In the past two weeks, Noah has decided that he is finished with his pacis. His decision has taken us by surprise because he has been a heavy paci user since the day he came home from the hospital. He started out with newborn pacis, and we would buy a new pack or two every time we were at Target. No matter how many we had, we could never find one when we needed it! We had stashes in the nursery, kitchen, car and diaper bag. Sometimes just the sight of a paci was enough to get Noah to stop crying, provided that it was put in his mouth within a second or two. After Noah turned six months old, we threw away all the newborn pacis and bought the "big boy" ones. At that point, we started to wonder how we were ever going to break him of the habit, he had become so dependent. We had tried to limit the pacis to naps and bedtime, but Noah would frequently find one around the house when he was playing and pop it in his mouth.
After our trip to Florida, Noah started to put the paci in his mouth and bite it a few times before taking it out and throwing it on the ground. We thought that was odd. We were surprised when his disinterest continued, and he would bat the paci away whenever we tried to give it to him. We tried dipping the paci in juice, but that didn't work. We tried sneaking it in his mouth when he was crying, but that didn't work. Then if finally dawned on us that Noah was serious - he didn't want his beloved paci anymore!! We got lucky! Our 9 1/2 old had weaned himself! Our theory is that the pacis didn't feel right once his upper teeth came in.