Recently, we have been engaged in a debate on our Facebook page, where all of you, our followers, have shared how your children "let go of" the pacifier. This has resulted in quite a few funny stories – below we provide an overview of some of them. Perhaps it can serve as inspiration if you are facing the situation where your child needs to put the pacifier aside?
Before you try to drop the pacifier
No child is the same..
It is important to realize that your child is unique – no two children are alike, which means that a solution that works for most may not work for you and your child. At the same time, it should ideally be the only upheaval happening in your child's life at that time – this way, it becomes a bit easier to cope with and perhaps feels less overwhelming.
Joint decision – get support from the whole network
Furthermore, it is very important that once the decision to drop the pacifier has been made, the whole family (and the network at large) stands together in this. It doesn’t help if some give the child the pacifier while everyone else is trying to take it away from the child.
Involve your child in the idea of throwing away the pacifier
Lastly, it should be mentioned that a recurring theme in the suggestions below, which come from our Facebook followers, is that it is always a good idea to involve your child in the idea. It seems to make it considerably easier.
Ideas from Facebook
Cut a piece off the pacifier
One of the things that was done was to cut a piece off the pacifier. Because of the hole in the pacifier, it was "ruined" in the child's eyes, and he therefore didn’t want to use it anymore. Instead, it was placed on his finger when he needed to sleep.
Deliver the pacifier to Santa Claus
It may seem like a long time until Christmas if you want your child to deliver the pacifier right now – but in fact, many have used exactly that solution. And it indicates that the child will do it themselves if he/she is ready to put the pacifier away. So, one solution could – according to our Facebook followers – be to suggest to your child to deliver the pacifier to Santa Claus.
The pacifier trees
Additionally, there is another traditional thing that recurs. The pacifier trees. There are several different stories about pacifier trees – either one has found one outside, or chosen one in the garden.
Among other things, there is one who has used exactly the latter, where the pacifiers have been hung up. It succeeded in getting the girl to throw away the pacifiers at 3 years old. She is now 6 years old, and since they are hung on a tree in the garden, she has had the opportunity to look at the pacifiers in the tree ever since she chose to part with them.
You can read the rest of the comment here.
Gradually take them away
One of our favorite solutions comes from Mette Kamille, who tried only giving the pacifier in the evenings. One evening she refrained from giving the pacifier, which resulted in her son asking for it after 5 minutes. The next day it took 30 minutes, while on the third evening he had completely forgotten about it, and he hasn’t used pacifiers since then.
You can find the comment here.
These were some of the suggestions that have come in on our Facebook post about how your child (and you as a parent) can get rid of the pacifier. You can read the rest of the answers on the post here.
