Well, we had to do it. It was a tough decision but my wife and I agreed that now was the right time. We watched this go on for too long; we’ve put it off, made excuses, heck we’ve even justified it, but now was the time. Any parent out there will be able to relate to this, that’s right, this weekend we decided no more soother for my 2 ½ year old. It’s been a rough few days but we know it’s going to be worth it. My eldest son loved his “suey” so it came as no surprise that my youngest son would love his “su-su” just as much, if not more.
Call it what you want, my boys were/are addicted to the…
Soother Suey Su-su Sussie Dummy Dum-dum Ga-ga Plug Fussplug Binky Bobo
To be honest, I knew that they’d both be addicted to a pacifier even before they were born. Here’s the deal, I had a real, real, real problem with it as a child. However, mine wasn’t made of plastic, but rather attached to my hand. I was a MASSVE thumb sucker, I mean massive. I’m truly embarrassed to admit this but we’re all friends right? I sucked my thumb until I was about seven (and by seven, I mean nine).
My poor parents tried everything under the sun to get me to stop.
Positive reinforcement – didn’t work
Covering my thumb – didn’t work
Finding a substitute – didn’t work
Applying nail polish – didn’t work
Finally after all those attempts, what got me to stop sucking my thumb was the 5 bucks they gave me; that did the trick. Unfortunately, all those years of thumb sucking caused serious damage to my teeth and it cost them $4000 in braces.
Enough about my deep issues as to why I needed my thumb to act as a pacifier heading into grade 4, back to my lil’ guy. We tried everything to get him to quit.
Cold turkey – didn’t work
Pacifier fairy – didn’t work
Only at bedtime – didn’t work
Pay him $5 – didn’t work
Begging – didn’t work
We were down to our last trick. Now, we did try this when he was 2, but it didn’t work; we tried the classic “Oh no, the pacifier is broken” trick. This is a pretty good one and it worked on his older brother really well. We cut a hole in the soother so he thinks it’s broken. In theory he’s supposed to try it, dislike it, and throw it out. In reality, he throws a tantrum and takes 45 minutes to get to sleep.
We are on day 5 and there is no way we can go back. My wife and I think we can see the finish line and we’ll finish this race whether she has to piggy-back me or not. The good news is each day it’s getting a little bit better and to be honest, I can’t blame him. He loved his su-su, it’s like they were attached at the hip…ahem…mouth. If someone randomly cut a hole in my beer and told me it was broken, I’d probably have a fit too.
Wish us luck tonight, Rory is going to try to go with no soother and I’ll try to go with no beer. If you’re placing bets, the smart money is on him.
The easiest trick for us was when my cousin had a baby, we told my daughter that the new baby needed soothers and encouraged her to give the new baby hers. We wrapped them up all beautiful and brought them when we went to meet the baby (my cousin was in on it). Worked like a charm. Three years later she still feels special for giving the baby such an important present.
At our house I was the human pacifier. The only way to get that to stop was me to be gone. A 5 day business trip did the trick! Good luck…sleep well 🙂
i never gave my girls a soother cuz i knew that i would have such a hard time doing what you’re doing! but, i do have to say if they’re going to suck, a soother is better than a thumb. my brother had years of weird dental devices because when he sucked his thumb he also pushed up the roof of his mouth.
you’re right…don’t give up now, you will all get through this!