Bye, Bye Binkie

There comes a time when a child just looks ridiculous sucking on a pacifier. For me, it hits right around the age of 2 1/2 years. When I see a child older than that walking around in public sucking on a pacifier it tells me the child is in charge. Now, this is strictly my opinion. My children all had pacifiers. I start to wean my children at 12 months. At this age they don't get to have their pacifier in public (except for church because the Binky does wonders at keeping a kid quiet). Once they hit 18 months of age I don't allow my kids to leave their bed with a Binky. They get to have it at nap time and bed time. It is a great way to help my children soothe themselves to sleep. Eventually though, they have to learn to fall asleep with out the aide of a Binky.

This time has arrived for KMae. She shares a bedroom with her 2 older sisters and they will be starting school in about 6 weeks. I figure if she is going to be crying herself to sleep it would be better to do it during the summer. At the beginning of last week she had 3 Binky's. One fell in a clogged toilet and rather than try and sterilize it I tossed it. One was left outside at a friends house and is now growing some black stuff inside of it. It got tossed. This morning she walked up to me and handed me her Binky and walked away. I took the time to snip the tip of it. I have found this to be the easiest way to wean a child from a Binky. It is easy to tell the child it is broken. She can see that and accept it. Here are some of the other methods I have tried.

For Na: One day when Bubs was a couple of weeks old I desperately needed a nap. I put Na (almost 3 years old) in her bed with her Binky and went to lay down with Bubs. Na decided this day she did not need a nap. I tried talking her into it but she wouldn't budge. Finally out of desperation I gave her a choice. I said "you can either go get in bed with your Binky and take a nap or you can go throw it in the garbage and stay up". I thought for sure she would go take a nap rather than throwing away her Binky but she didn't. She proudly threw it away and she got to stay up. At bedtime she asked for her Binky and I reminded her she threw it away and she accepted that and was fine.

For Bubs: One day I just got tired of seeing Bubs (maybe 2 yrs old) with a Binky so I took him to Build-a-Bear and he shoved all of his Binky's into a dog we named Binky. Once we got back to the car he was crying for his Binky and trying to rip open the dog. At bedtime when he asked for it I gave him the dog and he through it across the room. He cried for several nights for his Binky. It wasn't until a year ago that he started liking the dog. This was not the best idea because he knew his Binky's were there he just couldn't get to them.

For LuLu: Before KMae was born I knew LuLu needed to be weaned of the Binky or she would be trying to steal it from the baby. So, I read about the tip cutting and gave it a try. She understood broken and accepted it. I'm hoping it works the same for KMae.

What are ways you have used to wean your child from a Binky? I'll keep you posted on how successful it is for KMae.