The Pacifier Chronicles

Though our pacifier intervention proved not to be the nightmare we imagined, I got so much advice on the subject that I now fancy myself a bit of an expert and feel the need to share…

Our approach was completely serendipitous: the pacifier was misplaced and, in lieu of running to the nearest store for a replacement, we hunkered down for an emotional hurricane, and ended up enduring a windy day. Why did it work so well? Who knows?
But below are some other approaches special people we know implemented and their respective outcomes:

The Weaver Approach:

After a two year romance with her “boppies”, the little girl’s parents decided it was time to intervene. The chosen method was simply to tell their daughter that the “boppy fairy” had come and taken it, but, on the flip side, left an adorable care bear for her to call her own.

Outcome: Though happy to receive said care bear, the little girl looked ate her parents with disbelief and stated, rather matter-of-factly, “I hate the boppy fairy”. Other than that, the approach was successful and the parents congratulated themselves on a successful and humane triumph over the pacifier.

The Lewis Approach:

With a new baby on the way, the parents of the little girl who loved her pacifier as well as her “friends” (a bunch of small receiving blankets), decided that they needed to intervene before their life turned upside down, as is custom when a new child enters the picture. They decided to capitalize on the daughter’s love of horses and brought her to a store where she was allowed to pick a toy horse and pay the cashier with her pacifier.

Outcome: Though the little girl understood what had happened to her pacifier (she was a willing participant), somehow that didn’t change the fact that she knew her parents could get a new one. A few nightly battles ensued, but with a secondary source of comfort still available (ahh…the friends!), the pacifier was soon a thing of the past. The only downside was that naps were also a thing of the past.

The Billmann Approach:

The little boy was approaching the age when his parents decided he was too old for his binky and so, his mother craftily cut a small slit in the side and gently broke the news to him: the binky was broken. Realizing the profundity of the statement, the little boy did what he did with most things that couldn’t be fixed, he threw it away. His mother then let the day go by without a push for a nap, rendering him exhausted by nightfall and virtually guaranteeing an easy time for bed.

Outcome: Though there were some tears at the renewed realization that the binky was gone, the little guy did go to sleep pretty easily and only needed some reassuring in the middle of the night when he awoke to look for it. The approach proved very successful, with the exception that, like the previous approach, regular napping soon became a thing of the past.

So if you are arriving at pacifier/ binky/ boppy/ mimi/ shush-sha (word to the Mahoney/Sutton/Hannon family) crossroads, try to keep the following three tips in mind:

1) Be sure to have a clear and reasonable explanation for why the pacifier had to go
away (as opposed to just saying “it’s time” or “you’re too old”).
2) Provide some incentive to reward the child and replace the lost soother
3) If your child is still young enough, introduce a secondary comforter so the
transition is not so hard when one is taken away