The Peanut had the shakes this morning--the withdrawal was bad. Mr. Fraulein had taken the binky out of her mouth before she woke up. Given that she's 21 months old now, we only let her have the pacifier while she sleeps, and even that we feel like we should start cutting back on soon...so once she was fully awake and realized that her beloved binky was gone, she was one unhappy Peanut.
She started whimpering, looking around for it. Within seconds this escalated into a full-blown tantrum, complete with tears streaming down her face, heaving sobs, and screaming. Oh, the screaming.
"BINKY! BINKY! BINKY!"
This continued all through diaper changing and dressing. Why were we such cruel parents, ripping her heart out like this? I tried to explain that she is such a big girl now that soon she won't need the binky at all anymore. I tried hugs and kisses. We attempted to distract her with sippy cups and cereal, but the sobbing continued.
Then we switched gears into ignoring the tantrum, as all the books advise. She decided to lie down on the floor in the hallway in front of her room. There she stayed while we finished getting dressed and packing her lunch. Finally, realizing she wasn't getting attention anymore, she picked herself up, stopped crying, and came into the kitchen to have breakfast. The binky was not mentioned again, even during the car ride to day care.
With any luck we won't see too many more binky-withdrawal-related tantrums like that one. Mama's heart can't take it!
1 comment:
Good call. We waited till the Little Ballerina was 4 (the binky was a sad, dried out thing by then) and the screaming and crying was awful and heart-rending. The temper tantrum was also far more violent.
So we made the Heffalump go cold turkey at the same time we Ferber-ized her, and never looked back.
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