When Jaxon turned one, we decided the binky was only for intense screaming cases, church to keep him quiet, and sleeping. Then when he was about 18 months and starting to say more words, we decided he shouldn’t' ever have it when he was awake so we only gave it to him during nap and night time. Well it had been that way until a couple of weeks ago. I had been wanting to get rid of it totally for a long time now. I thought we should do it before Addy came, but I read that a lot of kids will "relapse" if their younger sibling uses a binky so I decided to wait until after Addy was born so we could tell him that she is a baby and needs it but he is a big boy and doesn't anymore. Then Addy was born and waking up every 3 hours for feedings and so I didn't want to deal with another kid being up at night because of lack of a binky (lazy I know). Then it got to the point where Dan was starting to do serious studying for finals and I was worried Jax would keep him up and then he wouldn't be able to focus... basically giving myself any excuse not to have to do it. The doctors told me not to worry because we were only giving it to him at night and it wasn’t' doing any harm to him at all, so I think I let that be another excuse why it was ok for him to still have it. Then in the middle of April Jaxon got really weird and possessive of his binky and would try to find it during the day and he would take Addison’s binky and go hide and suck on it so I thought this HAS to stop!!! Dan went to Utah for a friend’s wedding and some interviews at the end of April so I thought this was the PERFECT time to do it!
My plan: Tell Jaxon about the binky fairy and have him put his binky's under his pillow and then switch them out for a toy before he woke up. I'm thinking he will be excited to get a toy and it will all go great. So I start to tell him the story before his nap - he gets upset and says he doesn't want a toy he wants his binky! So I pull up pictures online of crying babies and explain that the binky fairy needs to take the binky's to these crying babies and that since he is not a baby anymore, he doesn't need it. I also pulled up a picture of a cute fairy so he would see that the binky fairy was nice! He still wasn't excited about the idea so I just decided to put him in his room for nap with no binky's and get rid of them while he slept. He went to bed JUST fine - he yelled from his room for the first couple min’s asking for the binky - but after that he fell asleep and slept great. That night, he asked for them again and I reminded him that the binky fairy took them to the little babies that needed them. He was upset and didn't want me to leave so I made the mistake of saying, "I'll go talk to the binky fairy and see what I can do." He said ok and that was the end of it that night. He slept great again. So for the next couple of days he would say "go talk to the binky fairy" every time I would put him in bed LOL but he always fell asleep great and slept great! Now all of that has stopped and he just goes to bed without mentioning it. He also NEVER tries to suck on Addy's binky anymore. I keep thinking I should have done it sooner - but at the same time, I like the age he is at - I was able to explain to him what was going to happen instead of just taking away something that he loved and not being able to give him a reason. He is also old enough that he is not going to form another sucking habit like a lot of other kids do. I know so many kids that get binky's taken away when they are young and they either become thumb suckers, arm suckers, blanket suckers LOL - anything to fulfill the need/instinct they have to suck. So what I'm saying is.... judge all you want but my almost 3 year old JUST gave up his binky and he is doing great - there was no trauma associated with it and no other weird habits have been formed. That is a total success in my book!
Way to go! I'm so glad to hear that it went so well, and that it didn't have to be a total battle. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is my big worry with James right now. We are to the only have it t church (of course it lands right during nap time) and sleep times. I was curious how to make the final adjustment to none and then feared the new baby relapse in December. This made me feel good about maybe waiting until next year. Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteI understand completely! Gavin is still using his at night too.. we're trying to figure out the best time to take it away. Never a fun thing to do, but way to go Jaxon! =)
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