Re: HELP! Binky/Pacifier questions -- remove or not?

November 22, 2009

Tell me about it, my daughter is four, and we are almost there. As long as

she has not lost any teeth yet, but it stresses me out. We set a timer and

say for five minutes etc. Now we are down to about ten minutes a day or if

she wakes up in the middle of the night, but then I take it out of her

mouth. It is so hard, if I had known what I know now about the binky I would

have never started it.

November 22, 2009

We had my older son who is typically developing give up his paci when he turned

3. Having used it up until age 3 did create an overbite that will have to be

fixed with a retainer later on. I did not want the same thing to happen with my

younger son. He is 30 months with moderate apraxia and hypotonia. At his 6 mos

check-up when he was 2 1/2 the dentist said get rid of the paci. Then his new

SLP said get rid of both the paci and the sippy cup because both cause them to

suck in a way that does not help strengthen the muscles. The SLP suggested we

switch to cups with lids and built-in straws instead because drinking through

the straw does help strengthen the muscles.

So about 2 weeks ago, we had give his pacifier to the " paci fairy " . We

told him that he is a big boy now and doesn't need a paci anymore so the paci

fairy will take it and bring it to a baby who needs it. He left it in a small

box for her and she took it during the night while he was sleeping and in return

she left him a small toy.

He has struggled a little with sleeping since we took it away but his speech has

really improved so I am really glad we did it. We do not do cranial sacral

therapy and I don't know much about it so I can't comment on it. But most kids

are not actively sucking on the paci while they are sleeping so I'm not sure how

much benefit it would be anyway in terms of moving cranial fluid around while

they sleep and if they are sucking it often while awake, then that makes speech

more difficult. So that's my experience and input. Hope that helps.

>

> I need help! I am not sure when to remove the comfort of a binky/pacifier for

my kids. I know what the dental and speech position is... but our cranial

sacral, OT and chiropractor are saying that the use of the binky/pacifiers help

move the cranial fluid around in their brains (my son just turned three in Oct

and has severe apraxia with hypotonia in oral area too and my daughter is 20

months old with suspected apraxia). I'm thinking about having them give the

binkies/pacifiers to SANTA... I know it will be VERY TOUGH for a while but I

would like to have your perspectives... Are there any good children's books that

talk about giving up the binky/pacifier? I don't want to deny the benefit of

the cranial fluid, but it's going to be harder and harder to remove as time goes

on.

>

November 22, 2009

I agree with you. I took my son pacifier away from him at 2 1/2 years. What an

adiction he had. I gave up chocolate but nothing compare to what he was going

through. What he did was turn his sippy cup into his pacifier. He just turn 6

and I still give him that sippy cup to go to sleep with only. During the day, if

you give him a straw he will chew it up. Until last week, he has been able to

drink his juice and leave his straw intact. I'm not sure if its because he is

talking more or the desire to chew something is not needed anymore. If I had to

do it over again, I would never had introduce him to such an addiction that he

craved so much for.

Tracey

________________________________

From: " jennyjudy@... " <jennyjudy@...>

Sent: Sun, November 22, 2009 1:23:38 PM

Subject: Re: [ ] HELP! Binky/Pacifier questions -- remove or

not?

Â

Tell me about it, my daughter is four, and we are almost there. As long as

she has not lost any teeth yet, but it stresses me out. We set a timer and

say for five minutes etc. Now we are down to about ten minutes a day or if

she wakes up in the middle of the night, but then I take it out of her

mouth. It is so hard, if I had known what I know now about the binky I would

have never started it.

November 23, 2009

I have a funny story about pacifiers that may help you. My oldest son never

had a pacifier until he was 4 months old. We were going on a plane trip and I

gave him one as we were bording the plane to hold him off from eating until we

were departing so his ears wouldn't pop. Little did I know that this would

start a true pacifier addiction. From the moment I put that pacifier in he

was never without it unless he was eating! He would suck on it so hard he'd

have a little imprint of it on his face. (this is my non-apraxic son).

Most of the pictures I took of him for the next year all had that pacifier in

it. Anyway, I decided that I really needed to wean him off of that thing so

I started to wean him off of it slowly each day. Still, he knew that every

night he was going to get that pacifier for bedtime.

One of my best friends who has no children heard me talking about this big

battle with the pacifier as it went on for months. I had just finished

reading a book that said that if you took the pacifier away for 3 days and stood

your ground no matter what, the child wouldn't ask for it again after the 3rd

day. I didn't believe it and was loathe to try because at bedtime he would

cry hysterically if I didn't let him have it.

Anyway, my friend came over to babysit and when she arrived he didn't have the

pacifier (I had weaned him for most of the day by this point). He was happy

until bedtime came. She didn't know that I was still giving him the pacifier

at nighttime. He wasn't able to say the word pacifier so when he wanted it

he'd rub the back of his mouth with his hand. He started crying and pointing

at the shelf where I kept it and rubbing his mouth with his hand. She didn't

know he was asking for the pacifier and she kept picking him up and cuddling

him. The crying continued on and on and on. She could tell he wasn't

sick, just mad about something and didn't want to interrupt my date.

Anyways, he evidently got madder and madder and madder for about 3 hours until

he cried himself to sleep in her arms.

When I got home and she told me I instantly knew it was the pacifier. Still,

I had just read the book about 3 days standing strong and he wouldn't ask for it

anymore. I decided if he'd already gone through all that I was going to try to

stand strong myself. I didn't give it that next night and he only cried for

1/2 an hour. To my suprise, by that 3rd night he only cried for 5 minutes

and after that he never asked for it again.

I could have never myself let him cry that first 3 hours, but I felt like it all

worked out for the best. My well meaning friend didn't want to interrupt a

much needed date and this ended up being the tool to helping us get beyond the

pacifier phase.

I guess my advice is that I think the books was right and 3 days could end the

habit if it's that important to you.

Good luck!

Sue

Re: [ ] HELP! Binky/Pacifier questions -- remove or

not?

Tell me about it, my daughter is four, and we are almost there. As long as

she has not lost any teeth yet, but it stresses me out. We set a timer and

say for five minutes etc. Now we are down to about ten minutes a day or if

she wakes up in the middle of the night, but then I take it out of her

mouth. It is so hard, if I had known what I know now about the binky I would

have never started it.

November 23, 2009

I think this applies to paci's too but every SLP that ever came to my house for

EI said No Sippy cups, no paci's for kids with speech issues!.

Its better practice for the things their mouths are NOT doing to have them learn

to drink from a straw---just enough liquid in the bottom of the cup. A straw

strenghtens the muscles they need for speaking better than constant sucking on a

paci. I've never ever heard anything about a connection between what your mouth

does and movement of cranial fluid?--wow thats a good one.

Supernanny always does the binky fairy and brings a present in its place. I had

BF kids so I never used paci's and even my apraxia daughter who had a bottle

never used a paci--I dont think she had the muscles to keep it in her mouth.

Its a tough stage to get thru --good luck.

>

> cranial sacral, OT and chiropractor are saying that the use of the

binky/pacifiers help move the cranial fluid around in their brains (

November 23, 2009

Our son was a thumb sucker (and late talker). When he turned 3 I told him

" you're a big boy now and can't be sucking your thumb any more. " It seemed to

click with him and from then on he stopped. I would see him start to put his

thumb in his mouth and then quickly take it out as if to say " oops! " It was his

personality as he has always been a self-disciplined sort of person.

November 23, 2009

I totally second the suggestion from the mom who wrote about the " binky fairy "

idea. When our twins turned three, we read them a kids' book about it for about

2 weeks before the binky fairy came, to help them prepare. We talked about how

the binky fairy was going to come take the pacifiers and give them to new little

babies who really needed them, and she would leave a present in return. We

decorated envelopes, put the binkies in, and left them on the front step. The

next morning, the kids found the presents that the binky fairy left. Our son

(the one with apraxia) only had issues for about 2 nights and then was fine.

Surprisingly, it was our typically developing daughter who was more attached to

her binky. But, she was OK too, after about 4 nights.

We did cranial osteopathy, and I had asked our DO about it before taking the

binkies away. He said that yes, the sucking does help the motion of the fluid

in the skull, but because the pediatric dentist saw the beginning stage of

issues with bite (especially in our daughter), he said that it would be fine if

we wanted to get rid of the binky. Ultimately I was glad we got rid of the

binkies when we did.

Here are some books we used (for the first one, we just left out the " ba-ba "

part and focused on the " binky " part):

http://www.amazon.com/Binky-Ba-ba-Fairy--Knickerbocker-Silva/dp/159858251\

8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8 & s=books & qid=1258987371 & sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/No-More-Pacifiers--OBrien/dp/1581176848/ref=sr_1_1?\

ie=UTF8 & s=books & qid=1258987424 & sr=1-1-spell

http://www.amazon.com/More-Pacifier-Piggy-Bernette-Ford/dp/1905417896/ref=sr_1_3\

?ie=UTF8 & s=books & qid=1258987424 & sr=1-3-spell

Best of luck!

(Mom to 3 1/2 year old twins, and Cecilia)

>

> >

> > I need help! I am not sure when to remove the comfort of a binky/pacifier

for my kids. I know what the dental and speech position is... but our cranial