Paci, binky, nuk – no matter what you call them thinking about the time to take them away from your child is scary. We let my oldest go way too long with hers, so with my youngest we are planning to transition her off the binky much sooner.
Here’s some tips and tricks that worked for us!
- Have a transition phase – The weeks leading up to taking the binky away we limited the amount of time she could have it. We only allowed her to have it in the car and at night since that was when she seemed to want it most. We even “forgot” the binky for a few short car rides just to test things out further.
- Determine what you tell your child – With our kids we talk a lot about a big transition before we do it. We spent a lot of time talking about how she didn’t need the binky anymore because she was growing up. Once we felt we had communicated about the change enough with her we took her to Build-A-Bear and had her bring her favorite binky. We made a big deal about letting her pick out her bear and when it came time to stuff the bear had her put her binky in it. We really liked this approach because then the binky could still be with her – just in a different way. I’ve heard of many different approaches, another one being the Binky Fairy, you really have to pick what you think will work best for your child.
- Commit – The first couple of naps and sleeps at night were rough, she was very upset and did not care that the binky was in the bear, she wanted it in her mouth! I felt really guilty but I would say within two or three days she was much better. You really just have to get through those first few days without giving in or risk having to start all over again.
Those are my tips and tricks! I hope you find them useful! If you are looking to go the Binky Fairy route send me a message I’ve got a great book recommendation!!