She’s 2, she’s loud, and she wants her damn pacifier!!!
Unfortunatly, dear old dad here is tired of seeing it and tired of her freaking out when she doesn’t have it. Plus the dentist says it is time to go.
So let’s hear it people, what are some GOOD ideas for getting rid of it and helping her make the transition.
Sorry to sound less than encouraging but if it’s not her idea, it’s going to be really tough.
You can try the “paint it with that nasty stop sucking your thumb” stuff, but if she’s clever, she’ll just go wash it off. That’s what mine did, alas.
Good luck.
Tell her it’s time to leave it out for the Pacifer Fairy.
When the Pacifier Fairy takes it away (during the night while she sleeps), she’ll leave a present in its place. A new video tape or a doll, something she really wants. She has to tell you what she wants, so you can write it on a note for the Pacifier Fairy.
The Pacifier Fairy will take the pacifier back home, clean it up, and give it to a newborn baby who needs it.
(Hey, it worked for my kids! You must be firm, and get rid of all the pacifiers in the house. Throw them out. I had to cut the nipples off ours and stuff them down in the trash, because my husband is such a softie, he’d give in at the first whimper. Remember, the Pacifier Fairy took them.)
that is actually a very good idea…
kudos to you biblio
Yeah BiblioCat! Where were you when I needed you?!?
Wracking my brain for a way to get my kids to give up their pacifiers! 
i have 3 but only the middle one has ever used the pacifier.
it is a rough thing to get them to give up, much worse than weening them imo
<agree>
My older one didn’t suck his thumb or a pacifier till his brother came along two years later. Then he decided sucking a pacifier was a good idea when he saw his brother sucking his thumb.
Go figure.
What’s funny is that the younger one had to quit sucking his thumb because he had a wart removed from it so there was a HUGE bandage wrapped around his thumb, plus it hurt. That killed his habit pretty quickly.
Question from non-parent: how and why do kids start using a pacifier in the first place? Yeah, I know, to “pacify” them. But what happens if you never start them on it? It it necessary when weaning?
My sister-in-law did this: everyday, cut a little bit off the end. After about 4 days, it’s cut down to the hilt and kiddo gets so frustrated, s/he just throws it away in disgust. It works!
mmm…
eve, the reasons very, but most often (especially in my case as she had colic) it is so you can try to get some sleep.
Most babies will suck on something, a thumb, a finger, even a fist. Pacifiers are somewhat ugly but they (supposedly) are not quite as hard on babies’ teeth.
I know other parents who did it the way mmm… forbidden doughnut describes. I think they spent two weeks cutting it down, but it is the same idea.
My kid wasn’t a pacifier kid. He’d walk around with a bottle of water or something, but he didn’t have it in his mouth non-stop. I don’t know what makes some kids need one.
Eve, neither the Fem-Bot nor the Man-Cub ever spent even a single moment with a pacifier jammed into their pie-hole.
They’re fine. They slept fine. Granted, neither was colicky but if they had been, the pacifier wouldn’t have been a solution choice because it was not a part of their realm already.
Cartooniverse
Eve, babies comfort themselves with the sucking, so pacifiers can be a godsend for frazzled parents who just want some temporary peace. You could certainly just never give one to a baby, but they really don’t cause any harm in the young ones so most parents pop them in without reservations. It’s when we allow the habit to carry over past the point where it’s a physical comfort to where it’s a psychological one that it can get problematic. And, as MegaDave pointed out, they can also wreak havoc on a toddler’s teeth.
Personally, I yanked my lil’one’s ninny at three months to avoid just such a problem. At that age, they can’t protest and they’re memory isn’t good enough to hold a grudge for long. I don’t envy anyone the task of trying to argue with a two-year-old over such an ingrained habit but I think the pacifier fairy is fabulous idea. Good luck Dave! Stick to your guns, it’s definitely time. 
the colic sets in at a very young age, usually a pacifer isn’t part of babies realms until well after colic usually sets in…
when first born they can’t keep it in their mouth (hence why the other 2 never started one) and we weren’t about to keep putting it back in her mouth… but it is proven that a pacifier can act as a pain reliever, and when your baby is colicky, if somebody mentions something that someone did 10 years ago, you will try it.
try imagining your 2 or 3 months old, screaming at the top of their lungs, for 12 hours straight, and nothing you do can help…
you will try ANYTHING to bring both your baby and you and your wife some comfort
Both of mine used pacifiers. Some kids just have a non-stop urge to suck, and since they were both breast fed, I wanted to be able to put them down at some point. DD gave hers up all by herself at about 6 months, but DS (a very grumpy baby) had to be weaned off, we chose his second birthday as “the day.”
If the child understands the concept of time - like 7PM is bedtime, 11AM is lunchtime- you might start teaching the days of the week while looking at a calendar. When you think she follows the idea pick a date (trash collection day, about a week away) as the big day to give up that ‘sassy’. Put a big red star on the calendar and count down each day saying something like “5 more days”, “4more days”. When the big day comes let her see you throw it out and, if you can’ watch when the trash is collected. Make a big deal about it. This worked with mine. I think it also gave him a head start with math - he’s a wiz!
Neither of mine ever used a paci because until about 7 months they couldn’t get it into their own mouths - and I quickly discovered I wasn’t the type of mom to put in back in all the time. My daughter became a thumb sucker until the first tooth arrived, then that didn’t fit and she took to the bottle (she rejected the breast when teeth came as well - which I didn’t press).
We did just get her to give up the bottle at 3. It only had water in it from the time she was 18 months, but we did let her run around with it.
Here is my suggestion for easy (though the pacifier fairy sounds good) - this worked for us, but it took a while.
She only gets the bottle (pacifier) when she asks and asks nicely.
Shortly thereafter, she only gets the bottle (pacifier) when she asks nicely AND at certain times of day (late afternoon could be particularly rough for her, first thing in the morning - but not when we were out, never outside, not at daycare, not at the dinner table)
No instant gratification. She has to ask, but don’t drop everything to go get it. And start stretching the amount of time between her request and presentation of the object.
Don’t let her fall asleep with it. If one of the “times of day” is bedtime, she has to get rid of it after the story. Bedtime habits are the worst to break (this wasn’t from my daughter, my son was bottle dependant (with water) at bedtime.
Eventually, she’ll stop asking.