Bye-bye Paci

A few weeks ago we decided it was time to take away the pacifier. Liam was 15 months old and the doctor said once he gets an attitude about it, it's time to pitch it. Liam had an attitude about his paci.

I had read several recommendations of cutting back on the time of the paci. Since Liam is only allowed to have it at naptime or bedtime that didn't really apply to us.

There were also articles that I had read about cutting the tip of the paci until there was nothing left for him to suck on, but we decided to just go cold turkey and not let him have it anymore. I told him I had thrown them away and he didn't need them anymore.

First night without paci I must say we were nervous. Liam was a champ and fell asleep at 8 pm and didn't wake until 6 the next morning. We were feeling pretty good about things until we realized that he doesn't really use it during the night. Now in the morning,  he was pretty upset that his paci was not under his blanket like it always is and even more upset that I wouldn't give him one when he demanded one. Tantrum ensued.

Since bedtime was not an issue without paci, thank you God, I didn't however have such a good feeling about naptimes. We have always encouraged Liam to fall asleep on his own. Sure we will read a couple books, sing a couple songs but then it was paci in, put him in the crib and walk out of the room without looking back. With no paci to rely on we had to teach Liam how to put himself to sleep all over again.

We put him in his crib, walked out, crying started. 10 minutes later go back in, lay him down and soothe him for 1-2 minutes. Eventually he got the hang of things again. Man, did that take us back 8 months ago!  Nothing is worse than listening to your child "cry it out" but putting yourself to sleep is something that Evan and I feel is an important tool to have.

I would say it took maybe three to four days for Liam to stop looking for his paci. In the beginning he would check all the usual spots of where we kept them but once he realized they were really gone he quickly got over it.

Two to three weeks later Liam rarely asks for his paci. Once in awhile he will point to his blanket in the morning when I get him up wondering where his "friend" has gone but after asking him what he's looking for he quickly will move on to pointing out the next thing in the room. Usually Butters.

Good-bye Paci!