My youngest daughter is absolutely addicted to her pacifier. She will be 3 in March and I never thought she would have it this long. Our eldest daughter easily gave it up before she was 2.
My main concern is for her teeth. Her speech is excellent, so there’s no concern there. But I had braces as a teenager and know how painful they are physically, and mentally - as kids can be so cruel.
If she doesn’t get her pacifier when she wants it, she has a full blown meltdown. She will scream and cry sometimes to the point of puking. I always give in before she gets to that point because I think it’s cruel but my husband thinks she’s playing us.
It is literally the only thing that gives her comfort. We’ve tried replacing with a special lovey or blanket with no luck. She actually goes to sleep with one pacifier in her mouth and uses another one to rub along her face. It’s the sweetest thing, but I’m so concerned I am doing her more harm than good by not taking it from her.
Any advice would be really appreciated. Thank you.
Help a mama out and respond anonymously on our forum. I am looking for advice regarding pacifier use and toddlers - Mamas Uncut
Can you try the weening method where they have the paci cut shorter and shorter?
My daughter was the same. Around almost 4 i finally put my foot down and took it away. Then she started to suck her thumb 
. I tried everything to get her to stop. Then finally when i took her to an orthodontist at 11 they gave me a special nail polish that taste awful and that did the trick! She still needed braces but she stopped sucking her thumb. Maybe take the pacifier away and let her cry it out? See how it goes for a few days… and braces aren’t so bad anymore my daughter has not been made fun of or anything
Do y’all celebrate Christmas and Santa? My sister struggled with this with her daughter, and she told her that Santa wanted all of her binkys and he’d bring her presents. Christmas Eve, my niece put all her binkys under the tree and they were gone in the morning and she didn’t even make a fuss about it
Going through the same thing have tried everything!
Look up the pacifier fairy. She collects pacifiers for babies that don’t have one and in the morning she leaves a small gift to say thank you.
My son hung onto binky too long(just for sleep tho not all the time) . He put down when he was ready(3 yrs old). No probs with teeth hes 18 now. He goes to dentist regularly. Hes the most independant/confident 18 yr old i know
My son had his pacifier until he was 3 as well. I swore up and down he couldn’t give it up, every time I tried to take it he would throw a fit… but when my husband came home on leave he asked for it, he (my son) gave it to him and he was done with them after that 
maybe find someone who she trusts and have them talk to her about it and see if she will give it to them willingly.
My dr told me to make a hole n it’s worked
I took my oldest to build a bear and we we put them inside a bear
She will give it up when she’s ready. She won’t bring it to school with her I promise.
Start only using it for sleep time. Then eventually wean off naps and then bedtime.
My daughter only ever used hers for bedtimes so she wasn’t that hard to wean.
Tell her the babies need them and pack all of them up and “send” them to the babies and it will be hard for a few days but then she’ll get over it. Remind her they are for babies 
The kid is definitely playing you cut all the nipples off them and that’s the end of it your daughter will get over it
I started by replacing it. If she wanted it I would offer her a snack a banana or a lollipop. At night I would give her her bottle when she looked for it. But she had just turned one when I started weaning her off. She’s two now and doesn’t use it.
That nanny show I watched. Probably find it on YouTube. The binky fairy. Worked for mine!
Try taking it away slowly. Progress to only nap time and bedtime…then only bedtime…see how she does. I had the same struggle with a few of my children, but successfully weaned them with limiting their use. You will have to plan things to distract her if she is used to having it all day…special games ,etc. You are 100% right that it will affect her teeth and mouth and be painful later in life when it needs fixed. Good luck!
My son was about 3 and a half and super attached to it. I told him we lost his last one he cried for a little bit and was fine. Had I known how “easy” he gave it up I would have a long time ago. Teeth are fine. Goes to dentist every 6 months no signs of binky teeth
Technically it wouldn’t affect her teeth, to the point of needing braces, until she had her permanent teeth.
Plus, in my experience, kids don’t tease about braces anymore. Most of my kids have had braces and nobody has ever said a word to them about them. Most kids today get braces and they’re not that bad.
I had kids who were super attached to their binkies, and it was a challenge to take them away, but not horrible, especially the older they were.
Just talk to them and then either wean them down off it or take them away cold turkey.
They’ll be ok.
I cut the tip off one of them. She asked me why it was broken I acted like I didn’t know and was like I’m sry. Then I found all of hers and did the same to them. I let her find them like that. I acted like I didn’t know they were like that each time. We threw them out together and she asked for them less and less because I told her each time they were all broken and we didn’t have anymore
Let her meltdown,if u give in,she will do the tantrum dance with other issues when she wants her way.
Just take it. A couple weeks of fits and itll be over. Went through this with my oldest
Noone keeps it forever. Schedule pediatric dental visits and have her teeth checked regularly. My oldest was similar to this and her ped said as long as she was taking it out to talk and eat and her teeth weren’t showing signs of damage there was no concern at all. 
Taking what gives them comfort is cruel idc what anyone says, if it’s not hurting anything there’s literally no reason to take what brings them comfort. Taking the object doesn’t get rid of the urge and it is possible that they’ll find other things to chew and suck on like toys, blankets, fingers, etc
It is very dangerous to let a child with teeth have a pacifier. I’ve worked in EMS for 25 years and these kids bite the rubber piece off and it lodges in their throat. We took my granddaughter to the local zoo with hers and we told her the baby animals needed them .she was very proud to help them. The lady at the zoo was more than happy to go along with the trick. She asked for it a few times and we showed her pictures of her handing them over for the baby animals. It worked with her bottles too! Please don’t let your lil girl have a pacifier anymore .
Perhaps try putting it under the Christmas tree for Santa to take 
We took our youngests pacifier a little before he turned 2…
He now sucks his thumb instead 
It’s such a hard habit to break because it’s comfort for him.
Our oldest traded his for a piece of chocolate when he turned 2 and never asked about it again lol
It’s a process you have to learn on your own basically, all kids are different and handle every given situation differently.
She is playing you. She throws a fit and you give in. We started at 2 with pacis have to stay in her room. She could go in there any time she wanted to have them but she had to stay in her room with them. She would even lay at her doorway with her pacis but didn’t leave her room. Eventually around 3 she started grinding her teeth on them and chewed holes in all 10 pacis within about 4 days and we didn’t replace them. She cried and bedtime was had for a few days but we stuck to it and didn’t give in.
I had this problem stop buying new ones when they break cut the tip till its smooth do not replace it trust me she wont want it on her own i had 2 kids they are 9 and 8 now and that method worked so easy lol
At 3 we told my middle son we weren’t taking his binkies a way but we weren’t buying any more. He was in charge of keeping track of them. If he lost all of them then he was out of luck. He lost them all in a month and didn’t care even though it had been a fuss previously like you said.
That was my son he turned 3 in October and he was so addicted to his and one day we just said he didnt have anymore he kept chewing them up and it was horrible he cried and cried for it but we didnt give in then he found one in his bed 🤦🤦 so we took it and he went back to sleep woke up asking for it and I told him it was a dream he didnt have any lol hes been without it awhile now but I still have one put up lol
My kid had hers until she was 5. It was her comfort thing. We finally gave it to the Easter bunny for the little kids that needed it for her to get a basket.she has no problem with her teeth speech or anything else. I’ve heard they will give it up when they are ready… just imo.
Do you have a buildabear near you?
Take her to one, and stuff a binky in a bear, let her do the whole process, and then it can become her “comfort bear” knowing there’s a binky in it.
Your husband is right.
Throw it in the trash. If she screams and cries and pukes, oh well. She’s definitely doing it because you give in.
Stop giving in to her tantrums and throw out the pacifier. She’ll get the hint
The fairies came to fetch my daughters dummy/pacifier for the baby fairies and left her a gift.
Dolphins fetched my step daughters while we were on holiday and also left a gift.
We “lost” them. Everytime he would set one down, I’d hide it. Until there were fewer and fewer in rotation. And eventually there wasn’t any and I’d say idk where it is, I guess we need to find it. And once he realized he couldn’t find it he kinda just gave up.
My brother gave it to the bin fairy so he could get some money and never looked back ahahaha
I cut the tops off all of them (she started bitting holes in them)she was upset for awhile but she would just carry them around and even put them in her mouth chew on them but eventually let go she was about three
My Dad was a dentist. Pacifier is ALWAYS better than the thumb for teeth. All 3 of my kids had handfuls off pacifiers until 3 years old. I remember their pediatrician saying “they will not go to kindergarten with them. Stop worrying!” And he was right!! My kids are now 31,28 &25.
She will give it up when she’s ready and the more you keep trying to take it away the longer she will want it! It won’t hurt her at all and you most certainly are not being a bad mom by not taking it away from her at a certain age! We are all different and have our own needs and in our own time!
Definitely playing you. I went through exactly this when my son was 2. He would do the exact same thing, throw a fit til he puked. This may sound cruel but I starting making him help clean up his puke. Took one time of having help clean it and he stopped doing it. I also had him help cut the tips off and throw them away. Took about a week from start to finish to be without it. You can’t give in to the tantrums or she is going to grow up thinking that’s how she gets what she wants.
Honestly she will give it up when she’s ready. According to my dentist they do not affect the shape of teeth…both my kids had them for years and both have perfect teeth …both adults now
Maybe limit use for bed time only but the more you upset her the longer she’ll want it.
My daughter was 2 when we threw all of them away… cold turkey. She cried 1 whole day, but I tried to keep her busy as much as possible and she forgot about it.
It’s time! Have her help you throw them away. Show her pictures of little kid’s teeth that have been affected by the binky.
My 1st son was 4 when I had to take his away, he was too dependent on it and couldn’t go anywhere without it! When he turned 9 he went to the orthodontist and 17,000 dollars later I had to fix what I was to lazy to do! Between appliances for widening his mouth to 4 different sets of braces, and 8 years of dealing with pulling teeth and straighten them I refused to go through that with my 2nd! (They are 11yrs apart) My second son At 17 months old gave Santa all his pacifiers and we Never went back regardless the meltdowns or tantrums and within a week he was fine! He’s 13 now and does have braces but it’s 3,000 instead of 17,000 and they come off in 18 months vs 9 years! So look what can happen my son and I had to learn the hard way!
My son was this way finally around 3 he kinda let it go himself (I was shocked ! ). But his teeth were very buck and spaced from it but the dentist told me in 6months it should correct itself and it did his teeth went in and they are perfect now…. My daughter I lost her pacifier and that was it I never got a new one and she really didn’t ask for it much
Give it to the Fairies or Santa for a new baby and explain she is a big girl and she will get a gift/ present worth a try and say the shop won’t sell a new one because they are only for babies…Good luck
When my son was about to turn 3, we put the pacifiers in a special box and the pacifier fairy came during the night and took the box to give the pacifiers to new babies that needed them 
and she left my son a gift. He was so happy, never asked again for a pacifier.
Kids do get addicted to them, mine have all been 4 years old way to old to be having a dummy, but I literally one day had enough got the dummy chucked it away and they do stop crying for it takes about a week of it but u gotta do it for all ya sakes. I also felt bad doing it but has to be done. Dummys r for baby’s
Definitely doing more harm than good.
I think your husband is right. Have her help you toss the binky’s in a bag. Tell her they are for babies… and other babies need them. Remind her Everytime she wants one that shes a big girl now. If she cries… let her.
Im not sure if this is allowed anymore, my kids are all over 10, but to get them off the pacifier, we cut the bulb off and gave it back to them. By that I mean the whole part they suck, leaving the other part. No choking hazard if that makes sense. They kept it for a bit then just let it go.
Braces now are nothing like when we were teens! My daughter just got hers off and I warned her of how bad they hurt and she barely had any issues and no one teased her about them. But aside from that 3 is definitely the age to get her off of it. What I did with my older 2 around the age of 3 was tell them pippys (that’s what we call them) were for babies and now that they aren’t babies anymore they had to throw them away. I opened the trash can and they tossed them in. It was an adjustment but every time one of them had a melt down I told them “remember you’re not a baby anymore if you want something in your mouth let’s get a fruit snack or cuppy” it helped.
We told our 4yo that the tooth fairy was monitorimg her teeth and took her binkies away bc it was affecting them. She’s asked a few times for it especially when tired… but we are off!
Not advice but funny. I brought my first granddaughter a pacifer with bling on it cost me almost $50. I thought it was so darn cute. My granddaughter would have no part of it. All i want was a picture of her sucking it i would poker it in her mouth and she would promptly spit it out. Never did get that picture lol
May be just nap time an bed time thats what i dofor my great grand son and he gives it up good then work on those times next.
Literally JUST went through this with my daughter. Same fits and all. What we did was let her “lose” it and then when we found it we simply didn’t give it back. Day 1 was HARD, and Day 2. But on day 5 right now and she doing amazing without it
You don’t need to worry about her teeth at this point. If that’s her comfort, it’s fine. She’ll give it up when she’s ready.
It’ll take a few days but throw them away literally get in your vehicle and throw them away in a public garbage can like at Walmart the reason I say somewhere else besides your place is cause you give in to her. Have your husband take them n dispose of them. 3 years old is too old for a pacifier n i think he’s right she’s playing you guys lol
Have her trade santa for a big gift
She absolutely knows that you will give in and that’s why she does it(kids are sneaky that way 
)
My boys had Binks when they were little for a very long time(ear issues) and have no problems with their teeth…in fact they are perfectly straight and healthy(no braces ever)
I now watch my granddaughter that is almost 3yrs old and her parents are “breaking” her of having one so when she is at my house I tell her binks are for laying down only or when her ears are sick (ear infections). She can see the bink all day long(we call it the bink spot)and anytime she “needs” it she will grab it and lay down in her bouncy seat for a minute or two then get up. I remind her what the Binks are for and she puts it down and goes about playing and whatnot. Naptime she grabs her Bink again and falls right to sleep and it falls out of her mouth.
We always have at least one Bink put up for “sick” days. Specifically because she has issues with ear infections & has tubes in her ears so if she gets an infection the sucking on the bink helps alleviate the “popping” and the pain.
It took me about a month to break her of needing it constantly but it is working.
Good luck
You can buy the set of them that just keep getting smaller so there is nothing to suck on. Or when she starts crying for it tell her she has to find it. Or give her a receiving blanket and tell her that you will look for it
My daughter was the same way. One thing I wanted to try was take her and her pinky to build a bear and have her lose it in it. Not sure if it’d work but I didnt leave near one to do it. Ive also heard if u slowly start cutting the nipple shorter each day that helps.
Poke a tiny hole on the top of the nipple. She won’t want it anymore. I promise.
Santa can take it home with him on Christmas eve!!
My daughter was also hardcore on the pacifier. On her 3rd birthday the “sookie fairy” came & took them all & left her a gift because at 3 she’s a big girl & the fairy brought them to babies that need them. We talked about it every day for a couple months before her birthday so she was well aware. She gave them up no problem. I was shocked it actually worked lol
Take it away!! You’re the mom, the boss. She will be fine. Might whine for a few days but she’ll get over it. Cut them up and throw them out!
Reward her with something she really wants if she gives it up and explain to her what big girls get if they give up binkies. That’s what worked for my daughter
Out of sight, out of mind. Take it from her before she gets up, and give it back only at bed time for the next week or so. Take it out of her bed when she falls asleep, so she doesn’t see it in the morning. Then stop giving it to her completely. She’ll only have a fit for a day or two
Cut them and leave it around the house. Did that with my son. and I kept telling him we would buy more. At some point he just stopped asking
Cut the tips off of them and hand them back to her
Have her mail them to all the babies! Have her put them all in an envelope, and tell her they are going to the babies who need them, and tell her she’s a big girl now! Have her put the envelope in the mailbox. She won’t look for them anymore! This works! Because she knows they are out of the house!
Had the same exact issue. We had to go cold turkey and just deal with the aftermath as it came. Took about a week but after that he never looked or asked for it again.
Cut the very tiniest tip off and say “oh man you’re getting so big it’s breaking!” Repeat this weekly until there isn’t enough left for them to suck on. Worked perfect for my 3 year old, no tears.
your husband is right… she is playing you because she knows that you’ll just give in… take it away it’s as simple as that. she’s going to cry and she’s going to have melt downs but it will get better. you don’t want it messing up her teeth and you’d be surprised if it already hasn’t
Try pickle juice on it. Or tell her you gave it to another perty girl just like her
I cut a slit at the tip
Don’t take that comfort away…she will more than likely have to have braces anyway, most kids do!!!
Well if she acts like this now, how will she act when she is a teen. You have taught her that by throwing a fit and almost throwing up she gets her way. Let her throw up, let her sit there and cry, you are doing more damage to her mouth than anything. It may take a few days but she will be fine.
I told my daughter she couldn’t be a big girl and turn 4 with a dummy … she threw it in the bed 2 weeks before her 4th birthday… x now i need to figure out how to get her to stay in her bed all night 
My child’s the same exact age. I kept telling him he’s too big for a paci and that he should throw it away. We talked about it a lot for about 2 months. One morning he said he was putting it in the trash. He wined for it a couple days. But it’s been about a month now and it’s a thing of the past. I know this is hard.
We were in the same boat.
It’s a stage my daughter gave up when she turned 4 all kids are all different. She’s still going through terrible twos.
My oldest son, who’s now 24 yrs old made a mess of his teeth, only using it til he was 2 yrs old.
I used the same trick already mentioned here 
cutting the tips and leaving them around. He was pretty pissed off the first day, but by day 3 he just stopped wanting them.
Same problem here, my babes all love their paci…one thing that helped my oldest was when another child commented that she was a baby Lol, needless to say my daughter dumped the pacifier that very same day and never wanted it again.
Cut tip of every pacifier you have at home…. It wouldn’t taste the same and she will give up eventually
I’ve been in childcare for 10+ years and have three of my own kiddos and I can absolutely say that cold turkey is the absolute easiest way… first 2-3 days may be rough but then it will be much easier. Good luck with what ever method you choose momma 
I cut the tip of my daughters off and in 2 days it was gone and she was very addicted to hers! It’s a hard process but it will be better in the end!
It’s a process 
I stopped her at 1, but after a week in a half they calm down just be prepared for none stop fussing, I learned after that , a binky journey ends at 3 months 
no issues
My daughter would only use one paci. It was a Wubbanub with a duck on it. I ended up with two of them and would swap them out to wash them but she bit a hole in the end of one of them and it didn’t suck right. She fell asleep one night without it in her mouth, I took it out of her crib and cut the paci off. When she got up the next morning I told her it was broken and she could keep the duck but she had to throw the paci in the trash. She cried at night for a few days but did great after that.
DO NOT give in…
Let her throw her tantrums and puke 3 days and she’ll be over it
My daughter went from paci to thumb after I got rid of paci…she is 8 and STILL sucks thumb…tried EVERYTHING. She is gonna have to get braces soon… 
Sometimes it just sucks
my granddaughter lost her baby teeth due to pacifier use. I would try really hard to get rid of it. She has had no front teeth since she was 3. The paci keeps bacteria around their teeth and makes decay from the root.
My daughter was 3 when I could finally break her of it and it happened to be around Christmas time. I told her that if Santa brought her christmas presents, she could give back by leaving her Binky out for him with the milk and cookies, to take back to the reindeer babies who need it more than she does.Being she loved babies, “reindeer babies” was the magic word. She left it out, woke up the next morning and never asked for it again
When I moved my oldest to a toddler bed, we talked about about how she was a big girl in a big girl bed and threw it away and took out the trash. She patted the bed in her sleep (looking for it) and whimpered a couple of nights and it was done. When she asked about it, I reminded her we got rid of it.
It’s not always that easy, but it’s what finally worked for us.
My son does the same thing with the two binkys and he is two and a half. I dread the day we finally have to call it quits
Our girl just hit a year and half and we stopped her cold turkey of the bibs paci , last night was day two ,she went to bed honestly great at about 10:30 and slept all night and just got up at 9:02 ,the night before last was the hardest being the first night but once she realized she wasn’t getting it ,she went to bed and only got up once thinking she was getting it ,instead we have her a snack and some apple juice to which she ate and drank then went right back k bed after whining for a minute and realizing we weren’t giving in(I didn’t give anyone else the option to give in bc I hid the paci,now it’s going in the trash !) she had had 8 teeth since before turning 1 and so it has been a big worry for me to not have her weaned by 2 like I was along with my 5 other siblings . We have another on the way and already agreed we will start to wean with this one at 6-8 months and only give it when needed before that . First three days will be the worst ,after that she will realize your not giving in and start to find a new way to self soothe.
We were worried about taking it away but it went really well. We weaned down to only let her have it at bedtime and then just took it. It was a few days before she got used to it and then never asked again!
Time to throw them out. Deal with the fits now or they will only get worse. She will get used to not having one. My first born was addicted to hers we faced a week of hell of fits but it was good that we got rid of hers she was 2. The sooner you do it the easier it will be. I have seen 5 treat olds walking around with them with destroyed teeth.
Two of my children had theirs until they were around 3. Most drs will tell you they will give it up on their own. Maybe you can bribe with a new toy or giving them to Santa for big girl toys. The first few days will be rough but after that she should forget about it. Just be consistent if you want to take it. If not just wait it out. Only allow At bed or nap times for a while