An Easy Way to Give Up the Pacifier

Noah was long overdue to give up his pacifier (which is called a milkies in our house). I let him keep the milkies much longer than excepted. The main reason is how close in age him and Simon are. If Simon had a milkes then Noah wanted one too… so when he was finally old enough to reason (and after Abel was born) we made the cut.

For all the boys we’ve limited pacifier use to sleep only around a year/year and a half. Jude made the cut cold turkey when he was 2, primarily because he chewed his up and I just didn’t buy anymore. Noah took good care of his milkies and was more emotionally attached. However, I knew he was able to give it up… he did pretty much potty train himself.

So we created a ceremony of sorts. We took a family trip to the mall (btw, I hate the mall) where we let him Build-A-Bear and put his milkies inside. We talked about what was going to happen before hand and how his milkies was just inside the bear. I was really surprised at how well he took the whole thing. He hasn’t asked for his milkies since but on occasion he will remind us that it is inside Jack (his bear).

Next up is Simon. He just transitioned to a big boy bed and I don’t like to throw too many transitions into the mix at once but we should probably just get it over with.