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Pacifiers can be a life-saver for new parents, but they can also become a crutch for children. I know a lot of parents (myself included) who worried about whether to give their baby a pacifier and then when and how to eventually take it away. So how do you give your child a pacifier without having them become attached? Mac loved her pacifier and I was afraid she would become attached to it, but we managed to get it away from her with no problem. I also picked up a few more tips from my co-worker in the toddler room which have worked for others. In all, there are four tips to get rid of a pacifier.

What’s Wrong with a Pacifier?

There isn’t anything wrong with using a pacifier. When Mac was born, in my new-mom worry I refused to let her use a pacifier for the first month because I was worried it would mess up breastfeeding. Looking back, I think she would have been fine and introducing the pacifier a little earlier would have given us a bit more peace of mind. But hindsight, you know?

(PS we found the Avent Soothie pacifiers awesome. Mac loved them and I liked that I could find a gender-neutral color without any characters on them. Avent Soothie pacifiers were also the ones that continually popped up when I was researching pacifiers for breastfed babies. Yes I can be a bit neurotic about things. I also like to research.)

Anyway the problem isn’t giving a pacifier to a baby; the problem is letting a child become attached to it as they grow. We have all heard about how pacifiers might interfere with teeth that are growing in, so I won’t talk about that. But did you know it can also actually cause more tantrums and outbursts?

A pacifier is for pacifying babies (duh.) Babies are unable to cope with emotions and they need something to help comfort them. Enter the pacifier. Sucking is a very comforting action for babies. But if toddlers are simply given a pacifier whenever they start to get a bit emotional, it actually prohibits them from learning how to deal with those emotions. Then when they are somewhere without their pacifier (school, running errands, etc.) and they become emotional, they don’t know how to cope with it and the situation just escalates to crazy levels. That is where my four tips to get rid of a pacifier come in.

Toss it Early

This is the biggest and best tip, but it is also the most difficult because it requires pre-planning. Most children will not start to form an attachment to something like a pacifier until they are a year old. If you can take it away from them before or around their first birthday, it will not be as big of a deal as if you wait until they are older.

Personally, this is what we did with Mac. Once she was a year, we just didn’t give it to her any more. She was a little upset, but she moved on. We (stupidly enough) left it out on Andrew’s desk and she spotted it one day. We expected World War III to start when she signed for help and pointed at it. But we simply told her no and she moved on with her day.

Get Rid of the Spare Pacifiers

The most important thing to do if your child has formed an attachment to their pacifier is to get rid of all of the spare pacifiers so you just have one. This can be tricky. When my sister was younger, she loved her pacifier. She managed to hide them all over the house and I swear we found them for years to come.

But if you can, either throw away or store all pacifiers but one. This will make the next tips a lot easier.

Cut the End Off

The other day, I saw a new product that was to help wean children off of their pacifier. It was five pacifiers with the nipple end progressively getting shorter. Let me save you $25 and tell you to just cut the end off of the pacifier they already have. You can just start by cutting off the very end of it. If your child doesn’t seem to mind, keep cutting off more and more. Eventually it won’t be a comforting experience for the child anymore and they will hopefully abandon it all together.

Make Them Responsible for It

While I understand the ease of using a clip to attach the pacifier to baby’s clothes, once they are older you should ditch it. One easy way to get rid of a pacifier is to make a toddler responsible for it. Inevitably they will put it down and not pick it back up. The trick is to just leave it. A toddler may set it on the coffee table and be angry when they come back an hour later to find it missing. But if they set it down in the store or at home and ask you to find it, you can honestly tell them you don’t know where it is.

Do you have any other tips to get rid of a pacifier? What tricks worked for your family? Let me know in the comments!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure page here.