Operation Binky Removal: Day 1

That's right. We're getting rid of the binky. It's been my experience that every single choice you make while raising a child has its pros and cons: Breastfeeding vs. Bottle-feeding; back to work vs. stay at home; cry-it-out vs. co-sleeping; binky vs. thumb-sucking vs. nothing (gasp!). My feeling is this: Live and let live. I have close personal friends who have made the exact opposite choices from us and still their kids are great. Unless the child is in danger, I keep my opinions to myself. Of course, if they ask for my opinion, I'm not one to shy away from giving it. But I also know that they don't have to take my advice. So, here's how the binky situation went down at our house.

When Oldest Boy was born, my sister-in-law - a NICU nurse for a lot of years - was staying with us for awhile. This was what you would call an added bonus. OB was born 3 weeks early and she just happened to be transitioning from one place to another and staying with us until the logistics worked themselves out. Thank God.

It's been said that the only perfect parents are those without children, and we were no exception. We had no intention of using a pacifier. They discouraged it at our breast-feeding class, claiming nipple confusion and other adverse side effects. Then we brought the baby home. And Mr. MOTH and his sister had to go and buy a rocking chair - which left me home alone with a 3 day old baby. He cried and I nursed him. And he cried and I sang to him. And he cried and I bounced him. And he cried. By the time they came home with the rocker, we were both crying. My SIL tried helping with positioning of the baby and several other tricks and finally she said, "You know, in the nursery we would try a pacifier. Sometimes, babies just need to suck." What? Why did no one mention this to us before? So, out came the binky and silence ensued. We never looked back...until we had to get rid of it.

It's not pretty. We use the "cold-turkey" method, because with OB we had to. (He contracted hand, foot, and mouth disease and we had to take it away or sterilize it every time he took it out of his mouth - approximately 492 times a day. We took it away.) He was 18 months old and did not have a word in his vocabulary for the binky. This made it easy because when he pointed to the counter where we kept it, I just played stupid and showed him that there was nothing there. After 3 days or so, things were just hunky-dorey. We used the same method with Youngest Boy at 15 months old with the same results. 3 days and we're good.

With Baby Girl we are expecting it to be 100 times more difficult because everything else has been. So far, so good, though. She DOES have a word for it (pronounced bin-tay) so she asks for it periodically but I haven't caved. I left her alone with Mr. MOTH while she was napping yesterday and I expected her to have one when we got back. Then I remembered that he didn't know where I hid them. Hehe. So far, she's plugging along with only moderately more whining than normal - and not nearly the amount of whining that I know she's capable of! Here's hoping that I don't have a Blog Post called Operation Binky Removal: Day 97!