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Pacifier Free

Creative Ways to Break the Binky Habit

By Shannon McKelden

There comes a time in every child's life when it's time to give up the pacifier. As with most "milestones," the time to stop using the binky depends a lot upon the child. Some children outgrow the pacifier on their own; others need a little encouragement. So how can parents help the transition be a little less traumatic?

"In the best of circumstances, your child will tell you when he or she is ready," says Dr. Joanne Baum, therapist and author of Got the Baby Where's the Manual?!? (Mountainside Press, 2007). "She'll start using it less, he'll start forgetting where he put it, and you can begin to use those times to talk about how great it is that she can go longer without it."

Dr. Baum suggests working with your child to develop a plan to get rid of the pacifier. "When it's a partnership rather than a parent deciding when is 'the appropriate time,' it works out better for everyone," she says.

Margarita Miranda-Abate of Westfield, N.J., wanted her son to be done with the binky by age 3. So she got started early to avoid having to go cold turkey. When her son turned 2, she informed him it was time to say "bye-bye" to his binkys.

"I laid out all of my son's binkys on his bed," Miranda-Abate says. "We counted them (total of six), and I explained that those were all the binkys he had left. I said that binkys are not for big boys and he was now a big boy, but I wouldn't give them away. Now if they got icky, broken or lost, they would have to go in the garbage and that we wouldn't get new ones. I stressed that there would be no more binkys after these were gone."

Want to see more?

• A Hard Habit to Break: Part Three
• Reexamining the Pacifier: Can Pacifiers Reduce the Risk of SIDS?
• When Lovey Is Lost: Ways to Prevent It and Helping Your Child Cope
• Check out our Article Library.
• Talk about it!

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