Ditch the pacifier?

[jessmke]

We give my DD a pacifier for naps and nighttime sleep. It is a big cue for her to know it is sleep time, I put the paci in her mouth and she immediately rests her head on my chest and falls asleep within minutes. The struggle we have is at bedtime. If the paci falls out of her mouth while she is falling asleep or when she is stirring after the first sleep cycle she gets frantic and starts searching for it. If we replace it she will fall back asleep, but the cycle repeats itself if the paci falls out again. Once she gets passed the first sleep cycle then it is no problem if it falls out. It also isn't a problem during naps or throughout the rest of the night. Should we ditch the paci now, or just wait it out until she can put it back in her mouth by herself? She already tries to get it back in her mouth, so I think once she develops more purposeful movement and accuracy it should come pretty quickly. I'm just getting tired of spending 30-60 min every evening putting the damn thing back in her mouth!

 

[Calitwins]

Have you tried Wubbanubs to make it easier for her to find the paci? That made a big difference for our boys. We were constantly fetching them when they'd fall out, but since we gave them Wubbanubs, they can always find it on their own now. We've bought 8 of them!

 

[jessmke]

Thanks for the tip! We can't us the Wubbanub because Isla doesn't like the soothie pacifiers, but I found something similar called paci-plushies that will work with her Nuk pacifiers. Just ordered it, hopefully it works! For now I will just set up camp next to her crib with a small glass of wine and Netflix and be on pacifier duty for the first hour she is in bed!

 

[loeylo]

Our wee one is the same. She's 5 months old this week but we are going to keep going with it until 6 months due to WHO advice as it reduces the risk of SIDS.

 

[Cjayne]

Best of luck! DS1 adored his dummies, DS2 has never bothered and sleeps so much better!

 

[sarah34]

My lo was like this for a while but they soon figure out how to put it back in themselves. My son had his dummy for a while but we successfully took it off him at around 16 months and he hardly noticed! He did used to have it clipped to his baby grow for naps and bedtime x

 

[jessmke]

I was starting to regret giving it to her, we really encouraged her to take one because it reduces the risk of SIDS, and because she was already becoming a thumb sucker which I wanted to discourage. She is already attempting to put it back in herself which is good. Her new thing is that she falls asleep holding onto it with her hand, so if she moves she pulls it out of her own mouth. So now I let her hold onto my finger while she falls asleep so she can't hold onto the pacifier. I can't wait until she can put it back in her mouth by herself!