved.