After Iris’ second birthday we decided that it was nearing time to get rid of her beloved pacifiers. We started talking to her about it in advance, warming her up to the idea.
Our approach? Lying.
It worked and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.
We told her that the baby animals needed them.
What baby animals? I’m not entirely sure…
Just some vague, very cute, baby animals.
Thankfully Iris was old enough to comprehend the idea, but young enough not to question it (phew!). It actually made her happy and proud to “mail” them away to those poor baby animals that never had any pacis to love.
Because we had talked it up for a few weeks, Iris was actually excited to collect each one, stuff them into a box, and walk the package out to the mailbox. She still has no concept of what mail actually is so we even saved money on a stamp! To her, all mail – even bills – are birthday party invitations. I think I’ll start pretending that’s true.
A couple of days later wouldn’t you know – the baby animals sent us an email with pictures of them enjoying the heck out of her old pacis! I had Todd photoshop Nuks (the only kind Iris would ever use) into the mouths of the cutest animals Google images had to offer and – voila! Iris was thrilled too see her pacis still being loved by a tiny monkey, elephant, bunny, etc.
The next week wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. She woke up occasionally in the night, requiring us to go in and pat her back till she fell asleep (although, not too much different from when she would wake up, not being able to find her paci in the sheets). That was a month ago and we haven’t looked back. She accepted it from the start and never cried once for her paci. I feel like the hardest part is on the parents. It was so easy to plug her up when she was upset in public. I also knew what comfort it gave her, so taking that way made me feel a bit guilty. To me, she is still my little baby. Always will be. But now I can kiss that cute little baby mouth any time I want – without a silly Nuk in the way.
Feel free to use our idea (and our photos) if you want to try the same (lie) approach.
