Both of my kids were pacifier (binky) babies. I had no problem giving my kid a pacifier when they could not find their thumbs... I gave them binkies right after they were born and both took to them right away... I know the binky is responsible of many quiet nights in our home.... When one of the girls would cry out at night we'd walk into their room and sure enough she had lost her binky.. We took care of that problem.. we put in around ten binkies so she would always be able to find one and comfort herself back to sleep.
Kara would have three binkies her hand and on in her mouth. She would rub one of the binkies against her face before she went to sleep at night.. When the girls became too old (in my opinion) to walk around with a binky in their mouths - we made a rule that the binkies stayed only in their bed.... we were lucky because that was never a problem.... except when one of them was sick - I would let her have the binky out of bed...it soothed her and that is good.
When the girls each turned three - no more binky... We started talking about throwing away the binkies about two weeks before their birthday..... So when they turned three they would big girls and that they should throw them all away.... So when each of their big days came both of my daughters were ready to take the next step into Big Girl World.. They gathered up all of their binkies and threw them in the trash... we would pick up our daughter and do a dance through the house - kind of like a conga line... no more binkies yeah..... no more binkies yeah.... Kara/Nikki is a big girl today...yeah...
Silly I know....but neither one of the girls ever looked back.... I think because we talked about it and they took part in the planning of the liberation of the Binky Day - it became something to look forward to and not dread....
PS. the binkies did not do any damage whatsoever to either one of my kids teeth... I had asked my dentist about binkies and he said more damage is done by thumb sucking and having a bottle at bedtime....
