Taking away pacifier

gold21

Sun, Jan 03 2010, 8:41 pm

My 3.5 year old still sucks his paci. Officially only at nighttime, but he whines during the day and gets it when im stressed, cant handle the whining, etc. He does not suck it outside. He does not bring it to nursery.

Tova

Sun, Jan 03 2010, 9:42 pm

I have a 2.5 year old son, same age as the OP. Still a paci-addict. He was 18 months old when his baby sister was born, and there was no way I was going to wean him from it at that point and heighten his jealousy of the baby (and pointless anyways - he would just take hers.)

It doesn't really concern me, and I have never even tried to take it away. I think a couple of months before his 3rd birthday, though, we will make it part of the "big boy package" - peyos, yarmulka, tzitzis if toilet trained, no more paci.

I should mention that he only uses it at bedtime/naptime and around the house. Never at playgroup; in fact, often he still has it in his mouth as we are in the car on the way to his group and as he crosses the threshold of his Morah's door he ALWAYS hands it to me and says "Here paci, Mommy." [And I keep it in my purse because just as often when I pick him up he immediately wants it when we get into the car.]

I'm personally not sweating it. I know he won't go to school with it and I am not overly concerned w/ the alignment of baby teeth.

chocolate moose

Mon, Jan 04 2010, 1:52 pm

I'm not saying that a pacificer baby = smokign adult; but if the child has or develops an oral fixation - if they are accustomed to being soothed by something in their mouth - it can translate into that. It can traslate into overeating, too.

Barbara

Mon, Jan 04 2010, 2:44 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

But wouldn't that be a reason NOT to take away a pacifier prematurely? If the need is met -- ie, the paci until such time as it is no longer needed by the child -- then it wouldn't develop into a later need to orally gratify by overeating or smoking.

I *did* think that use of pacifier's past a certain age could result in dental issues, but I haven't looked at that in a while.

I swore I'd never give a kid a paci. Then I had DS. At a weak moment, when nothing else was working, I gave him one ... and he was hooked. I let him use it whenever he wanted, as long as he wanted (in his case, just past 2-1/2). He's now a kid who does *not* soothe himself with food, and can even stop after a few bites of his favorite treat to save it for another time.