The mom and I got to talking, as she asked about Izzy’s Pacigrip (the clip that keeps her pacifier from falling on the ground). Her daughter had the same paci, but was constantly dropping and/or losing it. I told her what it was and then she told me about how her daughter was really attached to those pacis and she had made several unsuccessful attempts to get her to break the habit.
She had done some of the things I’d heard recommended: tell her daughter the “paci fairy” was going to take them and leave her a gift, ask her daughter to put them in a package for a new baby that needs them, etc. Nothing worked, though. Her daughter was just too attached and refused to entertain any offers.
So, this is where the story gets strange.
The mom decided to take a different approach and took all the pacis one day, then told her daughter that “the mean witches came and took them.”
Strangely enough, it actually worked and her daughter was okay with that explanation because, well, that’s what mean witches do.
The only problem was that the “witches” only hid them instead of disposing them and failed to inform the babysitter.
Naturally, the babysitter gave them all back the next day.
So, now her daughter is always paranoid that the mean witches are going to come back and steal them from her.
If anything, it made her even more irrationally attached to them. Yikes!
As a side note to that story, I didn’t have a set time in mind to get rid of Izzy’s pacis at that time. She liked them and used them in moderation (more when we travel, for the comfort during such a different experience). I remember Dr. Harvey Karp (of Happiest Baby on the Block fame) came to speak to our moms’ group at work and someone asked him about pacis – he was VERY clear that it wasn’t something to be pushed, caused no problems, and they’d give them up when they were ready. I took comfort in that and just didn’t bother pushing the issue. Izzy had generally used them mostly for sleep, car rides, or times where she was needing extra comfort. But she really, REALLY liked them and was getting very possessive about them.
At her 2.5 year old pediatrician appointment recently, her doctor recommended that the two we were down to go “missing” (as all the others actually had gotten either lost or broken). Well, I didn’t really want to lie to Izzy, so we kept with what we’d been doing and kept emphasizing to her that “big girls don’t need pacis” and “pacis are for babies”. Sure enough, shortly after that doctor’s appointment, she bought our reasoning and declared, “I’m a big girl, I don’t need this!”
Now she only uses them to fall asleep and throws them back into her crib each morning! So, thankfully, I don’t have to be that woman on the bus this trip.