Goodbye, Pacifier

Yesterday was the beginning of yet another phase of parenthood. I put Ellie down for her first nap without her pacifier. Why now, at 15 months? Well, there are several reasons.

The APA (American Academy of Pediatrics) actually encourages the use of pacifiers to infants one month and older. It's especially been studied for and seems to lower the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). We waited until Ellie was about 6 weeks old to give her a pacifier. I really wanted to establish nursing and we had several issues with breastfeeding so I didn't want a pacifier to interfere. At first she seemed indifferent but soon it seemed to help soothe her and comfort her.

The APA also recommends weaning babies off the pacifier by 12 months, but especially before age two because of the risk of dental problems it can cause. In my very informal polls on Facebook and among friends and family I have found most people seem to wean their babies around age 2, often even later. I can't think of anyone I know that weaned the pacifier this young. They either don't take the pacifier at all or keep it for quite a while. Michael and I talked about doing it around one year but life happens and we were both hesitant to disrupt Ellie's sleeping habits.

Ellie sleeps wonderfully and has since she was little. The only time she gets a pacifier is at naptime and bedtime. She has a little box that she knows her pacifier goes in immediately after getting out of her crib, and she has no problem putting it in her box. It's almost a game to her and she takes delight in placing it in her box after every sleep. We've used the pacifier occasionally in the car for long distances or while traveling on an airplane, but even then it seems to be more of a toy than a necessity for her.

Sometimes when Ellie wakes up in the middle of the night she needs her pacifier to help get her back to sleep. I usually pop out of bed, give her the pacifier, and she falls like a brick back to her mattress and is out like a flash. I'm out of bed for less than a minute. But, we don't want to encourage this habit and want her to be able to fall back asleep without the pacifier.

Another big reason we finally chose to start this weaning process is because we are thinking through all the upcoming changes in Ellie's life. In a few months she will have a new sibling to compete with for our attention. She will most likely transition to a toddler bed. We will begin potty training. And at some point in there we want to drop the pacifier. That's a lot for our little girl to handle in a short amount of time!

So, between the APA recommendations, not wanting to create bad habits, and the upcoming upheavals to Ellie's little world, we decided that it would be better to lose the pacifier now and give her plenty of transition time before her sibling arrives.

Some people suggest gradually taking it away at naps and then bedtime, but we know Ellie's personality enough to know that she will only get confused if she gets it sometimes and not others. We've gone cold turkey.

One of my hesitations has been that at 15 months she won't quite understand, whereas if she was a little older I could explain to her that it's gone. I keep second-guessing myself because I know for a lot of people she seems too young to worry about taking away her pacifier. At the same time, I don't think this is an easy process even if she were a bit older. My friends who weaned even at age two or later tell stories of crying and sleepless naps before the weaning is successful. In fact, I think I need to give her a bit more credit about being able to understand, which I learned today (more on that in the next post).

So, here goes another milestone in mommyhood. Wish me luck. Day one results coming very soon...