Around 1.5 years old, I transitioned him to use it only at nap/bed and in the car. He bite a hole in his last "car paci" several months ago and he threw it away, so he is down to having it in bed only.
My girl ditched the big green paci around 6 weeks and then picked up another bad habit at around 12 weeks.
She sucks her fingers a lot. As soon as she gets intimidated or tired, in they go. I try to discourage it when we are out, but it is sheer habit for her.
My parenting style is pretty laid back when it comes to these kinds of things. I figure that it is offering them a comfort they need and I'm not going to mess with that. There is enough in this world to mess them up; I'm not going to quibble over sucking some fingers or a plastic nub. In my opinion, they will stop when they are ready and not a moment sooner.
....BUT...
I can't wait to see how this is going to go!
Any strategies that worked for you to ease into giving up their vices?
My kids are big suckers too. At age 3 and half we supported the first two to give up. I wanted to make sure they made the choice themselves, that they understood it (like your boy did when he threw away the car paci himself). I also waited until there were no other major stressors going on, such as new baby arriving, day care starting, toilet training. One thing is enough for them at this age. We used a "paci fairy." They chose what present they wanted, and when they were ready, put their pacis in a special bag hanging on the doorknob of their room. When it got to the middle of the night and the pacis were still in the bag, I was confident they'd felt secure in their decision and exchanged them for the requested gift, which I had organised earlier. For one, it was like there was never a paci and for the other we had a bit of sadness at bedtime for a couple weeks, but nothing that extra hugs and comforting couldn't get us past.
ReplyDelete