January 16th, 2008
Soother, binky, dummy, doh-doh, pacifier, or sooie (sue - e) as we call it.Either way, they are no longer used in The House of Me. Carter has been nearly two weeks Sooie free in preparation for his move up to the Jr. Pre-school class at daycare. Surprisingly, it was not as difficult to get him over it as we had initially thought it would be.
Nights where he would NOT sleep without Sooie. Nights of screaming and crying and carrying on while we withheld the wondrous sucking apparatus. That’s what I envisioned. I was terrified to try and start the extraction process, but it seems that we’ve let it run it’s course and he no longer asks for it. Simple as that.
As you scoff at me and the simplicity of the situation, I’ll let you in on what we did - completely un-choreographed.
One day I put him down for nap sans Sooie. He kept insisting for it, not wailing and carrying on as I suspected he might, but insisting nonetheless. I had no idea where a single Sooie was and just didn’t want to look for one because I’m so damn lazy. I told him that I would look for one and be right back.
I lied.
I just left and didn’t return.
He fell asleep.
Following Christmas holidays, when Carter returned to daycare, they didn’t have one there for him. At nap time they simple told him; “Mommy forgot to send one today.” and so he put his little head down and slept.
No qualms.
There has been no request since.
Don’t hate me just yet, it’s just luck I think. The next kid will be a complete nightmare.
For those that don’t do the transition as well as Carter has (so far) there are other rituals that parents may follow to empower their children to feel as though they are the ones making the decision to forego the soother.
One thing that I learned about, which I thought was totally fun! and awesome! was the Pacifier Tree in Denmark.
The Pacifier Tree, originally uploaded to Flickr by peff.
There is a tree where children come with their parents to give their Sooies to the Pacifier Fairy - a kind of closure for the children I suppose.
What have you done to get your little one to give up the pacifier?
Look for the follow up in a couple days where I’ll tell you about MY transition from thumb sucking.
I still remember it well, since it wasn’t that long ago.
Ah, the ‘bink’…one night I looked down at my son, throwing a fit and screaming and talking around his binky…and decided it had simply outlived its purpose (a ’shutup’ tool).
So after he went to bed, I searched them all out and threw them in the trash. I think he asked for it all of once.
Of course, he was (gulp) almost 4…
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January 16th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Have not crossed that bridge yet, although it is in our imminent future. He is addicted to his soother, so we are anticipating a rough ride.
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January 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I was lucky. The daughter never really liked a soother.
Even when I tried to shove it down her throat.
LOL…
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January 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I was lucky. Ours got holes, and when I told my son I couldn’t fix it (or glue it, or tape it, or buy another one, all reasonable suggestions), he simply threw it in the garbage and we were done.
My baby never took one, so no giving up required. Looked at it, then me, and just spit it out.
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January 16th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
It’s been almost 11 years since I got rid of those things…yeesh. I’m old. At 29.
My youngest didn’t really like them all that much, so she never really used one. My oldest was addicted. I don’t remember specifically how I got rid of them, but knowing me, I just threw them all away and told her the Binky Trolls took them all home to Binkyland.
Because that’s just how I roll.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I was lucky, none of my kids ever really wanted one, they would take one every now and then, but never got attached to it. A friend had a daughter who at 5 years still refused to give up hers! And she would only take one certain kind. I am glad you had it so easy, hope it continues now that you have bragged!HAHAHA!
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January 16th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Love the idea of the pacifier fairy
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January 16th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
i demand a paci tree in toronto! i’ll need one in august when i take miss bella’s away. i’m so happy your transition was blissful!
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January 16th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
One night, but accident our oldest went to bed without her sucky, so I knew she was ready to be done with it, whether she knew it or not. I was pregnant with our youngest at the time, so I asked her if she would like to give her sucky to the new baby because she was a big girl and only babies really needed suckies. She agreed and that was it.
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January 16th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
i dont remember myself using pacifier, and my mom told me too. i wonder how Maggie Simpson would react if her mom tries to take her pacifier away..
January 17th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Ryan was very attached to his pacifier. Just before he turned 2 I limited when he could have it…only at nap time and bed time. After about a week or two of that, I took it away at nap time. It didn’t seem to faze him much then. once he got used to that, I took it away at night time. That one was a bit harder. It took him CIO for 45 minutes before he fell asleep. It was about a week of crying at night before he finally dealt without it.
Well see how Kyle does in about a year. He’s also pretty attached to it currently.
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January 17th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Gosh, it’s funny you wrote about this. I’m having a tough-time with our 2 1/2 yr. old right now. Probably originally my fault after a yr. old still giving it to him, but I digress. He’s just started daycare for the first time and now it’s a issue, only given during nap-time, although I have picked him up with it in his mouth, they’ve obviously given-in to his tantrum’s too, it’s hard. I think we’ll go to the park this coming weekend and hang them in a tree, that’s a good idea.
January 20th, 2008 at 10:45 pm