Weaning

We’ve been trying to start weaning Troy off the pacifier. The pediatrician told us by one year. Everything I have read says by 18 months. Apparently, it starts to affect their teeth and dental palate. We thought we’d start now and target him being fully off by 18 months.

All I can say is that Troy is not on board with the plan (and truly neither is my wife). He has upped his whining, and eventual crying, game to express his displeasure with us taking it away. We have still been giving it to him after a bottle and when he sleeps, because it seems to soothe him. But now that we’ve been “starving” him of it, he’s started to want it all the time. Everything I have read has said that you have to remain strong, and he’ll give up on it after a week or so. But remaining strong when he’s crying is not in my wife’s vocabulary. So now I’m having to fight both the baby and my wife. And needless to say, the process is taking longer than it should.

My go-to technique is to try to distract him with something else, a toy or game. And most likely whatever I give him instead will eventually end up in his mouth, but at least its not his pacifier. Besides, he won't chew on the distraction for very long, because it's not as soft and soothing as the pacifier. And unless he's falling asleep, the distraction technique usually works pretty well. When his eyes are closed, though, nothing works but having that pacifier.