We’ve been preparing all week.
This is it. It has to go. It can go on no longer.
She’s growing up. She’s a big girl. She sleeps in a big girl bed. She speaks in sentences. She can open tubes of ointment and rub it on everything. She can reach the top of her four drawer dresser. I’ve let it go on too long.
They’ve stopped using it at nap time at daycare, and Mommy is the hold out. I’m just not ready for her to give it up.
But, today, is the last day.
No more paci.
We’ve been talking it up all week. Telling her, Friday, she has to “throw them away.”
But, I realized, she needs a treat, a prize or something for being so grown up. I would like it to be something that she can have at bedtime; a special book, a special toy, etc.
Here’s where you come in. I need suggestions. Do I pick it out, or do I let her? I’m so new to this! Help!!!
I can go to the store tonight. Maybe I’ll spend some of my free Target money.
Maybe you can guide her to the stuffed animal section or something like that. That would take the “comfort place” of the pacifer. Maybe let her pick out a stuffy and she can take it to bed with her instead of the paci. Kenley loves taking her doggie or Blues Clue with her to bed. I find that if she picked it out, she plays with it more. Just a suggestion. Good Job Isabella. Way to let go of the paci!
I read this on someone’s blog. I can’t remember who but they sent it to the pacifairy. They went and let the kid pick out balloons, they tied the paci to the balloons and sent it to the fairy. The next day the kid woke up and their was a gift from the fairy. I loved this idea but never did it. BG has a small blanket thing with a stuffed animal head attached she sleeps with that now. Good luck. I know it is hard!
I wish I could help you with this one… but I dont have experience with this… SORRY I’M NO HELP!!
Can’t help you there. I took Karys’ away before she was old enough to really understand she was “giving it up”. However, on a better note, it went much better than expected! Good Luck!
Ok so I didn’t do things like this with my kids. But them having paci’s was a long time ago. Here is my suggestion.
I think you should go buy her a gift. Put it in a cutesy bag or tie a bow around it, something you get the point.
And then buy a helium balloon nothing fancy. Tell her that you have to send the paci to the paci fairy. tie the paci to the balloon take Izzy outside and let her let it go. She can watch it float away. Then tell her that when she goes to sleep the paci fairy will come and leave her a present for sending her paci to her. Hence the gift you bought. Place it somewhere where she will see it when she gets up and voila paci gone. Izzy happy. Just a suggestion I seen this somewhere. I can’t take credit. But I thought it was a super cute idea.
Ok so I just typed this whole thing and then read the other comments so yeah um oh well.
I love all the ideas of the balloons and the fairy! That sounds like a really good idea to me.
I wish I could be of more help 🙂
love the balloon idea!!
can i borrow it when it’s our turn to give up the paci??
will be thinking of you on friday!!
When I want to reward Carter for being a big boy I let him pick out what he wants or I give him 3 or 4 choices of mommy approved items. Then I give him the money to pay for it and let him hand it to the cashier. It really makes him feel like a big boy and he gets so excited. Good luck!
We had a friend that was having a baby, so I explained to Landon that we needed to let the new baby have his pacis. We packaged them up and brought them to her (of course she just threw them away, but Landon didnt need to know that!) I told him he got to go pick out a new toy at Target for being such a good big boy!
I was planning on doing the balloon thing (thanks to Super Nanny!!), but then we decided to give them to the new baby!
Good luck..I have to say personally that I was stressing so hard and then he didnt even ask after one day without it!
Good luck with this! I was lucky that none of my girls ever took one so this is one parenting dilemna I have no experience with.
Oh by all means, take her and have her HELP pick something out. And yeah, that balloon thing sounds like a good idea too… ; )
We went to Build-A-Bear and got a bear and put the pacifier IN the bear…
Just an idea… =)
Both my son and daughter threw away their pacies themselves in the bin after receiving a present they chose themselves. My son really wanted a fire truck and my daughter chose a Princess dress up set.
I think it matters that they got to choose their own gift, after all, they are giving away something that has been comforting them for a really long time. To them the pacifier is almost priceless (which doesn’t mean that the gift has to be real expensive!).
Expect a few tears and some waking up during the night for the first two/three weeks. After that, they’ll have forgotten they ever needed it.
I would definitely advise against keepin a spare paci “just in case”.
Hope this helps,
L,
Tania
Cut a slit in the paci nipple with a small knife or a pair of scissors. It takes the “sucking pleasure” out of it- and my kids eventually just got really PISSED OFF that the paci wasn’t working right….and they gave it up on their own….he….he….
i hear the paci fairy is the way to go… good luck!
My boy was really attached to his binky. I was worried and freaked out about it. I told him that if he slept without the binky, the next morning we would go and pick out a toy. It worked and I was worried for nothing. It was as simple as that. I hid the binkies after that so that there would be no begging for them. Good luck! Keep us posted.
Oh, I remember this day. But, sadly I let mine have his until his 3rd b-day. What does she love?
I heard something about a paci fairy.
You tie all the paci’s on a tree outside.
She goes night night.
When she wakes up…there is a gift from the paci fairy.
I am really liking the idea of the balloons.
Oh….and the build-a-bear!
You have some smart readers!
I know where to come when I need advice.
I am laughing…I haven’t told Chandler’s paci story yet, but we got rid of it last week. I had my husband cut the end off and she got soooo mad because it was “broken!” She threw it across the room…when she asks for it, I just redirect her to something different–usually a book. She goes to bed with 5 books in her bed and reads them to herself. I didn’t give her a prize or anything. She hasn’t asked for it in several days now. GOOD LUCK!!!!
It will BE MUCH easier than YOU realize. It will be more painfull for YOU than HER!!!! Trust me big time because I had TWO Paci LOVING LITTLE boys. There is a whole fairy tale story about the paci online….MAMS has it on their site about getting rid of the paci. Try that. We just took it away and in three days they never missed it.
So I’m dying to know what you did. Did you do it? Is it gone? How is Izzy taking it?
I am SO going to MOVE TO YOUR DISTRICT!!!! Hey Jeans and a School Shirt would LOOK GREAT to some of the OUTFITS I SAW today. I guess what gets me is that they are so STRICT on the LITTLE kiddos here. IT WAS totally funny though! I looked worse though than anyone of them!
OOO YEAH for the RECORD I LOVE LOVE CROCS and my kiddos do too and I hope you have a few dozen pair for your little girl as they make life so easy…esp with the new baby coming! Crocs are so comfortable! They will let kids wear crocs here in our district.
Loving your new design. You are too clever honey.
Hope it went well so far. I waited til my eldest was 2 and 9 months and he gave it up no probs happily and Eli still shamelessly sleeps with his aged 2 and 3 months.
They’re gonna need braces anyhow considering the state of both Rob and I’s teeth before we were treated with orthodontics. I keep telling myself.
Yeah, maybe a stuffed animal or a blanket, or something she can snuggle with in bed. I still have to take away the paci from my son though…and I am NOT looking forward to it!! Sigh. Oh well, he still has basically NO molars, no eye teeth, etc. so that’s why I’m letting him have it a BIT longer.
My boys never took to a paci…I tried to get them to, but I think I Just tried at the wrong times or something. I nursed for a long time, so I think I was their paci.
So, ok, now that I’m done talking about myself (sorry!) I want to say, I think a big girl award is a GREAT idea. I’m just not sure what to suggest. So, I”m not super helpful.
Is there a certain doll or toy she’s really been wanting? A big girl kind of toy she’s never had before?
Let us know how it goes!
BTW, your header looks different or something. I like it!
Ahhh, the passy. They’re like crack for kids. Monogram Momma had the passy fairy idea (the one with the balloons). I liked that one. We let our daughter give hers to my little niece who was a baby at the time. It was cute but now she always remembers the kid as the one who “stole” her passy.
The ideas with balloons are cute! And I LOVE your new look!!
Good luck with this. I do not envy you.
I think letting her help to pick out the treat works great. I’ve always found that if they have a role in getting it that it means more to them.
Good luck and stay strong!
You know, I really don’t think there’s a wrong or right way here. In my experience, my kids have always loved the actual shopping involved in getting a special treat. They love to pick it out, and they feel so cool to hand the lady the money. It gives them a sense of ownership, and they get a special something out of it. Whatever you do, she’s still getting something special out of it. Good luck!
Sorry I’ve got nothing, good luck though!
OOOH. I have no help but I am wishing you the best of luck! I’m anxious to see how it goes for y’all.
It sounds like all the previous commenters have given you some great advice.
Hope you made and enjoyed a coffee malt!! have a fabulous weekend! Rachel
Oh… my kids didn’t have paci’s.. so I don’t have any ideas of my own.. but I do love the balloon thing!!! LOVE IT!!
oh man…I totally know how you feel. I felt like it was me hanging on to that stinkin thing too. Luke was so over it.
I would just buy something you know she likes..maybe 2 things and then let her pick out of that. and save the other one for something else…like potty training or for when the new baby comes. good luck! I think its harder on the mom than the kid i think because it means our little baby is growing up. sad!!!
Oh, don’t tell me this!!
I am a paci lover.
Carter just looks so sweet with his paci and his stuffed puppy. Like he is still a little baby, not a 27-lb toddler.
I know I will be in your shoes soon. 🙁
Hey Krystyn, I just tagged you at my blog.
The Binky Fairy visited our house, took the binkys (my daughter left them under her pillow) and the Binky Fairy left her a stuffed elephant (daughter’s favorite animal). The binky ribbon was tied around the ankle of the stuffed elephant. At the time, my daugther had just turned 3 and could not say “binky” so the elephant is named “Inky”. My daughter, now 5 1/2, sleeps with Inky every night.
Oh good GAWD I have no advice, I was planning on keeping my toddler in a CRIB with paci and blankie until he’s 16.
I fear it more than potty training.
Hold me.
Hope it went well.