Soothers Are For Babies

Julianne will be 16 months old on Christmas Day.  I did some research into the right time to discontinue her soother.  Or binky or whatever you may call it.  I call it a soother for that is what it is, or pacifier but that sounds too stuffy, like I am a super sophisticated woman living the high life.  Ha, whatever.  It's a soother to me.

Different articles recommended different times and different ways of doing it.  But the general concensus was that I could start anytime.  If it doesn't work now, try again later.  I kinda wanted to have it done before we begin to potty train her.

To wean off the bottle was pretty simple.  We just reduced her bottle to night time, just before bed and enforced the cup more regularly.  One day she seemed to decide on her own that she didn't want that night time bottle anymore.  So that was fine with me.  So I am hoping the same will happen with the soother.

We have reduced the soother to naptime and bedtime.  Soon I am going to start taking it away from her in the middle of the night or middle of naptime so she doesn't have it when she wakes up and see how that goes (although most of the time the soother is on the floor by morning so she doesn't have it anyways).

Now, there could be some connection between the elimination of the daytime soother and her "episodes".  So, if that's the case, it should pass.  But we had her in the car this evening to go shopping and on the way there and way back she didn't have it and we had no problems.  Usually by the time we are done shopping and driving home she is incredibly cranky and today she was oddly calm.  Coincidence, probably.

There are so many other suggestions out there on how to wean your child.  Some really good suggestions and some really cruel suggestions.  Like just taking it away and letting her suffer.  I don't think I could so that.  Not only is it painful to her to go cold turkey, it would be painful to us.  I imagine moreso that it has been.  I don't want to traumatize the poor kid.  I suppose it works for some, but I am not going there.
The other idea I really liked was to poke holes in the nipple end so that it deflates when she sucks on it.  Do this for a few days then cut the tip off so it's even worse.  As days pass, if she hasn't already given it up on her own, continue to remove small portions of the nipple until it's down to pretty much nothing.  The idea is that your child will give it up on their own.  I like the gradual aspect to this method and that the child is essentially making the decision to give it up.  Seems fair and allows the child to feel a little more grown  up and in control.

For now I will try this way and see what happens.  If it's like the bottle, then it won't be long.

Then comes potty time. 

Cheers.