Parenting For Dummies

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How do we start to wean our 1-year-old off the dummy (pacifier).?

My wife and I seem to have made a rod for our own backs by always giving our little girl, Jasmine, a dummy (pacifier) whenever she is a bit grouchy or tired. Now she won't go to sleep at night without it, although she does sleep perfectly with it. Also when she's happy, which is most of the time, she isn't that interested in the dummy unless offered it directly.

This is far from a desparate situation but we both feel that it would be better if she relied on the dummy less over the next year or so rather than more which I would presume woud happen if we let it.

I'm sure there must be plenty of parents out there with tried and tested techniques for dummy use reduction so I thought, rather than trying to "re-invent the wheel" and work it out ourselves, I'd put this out to the Yahoo community.

Thanks

Brian (London)

I think it's a little too soon to take it away. I would try to limit it to when she is sick or sleepy, but if she really wants it..it's OK to give it to her. It wont affect her teeth at this point.

When you do decide to get rid of it (I suggest around 15-18 months old-wait until there are no vacations or things like that). Do it cold-turkey. We told my older son (he was 17 months old) the "pa" is all gone. It broke my heart the first night. He cried and cried and so did I. The next night he asked for it and we said "all gone"...he cried for about a minute. He never asked for it after that (and never cried about going to sleep either). We are approaching that point with my second son (probably next month or so) and will do it the same way.

Jackie Burke: Parenting for Dummies


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