Ditching the Passy

I was asked by a sweet blog follower if I would share how we got Paxtin to give up her passy. I wish I had all the magic answers, but I can only share what worked for us. While it wasn't easy, AT ALL, I felt that the transition went much better than I expected.

I actually tried to cut her passy LAST year around this same time...maybe a little later like July, but she was still young. Maybe right at almost two. I had this number set in my head, thinking I HAD to get rid of her passy by that age. i actually stressed about it entirely More than was necessary. I also chose a terrible time to make the change. We were re-modeling our new house and had moved in with my parents for the summer. So, there was that inconsistency in our lives paired with my determination to MAKE her give up the passy...it was a recipie for disaster. I should have known better. Long story short, I cut the ends off all her passies one day...I DID talk about it with her, telling her it was a "new" passy for big girls. Oh boy, that did not go over well. She actually lost so much sleep because she just couldn't soothe herself without the passy.

So, we caved and gave it back to her. I caught a lot of flack from people like Paxtin's teacher who told me to wait it out and DO NOT give it back. Yeah, well she wasn't at our house all those LATE nights when she would cry and cry for hours. She was so happy to see her passy, it made me feel so happy for her. She was clearly too young to take it away. It had become a source of comfort and signaled her body and brain to rest.

Fast forward a whole year to just about a month ago. We were getting ready for bed one night and we asked Pax to go get her passies (yes, two...we were up to one in the mouth and one in her hand!) We searched and searched...looking everywhere we could think of. The passy was GONE. It was like 9:00 by this point and I told my husband, let's just cut it. he was hesitant, but I really wanted to get it over with. We simply told her we could not find her passy anywhere, so maybe the passy fairy had come. Totally thinking off the top of my head, I told her a story about how the passy fairy comes and collects passies from little girls who are too big for them. She takes the passies to the new little babies who need them. It was time to be a big girl. And to my amazement, she bought it!!! I knew for sure she'd think I was a loony.

That was when I knew it might just work this time. While there were a few set backs, such as her crying and being a little less willing to go to bed with the thought of no passy being there, it wasn't enough to make me go back to the passy. I was going to stick to it. her teachers even commented that she started napping at school again...without the passies she just went right to sleep. She had started playing with them apparently.

I can only suggests that you definitely make sure that there is NO other change occurring in their life. This will be such a change for them that they don't need anything extra going on. Also, make sure that they are ready. This might be hard to tell, but I kind of just bit the bullet and went for it. That's the scariest part. Diving in. I was told to make a huge deal out of the deal. Let them tell their passies goodbye, throw them away themselves, and praise, praise, praise. Or if you want to use the passy fairy, be my guest!!

I hope this helps maybe just a little bit. i am surely no expert, but it is what worked for us.

OH! and guess what showed up about 3 weeks ago?? PASSY!!! We found it under her bath towel that she never uses and Pax grabbed for it. I snatched it up and said OH NO! We will have to mail it to the fairy. She quickly forgot about it-it could have gone very bad. So, when you are ready to cut it, throw away all extras so you aren't tempted to go back.

Good Luck!!