The Soother Fairy

When my oldest daughter (who is now 11) was 3 years old, we needed to wean her from her soother. By that time she only ever used it in bed, but the time had come to get rid of it for good. I do not know where I had gotten the idea from, but we decided to arrange a visit from the Soother Fairy. We talked it up nice and good for a week or so, and then one night the Soother Fairy magically transformed her soother into a movie! Surprisingly...it worked! She didn't need it after that!

My second daughter had a different story. One night she lost her soother behind her bed, and I was too tired/lazy to look for it, so I told her we'd look for it in the morning. She said "Okay." Then she woke up in the morning and we forgot about it until it was bedtime again...and so I told her we'd look in the morning again...and she said "Okay." We did this for a few nights, and voila, soother habit was gone!

Daughter #3 didn't even use a soother. She sucked her fingers. Luckily she only ever sucked her fingers if she was holding her blanket...so all we had to do was convince her to go without her blanket for a couple of weeks. That is a post all on it's own. But it worked!

Child #4 has just begun the weaning process. Thanks to the dental hygienist taking a quick look in her mouth, she struck fear into my heart that Olivia's teeth will be RUINED if I don't wean her off her soother IMMEDIATELY! Luckily, I came to my senses and realized she will need extensive orthodontic work no matter what she does...so I resisted the urge to go cold turkey with the soother. I did, however, decide it was time to limit the soother to just her bed. If she is sad, and wants her soother, all she has to do is go to her bed until she feels better. As expected, the first half of the day was filled with tears, tantrums, screaming, and kicking...and repeatedly taking her soother back to her room. I felt like a broken record, "The soother stays IN your bed. You can have it as long as you are IN your bed. However, you have to leave it IN your bed when you come out." I was shocked when, after her nap, she left her soother AND her blanket in her bed...on the same day I started the process! Woohoo! Now we have no issues with her asking for her soother unless it is nap time or bedtime, and she even went the entire day of church WITHOUT asking for it! I love it when training goes this smoothly!

Now...if only I could convince Pamela to leave her thumb in her bed.