The kid went cold turkey! After a few weeks of talking about saying goodbye to "nano" Max is finally off the nipple. Here's how we did it.
The kid went cold turkey! After a few weeks of talking about saying goodbye to "nano" Max is finally off the nipple. Here's how I did it.
I started planting the seeds of him being a big boy and how nano's ("nano" aka pacifier) were for babies. I also tried saying that he should give up all his nanos so other babies who need them could use them. I also talked about how the dentist said nano was ruining his teeth by giving him a big overbite and said the dentist would be so proud if he went into his next visit and said he wasn't using one. I also repeatedly said I'd be proud of him and I know he can do it. That was all possibly just blah blah blah to him I think? I then said he should just tell me when he's ready to say goodbye, that he should just let me know the best time. Then I would ask every so often, "are you ready?" to which he always replied "no". But I think that random questioning laid the foundation for it to be ok. About three weeks later I told him I'd give him a dum dum lollipop if he tried to take a nap without his nano. Oh yah, that worked! Sugar, the king of all motivators. So yes, he took that first pacifier free nap and enjoyed his sugary nano-like treat afterwards. He wanted to do it again the next day and yet again the next. The following day was a school day, so I wondered if he'd be ok not bringing it to school? He was fine with it, so long as he got a lollipop or madeline afterward. My next trick was to do ye old bribery switchero (apparently I'll end up with a son who has a case of entitlement for doing so! Bad parenting 101). I made a devil's deal by saying in exchange for 20 nano-free nights he could pick one toy — any toy he wanted— in the toy store. He was quick to say he wanted a police costume with a badge and a magnet (due to a cops and robots episode of the Backyardigans that he likes to watch over and over. Together we decided to use his Spiderman calendar to "x" off the days and we printed out a photo of the police costume for him to look at as motivation. We talked that costume up at every opportune moment. The first night we started story time nano-free but he changed his mind, so we blacked out the x and decided to try again tomorrow. Then every night there after was nano-free with no complaints. Amazing! It worked. He loved getting that costume, we took lots of photos and looked forward to putting it on each evening after school. 
Here's the rub though, ever since he's been off the binky bedtime has gotten more difficult. He doesn't want to stay in bed and claims to not be tired or is still hungry, urgh trade one issue for another — such is life.
Technorati Tags: pacifier, preschooler
