pacifier and bottle advice

[jerseygirl82]

DD turned 2 in July and still uses a pacifier and drinks from a bottle. She goes to daycare three days a week and fortunately doesn't use either one while there. She only asks for bottles at night when she is tired and the pacifier seems to be more of a security type thing.

I'd really like for her to kick both of these habits, especially the pacifier since she will insist on taking it out in public and to me she is just too big to be sucking on a pacifier.

Does anyone have any advice they can offer?

 

[MSSANDRA]

1st DS gave up both easy and early....then there came along DS now 5. He was very attached to both. We ended up taking his bottle when we was 22 months old and the passie right at his second birthday. For bottles we had cut out all except his morning and night bottles. When we did it, we just took those two away and told him they were gone. We really did get rid of all of them because I knew I would give in if they were in the house. The problem was we let him use his sippy cup instead of the bottles for am and bedtime and they can be just as bad, if not worse on the teeth as the bottle! The passies, we also tried really hard to cut back and then the day we took them, we really did get rid of all of them and told him they were gone. Bed time was a little tough for a couple nights and then it was fine. Again, I knew if they were in the house, we were in trouble! Sooo...my advice, if you are ready and serious, really get them out of the house. If you give in after you say you are taking them, the next try will be twice as hard!

 

[RachaelA]

Some people say to start to cut the tips of the pacifiers (I can't remember if you cut a small amount little by little or just the whole thing off).

As for the bottles, is she still waking up at night to eat? I would think at over 2 years old they don't need to eat at night, but I don't have a child that old so I'm no expert.

We're about to start working on getting rid of both right now with DD. I think a pacifier is going to be the harder one to get rid of for us! Good luck!

 

[mjkacmom]

With the bottles, we just took one away a little at a time. Only my first dd was really attached, and didn't want to give up his morning bottle. Oh well, it was gone.

My kids were only allowed pacifiers in their cribs - never in public. Dd9 was my oldest (at almost 4!), but we just told her it was time. Again, she could only have it in bed, and not outside the bedroom. Her twin gave it up on his own at about 9 months - didn't care for it anymore.

 

[laughinplace199]

We got rid of bottles at 12-18 mos, and the last bottle to go was the bedtime bottle. None of mine were particularly attached to the bottle, so it wasn't a big deal. They could have a sippy cup of milk instead of a bottle during storytime, then it was off to bed.

All of mine were super attached to the pacifier and all of them had pacifiers until age 3. Then, the pacifier fairy came. The kids decorated a paper bag and then put the pacifiers in it and left it by their bedroom door. While they were asleep, the pacifier fairy came and took the bag of pacifiers to give to new babies who needed them. In its place, she left a big kid present.

The first night or two was a little tough. They'd ask for the pacifier and I'd remind them that the pacifier fairy took them. There was a little bit of crying, but not much and then it was over.

My youngest had his tonsils out at 3 and during recovery, he was not allowed to suck on anything, including his pacifier. So, the pacifier fairy came when we got home from the hospital and he never even asked for it again.

 

[Missy13d69]

Just wanted to wish you good luck. I know that it can be really rough transitioning away from bottles and pacifiers. I have no advice though, sorry. My kids all were quite content giving them up at 12 months. We introduced open top cups at an early age, and they were pretty much exclusively eating solid food at 12 months so the bottle had lost it's appeal to them.

 

[blessedby3]

I had 4 paci addicts myself...bottles werent an addictions for them...
Anyway, to get rid of the paci's my pediactric dentist said to use baby fingernail clippers and nip the end off of the paci (and only use one or two--get rid of the rest). Keep nipping off a bit more every couple of days. They dont like the feel of the paci in their mouth once you alter it by nipping the end. Some of mine gave it up quicker than others. My DS was the worst. We ended up only having about less than 1/4 inch of latex left on the paci when he finally gave it up (at 3 yrs). He would just hold the shield on his mouth...it was pretty funny. I only let them have it in their bed once they turned about 18 mos/2 yrs.
Good luck to you

 

[Alesia]

The easiest way (for the child, at least) is to just stop. Period. Throw them away and don't look back. You will feel like the meanest mom in the entire world for a couple of days, but it's going to be much easier than a long, drawn out transition.

 

[jerseygirl82]

I just wanted to thank you all for taking a moment of your time to reply to my post. I'm a little nervous we waited way too long to start taking these things away but I know by being strong and sticking to the plan we come up with both will be gone before we know it. I'm hoping that 30 days from now my 2 year old won't be running around Disney with a paci in her mouth

 

[Hannathy]

Now from reading the breastfeeding in Applebees thread I think you and all the rest of us bottlefeeders should just not worry about it! let them use it as long as it brings them comfort! That was why I was told they need to breastfeed a 2 or 3 or 4 yr old because it comforted them. Well your child's bottle comforts them so go ahead let them use it! heck they can even go to kindergarten and come home and have a bottle. Why should our toddlers have to go thru the trauma of giving up their bottles if the breastfed kids don't.


Now I found with my kids that the more you made the bottle seem less than desirable the quicker they got rid of it. Things like have to be in your bed only, or sorry can't go for ice cream cones you want your bottle, oh the nipple is getting all yucky ? well we can get that new car at the store or buy nipples,etc.

 

[Ennazus8810]

I just wanted to let you know you aren't the only one out there. My daughter is 2.5 and will not drink from anything other than a bottle. Our pediatrician said to just take it away, she would deal at 18 months. We did that, and she went 27 hours with no food or drink. (She also only eats finger foods). She was dehydrated and running a fever.

Ended up taking her to a feeding clinic at 2 years old during the course of autism testing. There we were told that it is a developmental thing, and kids develop differently with the bottle just like everything else.

She is given a cup every day, but so far is still only using her bottle.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

My DD struggled to give up her bottle until we found out that the daycare used a specific kind of sippy cup and they weren't the ones we had bought. Once we switched she was sold.

My oldest DS didn't want to give up his bottle at night. I started out by filling it with water thinking he wouldn't want it, but he would cry and cry for milk instead so then I thought maybe he was just still hungry so I started giving him a snack before bed and then switching to water in his bottle and after a couple nights of water he gave it up. The bottle at night isn't as bad for them if it has water in it, it's the sugar from the milk sitting on their teeth all night that rots them so it might help to at least try to get them to drink water.

None of mine were attached to pacifiers so I can't help there, but I wish they had been, it's much harder to deal with a thumb-sucker, you can't just take that away .

 

[littlebit0863]

I'm lucky that my son was super mature and therefore didn't give me any grief about his bottle. Just kidding. It was a nightmare. I took away his bottle for good at 2 years and 2 months, and oh boy did he cry. I tried to appease him and give him rewards and things like that, but it didn't help. He cried for about 2 or 3 nights and finally got over it. Luckily he would never take a paci, but dd (11 months) has one and is attached to it like Maggie Simpson.I can only imagine the joys that will come when I have to throw that sucker out.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

It was easy as pie for us! The "passy fairy" came to see my 2 year old to pick it up and take it to brand new babies because they are for babies you know. she also left a surprise in the freezer for her, some m&m ice cream cookies. She was fine. She never cried or anything. When she did ask about it we talked about how happy the new babies are and how good her ice cream was. I did the same thing for my son and he reacted the same way. Use the Passy Fairy. It was so easy!

 

[twinboysmom]

My boys had no difficulty with the bottle so I can't help with that. For the pacifier, we were forced to go cold turkey. One of my boys fell and the force of his fall pushed his two front teeth into his gums. The dentist said the pacifier would hinder his teeth coming back down and we had to get rid of them. I destroyed them all by cutting the nipples off and threw them away. Cold turkey for two 15 month olds. It wasn't fun for a few days but we made it.

I will offer a different perspective for you to consider. A PP mentioned something about each child developmentally being ready to let go. We have heard the same thing from our therapists. Shortly after we ditched the pacifiers our boys "replaced" them with wanting to mouth every object they could find. Other kids replace the pacifier with a thumb which can do more damage to the mouth than a pacifier. Maybe she just isn't ready. Another perspective for thought. My niece had a pacifier and a bottle (refused to drink from anything else much to her parents frustration) until she was 4. No orthodontia needed and she is a normal, healthy 14 year old. I don't think it's necessary for most kids to need a bottle or pacifier past 2 but for some it is and they seem to turn out ok.

 

[ImpossibleOfMe]

For the paci's at 2 we had our son become involved in the process - making it about him becoming a 'big boy' and letting him decide to toss them.
Cutting the tips didn't work for us for a while, he would just carry them around - but eventually since he couldn't suck them he was willing to throw them out himself.
And, though I hate lying to my child, when he saw them in stores and asked for a new one I told him that they only sell them to babies so we couldn't buy a new one.

I've seen other moms say who never cut them say they would have the child put them in a special bag to send away to new babies that needed them - just something else that puts them in power of the situation and makes them feel good about it.

If you can, and it's not against your parenting style - I would give something that represents the transition from baby to big kid when she is willing to give one up - even if it is just a sticker.
My boy managed to find them in hiding places of his for at least a couple months!

Good luck!

 

[taylor3297]

It was easy as pie for us! The "passy fairy" came to see my 2 year old to pick it up and take it to brand new babies because they are for babies you know. she also left a surprise in the freezer for her, some m&m ice cream cookies. She was fine. She never cried or anything. When she did ask about it we talked about how happy the new babies are and how good her ice cream was. I did the same thing for my son and he reacted the same way. Use the Passy Fairy. It was so easy!

The day each of my kids reached their first birthday, no more bottles. Neither seemed to mind losing the bottle. With the pacifier, we put the pacifiers out with the milk and cookies for Santa, so Santa could take the pacifiers to needy kids. Worked like a charm. My dd, did miss her pacifier the first couple of nights, after that, no problems. DS never asked for a pacifier again.

Good luck!

 

[2binak]

I will offer a different perspective for you to consider. A PP mentioned something about each child developmentally being ready to let go. We have heard the same thing from our therapists. Shortly after we ditched the pacifiers our boys "replaced" them with wanting to mouth every object they could find.

We felt that our DD was ready to give her paci just before she turned 3. She only used it at nap & bed time and only until she fell asleep. She only cried slightly for 5 -10 minutes the first night so we thought all was good but for the next 1.5 years she replaced the paci with fingers, blankets & her shirt collars. Whenever she was tired, she'd stick one of those things in her mouth

Her dentist said the same thing about thumbs being worse. In fact she told us that if DD started sucking her thumb, that we should give the paci back.

 

[kt_mom]

Thankfully both of mine only used pacifiers the first few weeks. Actually DS maybe the first couple months. But then neither cared after that.

DD was off the bottle by her first birthday with no trouble at all. She much prefered the milk in the sippie cup over the formula in the bottle. DS on the other hand was a little harder and closer to maybe 15 months. He would choose the formula in the bottle over the milk in the cup everytime. Since my mom was keeping him duirng the day and trying to get him down for naps I tried to give her time to get their naptime adjusted to no bottles first. It just seemed to work best that way. Then at home I just quit the bedtime bottle cold turkey and that was it.

I think it helped, at least with DD, that I never gave them anything but formula in the bottle. Anything yummy like milk or juice or even water was presented only in a sippie cup. DS was all to happy at first to just drink the formula in the bottle. But he has strange eating habits anyway. Our biggest problem right now is keeping him out of the dog food

It might be easiest to just do it cold turkey. I agree with the PP, I think the first few days might be hard but after that it will get easier. I would throw them out though. If they are just put away its way to easy to give in during a meltdown. I know my two year old can be really persistant when he really wants something and he will drive you to insanity over it.

 

[twinboysmom]

We felt that our DD was ready to give her paci just before she turned 3. She only used it at nap & bed time and only until she fell asleep. She only cried slightly for 5 -10 minutes the first night so we thought all was good but for the next 1.5 years she replaced the paci with fingers, blankets & her shirt collars. Whenever she was tired, she'd stick one of those things in her mouth

Her dentist said the same thing about thumbs being worse. In fact she told us that if DD started sucking her thumb, that we should give the paci back.

Thanks for this. Sometimes I am sure it's just my kids that do some of these strange things.