Giving Up the Pacifier - Steps to Help You and Your Baby

Giving up the pacifier can be a difficult thing to get a young child to commit to. The first step may be to find something else she can use to soothe her as this is primarily the use of a pacifier. Gradually weaning her from it will be the best way to lead her to stop using the pacifier.

Try finding another object to soothe her so she will take to no longer needing the pacifier, more easily. You could try a blanket or stuffed animal. It also helps if she already has a favorite blanket or toy.

If she can use another object to self-soothe, it will make it easier for her to start giving up the pacifier and use a blanket or toy to soothe herself to sleep or just to calm down in general.

If you have an older child, a going-away party for the pacifiers might be a great and relatively easy option to giving up the pacifier. You can gather up all of the pacifiers that she has and put them in a special place and sing goodbye to them. You can make up your own story as well to encourage your child to start giving up the pacifier and “give them away” to someone who needs them.

Gradually taking the pacifier away is going to be the best option to getting your child to stop using the pacifier. If you try to force her to give it up, she may become more attached, which will make it more difficult to get her to give up the pacifier.

You can try only giving her the pacifier for a few minutes at a time if she shows interest in its use during the day and then try to find another option to get her to calm down. Gradually reduce her use of the pacifier until she doesn’t use it at all.

The best time to start weaning you child from the pacifier is before they are a year old. If this isn’t possible trying around the age range of two to three years old is best. This is around the time frame that the overuse of a pacifier can damage her teeth. The reason it may cause damage to her teeth is because, at this age, the pacifier can cause her upper front teeth to protrude from sucking intensely on it, especially while asleep. It would be best not to let her continue to use it past the age of four years old. This is the average age a child should be completely weaned from the pacifier.

There can be disadvantages in the use of a pacifier past the age of three. Continued use of the pacifier past the age of three can cause protruding teeth as well as an overbite. Pacifiers can cause problems with developing speech and language, which is an important reason to encourage your child to give up the pacifier.

A child that is trying to learn to speak while using a pacifier may have distorted speech.

The use of a pacifier may have some advantages past a certain age as well. It has been found in studies that the use of a pacifier can reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Another advantage is it can be a quick and easy way to soothe your child and get them to go to sleep as well.

As you can see, there are plenty of tactics out there to encourage your child to start giving up the pacifier. Remember to gradually wean your child from the pacifier instead of forcing her to stop all at once. Try to keep in mind that your child will eventually grow out of the use of a pacifier and will soon be giving up the pacifier for good.

Find cute stuffed animals to soothe your child as you child starts to give up the pacifier

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