Comments on: Somewhere In Binky Hell

By: livemom

livemom — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:34:15 +0000

Thanks for the help, ladies. I ended up speaking with a wise woman who has successfully raised nine children- all who also had binkies. I decided that we would all be happier if she had a binky while going to sleep. I bought a new one, and come bedtime, she went right back to normal, crawled into bed and went to sleep without any drama! She still isn’t asking it during the day and spits it out for the entire night right after falling asleep, so I’m not really worried about any issues with her teeth or mouth being messed up from it. I figure she’s got some more growing up to do before feeling comfortable enough to go without her comfort when falling asleep!

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:02:45 +0000

wish i had some advice, but just commiseration. my son is three and still has one. i keep saying “after X” or “after Y” and then something else comes up. we started on potty training and didn’t want to do both at the same time and so we kind of gave up on the pacifier. what i will say is that it is restricted to night and nap and we are down to one now, so i honestly think at some point it’s literally going to fall apart!!

i know in some of my hardest mama moments, just when i think i’m gonna throw in the towel, things turn around, so i hope you are in that place soon.

agree with lori – coffee coffee coffee?!

By: lori

lori — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:16:46 +0000

oooh, you poor mama. i know this is going to sound insane, but i have TRIED to get my kids to love their binkies. no dice. but, we had a similar situation with livie and her diapers. weird thing to be attached to, no? it’s different than being attached to a binky, but the “symptoms” were pretty similar. since you know us in real life, you know all about what we’ve been through, so i won’t bore you. but i will tell you that the situation impacted the ENTIRE family.

i have a good friend who has a 5yo daughter who gave up her binkies around 4 years old. my friend tried and tried to get her daughter to give them up, and in the end, the only thing that worked was cutting off little bits of the end of the binky bit by bit and slowly over time so that eventually, there was nothing to suck on.

i like sara’s idea about a lovey. my kids don’t take binkies, but they have some really TIGHT relationships with their lovies. so far, quinn is a 3-lovey man. he has his three favorites and he’s good. livie, on the other hand, has a revolving door for her loveys. right now, her stuffed “monster” and her IKEA crocodile are the main lovies of choice. oh, and her blanket with bunnies. these three have been in place for about 8 months. before that, it was crocodile and some of those gerber cloth diapers, which livie has been loving on since she was about 15 months old…she calls them her DAs (pronounced dah). occasionally, other stuffed animals or dolls make it into the lovey rotation and there’s a lot of hoop la if they are not in their place at bedtime, but generally there are 3 staples that change after several months. whatever works.

good luck. i hope you have lots of strong coffee around the house!

By: Sara Ballard

Sara Ballard — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:50:07 +0000

I have no idea if we took away my daughter’s binky too early. She was well over 2, but I think it gave her an immense amount of security that I took away in one night. (The beloved Binky Fairy came to our house) She has been a different child ever since. It could be related, it could be that I took it away during a major transition in her life and we might have had the same reaction even WITH the binkies. who knows. My nearly 2 year old son still loves his dear binkies, and I am not falling for the cold turkey method with him. I’ll slowly phase them out, when I think he’s ready, not when I am ready. I don’t care if he is older w/ a binky, I’ll deal with that when we get there. For now, there is peace in our house. So, no advice for you, sorry. I don’t know that I would re-introduce them if she is not asking for them. She may just need something else to soothe her, more one on one time with mom, a slower paced bed time, a new ‘lovey’…. hth. best of luck!!