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Monday, October 09, 2006

Just Add Sand and Water

When I was pregnant with my Older Son (OS), I read tons of magazines and books and decided that OS would not use a pacifier. OS arrived on his due date and made his presence known. In fact he was so good at making his presence known, that I began to feel like a human pacifier. Surely, this couldn’t go on much longer, right? 10 weeks later, okay really it was probably less than 24 hours but it felt like 10 weeks, the pediatrician came into my hospital room and said, “Some babies need pacifiers, and yours is one of them.” He then proceeded to grab a pacifier from the drawers under OS’s bassinet and popped it into OS’s mouth with the flair of an experienced pacifier-pitcher. A very happy and peaceful OS slept contentedly. I was horrified, (and secretly relieved), and carefully explained to said pediatrician that I was well informed and had done all this research. His reply? “I see the breast Nazis have gotten to you.” That settled it and OS became a pacifier user.

All through the months he used his pacifier, I had a little voice in my head telling me that someday we would have to break his habit. I guess I wasn’t too worried though, because I was a thumb sucker until I was 10. YOU can always “lose” the pacifier at the park, zoo, airport etc, but with a thumb sucker? You’re stuck until SHE decides to give it up. Also, out of all the battles I knew I would have to fight as a parent, pacifier use was not one that I wanted to voluntarily get into with OS. However, it would be nice not to have to chase the dog around the house when he would take the pacifiers. Did I mention a certain $400 vet bill when he ate a pacifier? Don’t worry he’s absolutely fine (physically anyway, since he continues to run around with pacifiers when he can snag them).

So what happened? When OS was 11 months old we went to the beach with our playgroup. Another baby OS’s age took OS’s pacifier out his mouth, stuck it into the sand, and shoved it back into his mouth. OS was understandably horrified and let it be known. After I washed his mouth and pacifier out with water, OS refused to take the pacifier back. I wonder why? Without realizing it, two whole days passed before he asked for it. At that point we followed the advice of the Toddler Whisperer and gave him a stuffed animal (it was one he previously owned but was not attached to by any means) whenever he wanted his binky. It actually worked!!! No, seriously it did. By the end of the week the binky was history.

So why am I telling you this little story. Am I trying to convince you that I am the perfect Mom? Only if you are a first time reader. Delving into this blog will quickly show you just a few of my parenting escapades. Is it to pat myself on the back? No, but I would like to give OS’s little friend a pat on the back for a job well done. Am I telling you to dip your child’s pacifier in sand? Absolutely not! What I’m trying to say is that I had heard so many horror stories about giving up pacifiers that I thought it would be a nightmare. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was, but there was no way I could have predicted how OS would give up the pacifier. My younger son (YS) now uses a pacifier. I certainly have no delusions about how easy it will be to break the habit, but you never know; maybe we’ll luck out twice. Worst case scenario? OS’s friend has a younger sister who is the same age as YS. Maybe she will be willing to follow the family tradition for us.

A. Elliot’s Lesson Learned: Sometimes parenting is actually easier than expected.

Labels: Toys / Clothes / Gear

posted by Alex Elliot @ 10:49 PM 3 comments

3 Comments:

At 10/14/2006 6:47 AM, Suzanne said…

Actually, that dipping it in the sand thing is brilliant. I'd try something like it when it comes time to break YS's habit, but maybe use something a like uncooked Cream of Wheat or another gritty food. (I hope my godparent status will not be revoked as a result of this comment.)
At 2/19/2007 5:41 PM, Anonymous said…

Hello, I actually have something totally unrelated except for the fact that you said your dog ate one of the pacifier nipples. We have a six month old puppy who just did the same thing. What can I do?? I'm worried it's going to get lodged in his intestines! Can you provide any advice??
At 2/20/2007 8:20 AM, Alex Elliot said…

Hi Anonymous,
First I would call your vet. They'll probably do an x-ray. I know that our vet has special tools to be able to reach down and get an object lodged in a dog's stomach. Our dog just passed his after a long time. However, particularly with golden retrievers and labs, they can go for years with things in their stomachs. I ended up postponing my acceptance to vet school, but one of the things I had been looking forward to was x-raying my own dog since the students are invited to do that. Apparently one vet I know found 2 tennis balls in her golden's belly. I would give a call though because you're right that it could get lodged.

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Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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