Weaning off the pacifier

Weaning off the pacifier,

Before having a baby, I had so many thoughts of how I would be as a mom. One of those thoughts was not allowing my baby to have a pacifier. It did not occur to me that this wouldn’t be my choice to make. My baby arrived making his own decisions.

To my surprise, the pacifier was not only soothing for him, but for me as well. When he was frustrated, fussy, sleepy, etc the pacifier was my go-to. Fast forward, we are 3 weeks shy of him being 18months, and dad and I are starting the weaning process. Here is our time frame of how long it took to get him completely weaned and some of the side effects.

Sidenote: IV (my baby), this is his nickname due to him being the 4^th; started going to daycare when he was 10months. When he attended daycare, he did not use his pacifier, not even during nap time. I believe it was due to him being completely distracted and entertained by the other children at the daycare, that he would forget about the pacifier, and when he would get sleepy, he would just fall out. This provided us lead way to only give him the pacifier at night.

1^st Night: IV, had a busy day, so when it came to bedtime there was no push back. He woke in the middle of the night, we transferred him to our bed, and he went back to sleep with no hesitation.

I was so proud in the morning, but I was tricked into thinking this was going to be an easy process.

2^nd Night: This was a fussy night. IV had a hard time falling asleep. He eventually cried himself into exhaustion and went to bed an hour past his bedtime. I want to clarify, this cry was more of a whine, opposed to a full out cry.

3^rd Night: Still past his bedtime (hour, to an hour in a half), accompanied with the whining. This is the first night I noticed he was looking for the pacifier. He eventually goes to sleep, but the next morning he woke up earlier than usual.

4^th Night: Still past his bedtime, but minimal crying and whining. Sleeping through the night, but again he woke earlier than usual. 

Night 5 – 7: Similar to the behavior of the 4^th night.

8^th Night: NO fussing, whining, push back, nothing. He went to bed at his normal bedtime and woke up at his normal time of waking. The 8^th night was magic. We haven’t looked back. It took 2 additional weeks to throw out the pacifiers, we were nervous and proud at the same time.

Another Sidenote: You and your partner, if you are parenting with someone else, should be on the same page. Dad and I had a productive conversation before starting the process, so when we started, we were clear on the outcome. There were times throughout weaning when dad wanted to give him the pacifier, but I reminded him of the conversation and our goal.

In conclusion, I hope our process will help other families and shed some light on the weaning process. When I became pregnant, blogs were my go-to for random pregnant information, so I know how much they can help.

Also, here is the pacifier (ortho recommended) brand we used: Baby Pacifiers | NUK (nuk-usa.com)