We fill our days with trips to the park, play dates with friends, reading books, drawing on his easel, playing with trains, “cooking” together and plenty of time outside.
Chase’s personality shines through so much and it’s funny for me to think back on some of the characteristics I noticed in him as a baby and see how they have manifested in other ways now that he’s a toddler. He was always the most distracted eater when it came time to nursing and that’s definitely held true for him at mealtimes as a toddler. Play > Food. Always. He was always so active through kicks, little punches and general body movements as a baby and that’s definitely translated to a very active and on-the-go toddler.
I’m loving this stage so much because Chase can communicate well and is always up for adventure. Ryan and I are continually shocked by the things that come out of his mouth and his memory at such a young age. I’m sure this is total first-time parent syndrome, but I cannot believe such a little person can say and do everything he can already! He talks non-stop – a total chatterbox – and I absolutely love it when he sings in the loudest, highest most adorably tone-deaf little voice. He’s huge into music and requests favorite songs on repeat.
Chase is so curious and I have so much fun showing him new things and explaining things to him all day long. He listens intently when we’re telling him about something new, with his brow furrowed as he takes it all in. He’s a little parrot these days and repeats everything. It’s so incredible to watch him grow and learn and he’s always up for a new adventure which reminds me so much of Ryan. He’s energetic and brave but cautious, too, and still wants me to kiss his boo-boos, hold him when he’s getting tired and rub his forehead on long car rides.
It’s easy to look at him and feel like he’s already this independent, tiny adult, but moments when he stands at my feet and says, “Mama, hold you” and wants me to scoop him up into my arms makes me realize he still needs and wants the comfort I loved giving to him when he was a baby, too. I’ve honestly loved every stage of Chase’s life so far, but this one is my favorite because he’s right in that sweet spot of being old enough to understand things and get excited about new adventures but he’s also young enough to still want and need regular comfort and nurturing. 
Eating
Eating is slowly improving for Chase but it definitely comes and goes. His favorite foods are Earth’s Best Sunny Days Organic Snack Bars, fresh berries, muffins, burgers with ketchup, cucumbers, macaroni and cheese and oh-so-predictably he also loves ice cream and doughnuts.
The good news is that eating dinner as a family almost every night has really helped with Chase’s vegetable consumption. He’s trying a larger variety of vegetables and seems to like vegetables more when he sees us eating them, too. He eats the tops of asparagus like a champ and also seems to enjoy roasted Brussels sprouts. Cucumbers and raw carrots are some of his favorites.
Because I know how much a child’s eating can stress a parent out, I also want to say that Chase is in no way scooping up vegetables and requesting them for every meal. That’s most certainly not the case and there are definitely days when he won’t touch a vegetable. It’s easy for me to stress out about it, but our pediatrician is really awesome and reminds me that force-feeding a toddler isn’t going to happen. We’re doing our best to offer him veggies often and we encourage him to eat them, but if he’s not having it, I try to chill out and revisit veggies the next day.
Sleeping
I don’t have too much to report on sleep other than to say that I feel like we’re in a really good spot with sleep at the moment. (This is also why I’m particularly apprehensive about the pacifier situation detailed below…) Chase generally goes to bed around 7:30 or 8 p.m. and wakes up about 12 hours later. Naps are later in the afternoon now that he’s in preschool two mornings a week and we don’t get home until after 1 p.m. on those days. Naptime now usually takes place between 1 and 2 p.m. and will last for anywhere from one to three hours. (Three hour naps = Oh happy daaay!)
Current Challenges
The biggest challenge on our plate right now is the pacifier. It is SUCH a crutch for Chase and I can see the way it instantly relaxes him whenever he grabs his Wubbanub (“Wubby”) and shoves it into his mouth. We limit his pacifier use to naptime and bed time and the occasional long car ride, but after a visit to the dentist, it’s becoming increasingly clear we need to work on getting rid of it. Chase’s dentist said she likes to see kids pacifier-free by 2 1/2 years old and I am DREADING this transition. HELPPPP MEEEEE.
Chase has a few Wubbanubs (the pacifiers with the little stuffed animals attached to them) that he loves and the animals have ripped off from the pacifier on two of them which shockingly didn’t seem to bother him that much. We told him the Wubbanubs were broken but he could still have the animal and he pretty much shrugged it off and still loves the little animals. So here’s my current game plan: I’m planning to cut the pacifiers off the remaining Wubbanubs. (Chase has three left with pacifiers on them… yes, I need to buy stock in Wubbanubs.) I am hoping that cutting a pacifier off a Wubbanub every other day so the transition into pacifier-less Wubbanubs is gradual will help Chase go with the flow. I’m not naive enough to think it won’t be a big deal, especially when the last Wubbanub is pacifer-free, but I don’t have any other ideas.
If any of you have any suggestions, I am ALL ears. I cannot help but picture sleepless nights and non-existent naptimes when this transition begins!
Likes
- Music (Favorite songs are “Baby Beluga,” “Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “Minnie the Moocher”)
- Any sport involving a ball (especially soccer)
- Wrestling in our bed with Dad at the end of the day (“Bouncy Bed!”)
- Reading
- Preschool and Miss Debbie
- Helping Mom cook and bake
- His wooden dog pull toy
- Running around outside
- Playing with his trains and drawing on his easel
- Coloring and stickers
- Sadie (Watching him try to call her and do the little kissy noise with his mouth is so darn adorable)
- Gymboree
- Animals
- Crib kisses (Chase has never been into hugging/kissing on demand – which I’m totally okay with – but he always requests a “crib kiss” at night and wants a kiss from me through his crib which absolutely melts my heart)
- His best buddies (Claire, Lilly, Lily, Ella, Caleb, Cooper and Jack)
- Running around the kitchen island and playing chase
- Finding and collecting rocks
- Picking figs off our fig tree
Dislikes
- Getting his teeth brushed… but this has improved dramatically thanks to our dentist’s tip of lying him down to brush his teeth after his bath
- When we wipe his nose
- Coming inside after playing outside
- Staying still for diaper changes
2 Year Old Favorites
PLAY
- Magnetic Dry Erase + Chalkboard Easel
- Magnetic Trains
- Kitchen Helper Cooking Stand
- Wooden Dog Pull Toy
- Markers and Stickers
- LeapFrog On My Own Laptop (We save this one for long car trips only and it’s fabulous!)
- Golf Putter
- Foam Glider Airplane
- Soccer Ball
- V-Tech Count and Learn Alphabet Bus
BOOKS
- Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go (Chase is obsessed with finding the little Goldbug on every page of this book!)
- Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes
- Pete The Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons
- My Big Book of Beginner Books About Me
- Point ‘n’ Match Books (Great if your toddler loves matching and finding things.)
- Go Dog. Go!
- I Love You Just Like This
- I’d Know You Anywhere (This book is beautiful and one of my personal favs!)
Past Updates
- 20-22 Months
- 17-19 Months
- 13-16 Months
- Twelve Months
- Eleven Months
- Ten Months
- Nine Months
- What I Wish I Knew Before My Baby Was Born
- Eight Months
- Seven Months
- Six Months
- Our First Sleep Training Experience
- Traveling With A Baby For The First Time
- Five Months
- Four Months
- Three Months
- Two Months
- And Then He Smiled
- Three Weeks
- The First 12 Days
- Q&A: All About Birth & Life With A New Baby
- Chase’s Birth Story: Part I, Part II
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
Ah… the binky dilemma.
The timing with my oldest was wacky. Starting at age 2 we decided we needed to have a plan to get rid of it – she was never super, duper dependent – we didn’t have tons of them all over the place, but we did start limiting them like you to bed/naptime and long car rides. Starting around 2y4m (so December) we told her that the one she had was the last one, once it was gone there would be no more. We talked about it for months and months. Well, turns out she bit through it the day her brother came home from the hospital (she was 2y7m)….and she never napped again. In the depths of newborn tiredness, I thought her never napping again was because her brother came home from the hospital. But years later, especially after seeing him going through the weaning process, I realized it had nothing to do with him, but everything to do with the fact that she no longer had a binky to get her to sleep. In hindsight I wish I had given her the extra binky we had in the attic (I had one of every kind for when he arrived) but since we had been talking about it for MONTHS (and she seemed okay with it), we didn’t want to go back on our word. She didn’t cry for it, she just didn’t nap. And then made life hell for us!
My son was way more dependent on it than she was. He has many more sensory things going on. We did the 6 binkies in the crib so we didn’t constantly have to go in there and had multiples all over the house, in our coats and bags and in the car. both my kids only liked the binkies that look more like bottle nipples (so round versus having a flat side) – By 2, we could fit a pinky in his overbite and the dentist really wanted it gone. Because we could see it affecting his bite, we told him on his 3rd birthday it would be bye-bye (he had already stopped napping this point so we weren’t worried about that). And on that day he gave it to us and never looked back.
Good luck!
I thought my daughter would have a pacifier until she was 16 years old. She was hooked too. We made a box, painted it and put all the pacifiers in it to give to one of our friends with a baby. We talked about how babies need them. She was so excited to give the baby the gift she literally chucked the box at him. After that when she would ask for it, we would just remind her that the new baby had them now. It was wayyy easier than expected. Yes, you will have a couple crying spells but it never affected sleep! Good luck!
I was just going to suggest this! My sister is due in Dec , and I’m prepping my 26 month old that we’re going to give her daughter all the pacifiers. I remind her often what’s going to happen & that baby’s need them.
Amazing idea!
I think you might be surprised!
Our son Connor only used his pacifier at nap time and they had started to wear out. I cut one, showed him it was broken and needed to go in the rubbish. I let him put it in. That night he asked for it, I reminded him it was broken and in the rubbish and he said oh yeah, lay down and went to sleep …. he never mentioned it again!
All the things I thought would be a big deal – pacifier, going to a big bed and cutting out bottles were almost non events for our boy. I am sure it will go just as smoothly for you guys!
I haven’t gotten there yet, so this is just advice from other mums that I have been talking to! Some of them have said that cutting the end of the pacifier and telling them that it is broken works well. Followed by a very ceremonial throwing out of the broken pacifier. If you wouldn’t mind giving a bit of advice for a new mum on the other end of this delima it would be appreciated though! I have a five-month old boy who uses his for going down for naps. Would you do anything different in hind-sight? Like wean him off it earlier, or just use it if he can’t settle? It’s such a god-send, but I am aware that the weaning process will be a challenge at some point in the future!
We went through this dilemma with D around this age… so hard! Thankfully, D was actually biting his binkys and some were getting cracks (uh, 3 y/o rubber? Yuck!) so we would pitch them and actually have him say goodbye to the binky that was broken. Once we got down to one, we told him that once this one broke, he was done… he was old enough that he didn’t need it anymore. It took some convincing, but he handled it well. We played up the drama as we got down to that final one (oh, no…. *this* one has a rip in it… it’s too dangerous for you to use so let’s throw it away!… etc) but he seemed ok in the end. I’m sure Chase is going to handle this well…. XOXO
I have a little brother who is 12 years younger than me and he was HOOKED on his pacifier at 2 y.o. and completely lost his mind if he couldn’t have it. My dad would just trim the nipple of it down a little bit everyday for a week until it was too hard for my brother to keep in his mouth. He’d get frustrated, but it took less than 2 weeks to be totally paci-free!
Speaking as a mom of two who used pacifiers and grandmother to 3, two of whom used pacifiers, I think your phasing out the pacifier plan is a good one, but I’d extend it a bit…cut one off every other week instead of every other day. By the way, the one grandchild who never would accept a pacifier and also did not suck her thumb needs braces anyway……just like her older sister who had the pacifier till she was 2 years and 8 months old.
We never used pacifiers with our two kiddos and they are now 19 and 24. Neither one of them was a thumb sucker either. I guess we just lucked out! We had a neighbor who’s 4 year old still had one and you couldn’t understand a thing that dear child said because of the pacifier in their month. We decided then and there to never give one to our own and we made it!
TOO FUNNY on the crib kisses- my toddler is obsessed with doing the same thing!
Isn’t it the sweetest!?!?
My kids hate pacifiers so I have no advice on that but something we do with my oldest son is we blow kisses down his shirt (he holds it open at the neck while we pretend to blow kisses down, lots of huffing and puffing). We make it silly by saying he needs to trap them in there (don’t let them blow out) until he needs one. We make a big ordeal about closing the neck of his shirt quickly so they don’t fly out. We do this at night or when he gets left (school, babysitter) or whenever he requests. Might be a fun “new routine” and you can tell him if he ever wants his paci at night or nap he can “pull a kiss out” instead. It’s a long shot but you never know. I also have a fisher price elephant thing that has a really soothing melody when you push his stomach. That’s what soothed my oldest son for like 2 years. It was the best!! We would hear it going off all night. Best of luck! The gradual approach sounds like a winner.
I have no kids so I’m not sure I”m qualified to answer this, however a friend and her daughter left the soothers for Santa so that he could give them to the baby reindeers. Anytime her daughter would ask for the soother, she’d respond with remember, we gave them all to baby reindeers.
We had the binky fairy come and take all the binkys away leaving a toy. We talked about it for about a week prior and then put all the binkys outside in a bag and when we got up the next morning there was a toy/lovey/whatever he likes as a replacement.
So funny, I just saw today that there is a musical based on the Pete the Cat books and it’s going to be at one of my local venues. https://www.cityoperahouse.org/pete-the-cat
Our little guy wasn’t too interested in pacifiers but I’ve had girlfriends who’ve had sucess with the “paci fairy.” Basically you and CHase gather up all your pacifiers and collect them to give to the paci fairy who gives them to new babies. Sometimes the paci fairy leaves a little thank you gift if you want to replace the paci with something too!
I JUST went through exactly what you are dealing with. My daughter turned 2 this month and I wanted to stop the pacifier ASAP. She was only using it for naps and bedtime. I tried “prepping” her but I’m not sure she really understood the gravity of the situation. Every morning I would ask for her to hand me her pacifier and tell her that next week (we started the prep one week prior) she wouldn’t have them any more, that she was a “big girl”. My husband and I would discuss it almost every night that week, dreading how her great sleep would be ruined by the transition. I searched the internet for advice and wisdom but only got “prep them or do it cold turkey, either way, you just have to get through it”. So one night we just said no more…. she cried for two hours before she finally fell asleep. But the next night it was only 1.5 hours and the 3rd night it was only 10 minutes.
Remember when everyone used to say “this too shall pass” when you had a newborn? Well dig deep and remember that when you go through this transition and it will get you through it! I’m not a cry it out kind of mom so I went in every 10-15 minutes to assure her that I was there and sing her a song. She never specifically asked for the pacifier back, but you could tell she was at a loss as to how to self soother herself to sleep. So I would tell her to put her head down and hold her favourite stuffy.
Fast-forward a few weeks later and she’s back to 12 hours a night and 2 hour naps.
Good luck! You can do this!
The pacifier thing seems pretty subjective. Our dentist told us to try and be done with it by age 4! With my oldest, we started talking about getting rid of it when he was around 3 (after age 2 it was only for use in his bed/crib). When we wanted to be done, I bought a cool toy and told my son he could trade his pacifier for it whenever he wanted. He wasn’t ready that day but did it 2 days later, and we never heard a word about it ever again. I think it helped that he was older and could understand the situation and there has been no dental fallout from letting him use it so long. My youngest is 2 1/2 and we’ll probably do something similar, but he seems much more attached to the pacifier so we’ll see. Good luck!
My pediatric dentist told us(at age 2) if we pulled it now we would end up with a thumb sucker and we can’t take away a thumb. He seemed to be more chill about it and encouraged it to be gone by 3. We are at 2 1/2 now, but about to move into a new home, and we’ve been staying in a rental for 2 months and just moved from out of state. We are planning on trying it when all the other transitions are done. I’m not looking forward to it.
We limited the paci to only bedtime. With my first we took all but one away. One day we cut the tip off it and she handed it back to us saying broken. We told her that was the last one. She cried and asked for it for a few days. We would always give her the broken one any time she asked for it. She would suck it for a second and hand it back saying broken. She finally was over it after about 4 days. My second was even easier in that my husband forgot to give it to her one night and we haven’t looked back since. I do think daycare helped seeing as they broke her of it durring nap times about 2 months earlier.
We got rid of the pacifier at about age 5-6 months (I think) because our boy lost it during the night a few times, cried harikari and couldn’t find it to put it back into his mouth. One or two episodes of that was all i needed.
Magically, they all disappeared after that. It was a tough couple of days for him, but then boom! He was adjusted. I suggest the cold turkey thing. The longer he has it, the harder it is to get rid of it (and you have 2 years of patterned behavior now, so exit strategy is important). The pacifier fairy is a nice idea–but truly I am sort of cut and dry on the cold turkey thing. Just my .02
I hope you all are doing well–he is such a cute expressive boy and the two of you post such nice pics with him.
Ohh the binky!! Our 4 year old is a thumb sucker, but our almost 3 year old was a binky ADDICT. At his 2 year dentist appointment, our pediatric dentist recommended the “cutting” technique. About three months later I finally got up the courage to try it. We got down to only one binky, and then I cut just a bit off the tip. Every day I cut a little more. On the 4th day, he got so frustrated that it wouldn’t stay in his mouth that he threw it away himself. Absolutely NO change in sleep, and he is a very high sleep needs child (still naps 3-3.5 hours a day and 12 hours at night). I was amazed!! And better yet, my husband and I weren’t the ones to blame. The binky just “broke” on its own. Good luck with whatever method you try!
Have you tried to do anything about your 4 year old thumb sucker yet? My daughter just turned 3 and she sucks her thumb all the time, not just during sleep. I cannot just take away a thumb and we are starting to think about how to wean this, so was curious if you have approached it yet.
Thankfully, my daughter only sucks her thumb for sleep, or comfort if she’s really upset. Our pediatric dentist said that her teeth actually look to be in great shape, but that we need to start trying to limit the thumb sucking. My husband and I were both thumb suckers until we were quite old (6 for him and 8 for me!), so we aren’t surprised. That’s why we pushed the binky super hard with kid #2 🙂 Anyway, for now we make her keep her comfort items in her bed (blanket and a special stuffed animal), and we worked really hard on sitting on her hands in the car or when she’s watching a show instead of sucking her thumb. I think it’s something that will take a lot of time to outgrow, but reducing opportunities is the first start.
I don’t have kids but I can tell you what worked for my cousin! She explained to her that the pacifier fairy was coming to take them to kids who didn’t have any and needed them. She drew a picture for the fairy and packaged them up all cute. They then got put in the mailbox to “mail” to the pacifier fairy!
I don’t have any children yet, currently pregnant with my first that is due in May… oh so soon our little peanut will be here, so the only thing I can help with is what my parents did with me when I was almost 3 years old. I only had one pacifier left and I religiously wanted it at bedtime. So one night my dad “hid” it and told me it was lost. Oh the horror! So they spent an hour with me “looking” for it and when it didn’t come up, after exhausting myself running around “looking” for it, I finally fell asleep. After that I never asked for it again and in the trash it went a few days later. Just an idea… but yours sounds much easier! 🙂 Good luck!
I was so stressed out about about the pacifiers as well! We took our twins to the dentist at 18 month and she could already see that both their palates were quite narrow from their wubanubbs! While I was out the next night, my husband cut the tips off the end of them and took the kids that they were broken! My daughter was upset at first, and it was rough for about 2 days at bedtime. My twins are now 4.5 and my daughter still sleeps with her wubby toy. We cut the paci off a few days after the first night and she was happy to have her red puppy to hold 😉
Good luck!
In June we transitioned out of the paci for our 2 1/2 year old daughter — like Chase, she only used it for naps, bedtime and long car rides. I still feel immense guilt as she STILL talks about it, but she’s clearly fine so I need to suck it up 🙂 I’m not a fan of making things disappear as we choose to discuss what’s going to happen at our house. Like you also mentioned it’s amazing what they are capable of understanding so I always try and use that to our advantage… Our friends had a baby in May so we talked a lot about visiting her and what all babies “need”. Eventually we worked into giving her all our pacis — so when the day came for our visit we wrapped the gift together, colored on it and topped with a nice tacky bow. She LOVED helping open the gift and of course we explained ahead of time to the new parents about our used pacis 🙂 Assuming Chase can already soothe himself to sleep if he wakes up in the night and doesn’t have his paci, you’ll do fine. We had a good month or so of taking a bit longer to fall asleep, but you’ll get there!
I am totally with you about this stage. I love that they can communicate but yet also want occasional cuddles! We have a bottle issue at our house, where he is down to ONE a day in the morning but he’s let it go before and then all of sudden throws a fit if it’s not ready and waiting when he wakes up…I’m just praying he’ll drop it on his own and or will go to Kindergarden and decide it’s not for him..ha! We have a dentist appointment in a few weeks so I’m sure we’ll be told the same thing…lol
Love seeing the updates because Chase reminds me so much of Sully! play over food any day and veggies are a no bueno unless dipped in a massive amount of ‘sauce’ and even then they aren’t often eaten! lol
Haha! Yes! Chase loves them in “dip dip” aka ketchup!
We lost our son’s last binky on a hike (in the middle of nowhere) when he was about 2years, 2months. We had pacifier time limited to naps and bedtime as well. SO my husband and I took a deep breath and went cold turkey. Nap time was the most difficult for my son. In fact, nap time was rough for about a week. He didn’t ask for it anymore after that… I say that to say, it’s only a short time that he will struggle. I know it’s hard, but we just had to power through it. If we had waited until we were brave enough, he would probably still have it (he’s 2 and a half now). Whatever you decide to do, good luck!!
Julie, has Chase always slept 13-15 hours a day? I am so insanely jealous. Neither of my boys have been great sleepers and I can`t help but feel like a total failure as a mom. I cannot imagine if my boys slept 13-15 hours a day. Did Chase gradually reach this point? I`m wondering if there`s any hope that my almost two year old will ever get there. His older brother`s half day school schedule was a huge issue last year for naps. This year is much better but I cannot imagine 12 hours straight at night…that would be amazing! I’m lucky to get 10…sigh. When my older son was 2.5 I took away his pacifier cold turkey (because he started chewing them and I was so afraid he`d bite off he tip and choke) He never cried or mentioned them again and then he started sleeping through the night (finally!!!) I was stunned. I’m still really worried about taking it away from my baby though. fingers crossed that Chase does great!
I can’t comment on the pacifier situation, since my 2 year old never took one. But I will say from someone who just got over a MONTH long sleep regression to just hang in there and don’t give up!! Ours actually got so bad that he learned to climb out of his crib and did it two nights in a row! We got him to stop by sitting in his room with him- but then we got stuck there because he would wake up all night long crying that we weren’t there. After a month or so of that we finally did sleep training again and that lasted about a week where he would cry hysterically when we put him in his crib. Good news is now he loves his crib and says “BYE!!” when we put him in at night- no more climbing out and life is good again!
Cut a slit in the pacifier itself. It won’t feel the same and kids naturally won’t want to use it because it feels different. Might have a few rough nap times but it’s worth it!
My daughter will be 2 at the end of this month. We got rid of her pacifiers when she was around 18 months old. We did our final night with the pacifier and then told her she was a big girl and the pacifiers were tired or broken or something along those lines and it’s time to sleep without one. I can’t remember exactly what we said but after the final night we woke up and we said goodbye to the pacifiers. I gathered them all and threw them away (not in front of her) so there was no turning back. She shockingly was not phased. I was picturing some meltdowns but after the first nap and then night without one it was almost like she forgot about them. It’s clearly different for each child but you may be surprised how easy the transition is. Chase is also a little older than my daughter was when we stopped using them so he may understand better when you explain to him that there will be no more pacifiers. I have some friends who did the transition around a holiday, for example Easter, and they left the pacifiers out at night and the Easter bunny took away the pacifiers and left a special treat in their place. Hope the transition to no pacifiers goes well for you!
We were bad and my son had a bottle until a little over 2. One morning I just got rid of them and explained there was no more “babas”. Weaning them away was too hard so I just got rid of then and my and son was fine with it! It may be worth a try with the pacifier! I did let him pick out and on new sippy cup that day and told him it was his “baba cup” :p
We did the paci fairy – told our son the fairy needed to take the pacis to the new babies and he got a gift!
Took a few nights but it worked!
Our 19 month old also loves his Wubbanubs, but for the animal’s limbs, not the pacifier part! He has never even tried to put the pacifier in his mouth, only the arms and legs. They have become a one-time-use thing and need to be washed daily because they get so wet from him chewing on the arms and legs (which is why we now have 12 of them…I’ll go in on that stock with you). I haven’t asked the dentist yet how bad stuffed animal limbs are for a baby’s teething situation! I don’t know what we’ll do when we have to take away his “giraffey.” 🙂
My daughter is almost three and is totally hooked on her paci. I mean if she can’t have it it’s melt down city for at least 20 minutes. We actually phased it out awhile ago for only naps and bedtime, but somehow it’s worked it’s way back in and now it’s a fight all day long. She will negotiate with us, saying just one minute or just till we get there and we are huge softies so just let her have it and I take it away if she gets distracted. She doesn’t care about being a big girl or the paci fairy so when she turns three I’m throwing them away and saying they are broke. I think you have to go cold turkey otherwise you will just have to go through it all over again when you fully remove it. I wish you luck! I’m right there with you!
As a fellow wubbanub LOVER and twin 3 yr old boy mom, I totally get your fear of the pacifier situation! We had the exact same thing happen at 20 months where a pacifier came off the wubbanub, so I jumped at the opportunity and cut the tips off all the others. Over a one week period I kept trimming away at them until we only had animals and no pacifiers. We told the boys they were broken and it wasn’t something we could fix, and they weren’t very bothered by it. At 3 1/2 years old, they still sleep with two of the wubbanub animals every day.
You can poke a tiny hole in them and they lose their suction and become less appealing. Then you could say they are broken and cut them off.
We got rid of my son’s at 2.5 – not only did he suck on them but he held them in each hand too so I felt terrible because he would rub them and soothe himself. We did the paci fairy and he chose to do it. One night I was leaving his room (we’d been talking about her for a bit) and he said he was ready. I couldn’t believe it. I said are you sure and he choked back tears and nodded his head. I’ll never forget that moment- my heart broke. It was a ROUGH 6 nights. I’m talking rough. He never asked for them back and wouldn’t talk about them but would cry and wake up and was restless. I literally almost took him to the store to buy one and told myself if night number 7 is this bad then he can have them. And night number 7 he slept and it was over. So prepare yourself – it could be tough. He is 4.5 now and the other night told me he wished they made big boy pacis, I said why do you miss yours? He said yeah 🙁 Dagger through heart!!! But he’s fine of course, he never did pick up any other comfort object though.
I am not a mom, but my mom told me the story of how she got rid of pacifiers for my brother who was VERY attached to them as a toddler. She got our babysitter to do it when she and my dad went away for a weekend trip!! haha Our babysitter was a close family friend and knew that my mom was struggling to get rid of them and offered to do it over the weekend. She told him that they were gone and by the time my parents came back he had gotten over it and never asked for it again. So if you have a babysitter who is willing to go through a few stressful days you can always try my mom’s tactic 😉 Unfortunately for my mom, my sister and I were attached to sucking our thumbs which was a much larger battle to over come!
All of my cousins have used the “pack fairy” story and it has worked for all 5 kids. A few days of reminding, but we made a big deal about leaving the paci’s in a basket for the fairy (like Santa Clause) and they were gone the next morning. Maybe leave something, like a new exciting toy from the fairy? Good luck!
Paci Fairy – not Pack
My newly three year old niece relied heavily on her pacifier (binky) for comfort until about 3 months ago. It was definitely starting to give her an overbite. My sister took her to build a bear with all of her pacifiers and told her to build her favorite bear and we would put them all inside. This is no affectionately known as her “bink bear” and when she needs comfort or its bed/nap time she lays with the bear. There was no fight and it worked like a charm!
I am now a new mom to a 2 month old who was dreading pacifiers because of the struggle I witnessed but now I feel much better giving it to him. Good luck!!
I love this idea! Our daughter is over two and loves her pacis during nap and nighttime, and on stroller walks and in the car – a lot of the time! My MIL got our girl a gift card to Build a Bear and this might be the ticket to get her to “trade in” those pacifiers!
I’m probably not the best person for paci advice because I really don’t think they’re a big deal but when my son was 3.5 I realized that he was ready, as he had started biting them and couldn’t actually suck on them anymore without getting air so we said bye to them and threw them away! His pediatric dentist wasn’t concerned and his teeth are totally fine now/still 1.5 years later. I loved him having and loving his paci as he never had a favorite blanket or anything. I look back on all of my pictures of him with his paci so fondly. I’m sad that phase is over!
When my youngest two were 2 and 3, we went to see my family in law in Tunesia for a whole month.
A few weeks before leaving, I told the kids that ‘in Tunesia there are no pacifiers. They just don’t exist there.’
(Which is, of course not true, so yes, I lied to my toddlers, so there…)
They didn’t ask for them in Tunis, nor after we came back home.
When me, my sisters and brother were little kids, we all gave our pacifiers to Santa and got toys in exchange…
Our sons are very close in age is their any way you do sa sort of daily routine post. I just started staying home with my little boy and I’m trying to curvier out a schedule.