Getting Rid of the Binki

James has had a couple of great weeks at daycare. He really hasn't biten anyone, and over the last couple of weeks he has even learned to say the word "stop" and put up his hand to re-enforce this.  The gesture and the word have helped James dramatically in his interactions with his peers.  He now knows he has control -- which is truly a breath of fresh air.

Now that his biting is under control, and hopefully a thing of the past, we have decided to torture ourselves a little bit more, by limiting James' use of his binki to just sleep times.  We are truly at fault for over-encouraging our son's attachment to his binki.  The binki has become a staple item needed to help calm James down -- so much so that he truly relies on it to soothe himself.

The true issue with this is that he isn't fully learning how to self-soothe, and we have taught him that instead of expressing his emotions its easier to just "suck" them away.  Now when he gets tired, frustrated, angry, or even sad -- he goes to find his lovey and his binki.  This is the behavior that we now need to change, we need to teach James that its alright to express himself and his emotions, even if that means we have to deal with tantrum after tantrum.

So, long story short, we started this week to limit binki time to just the time when James is in his crib.  It pains me to watch him have a trantrum in the morning because he has to leave his binki in his crib, or when he comes home at night and is exhausted and goes over to the kitchen crying and reaching for a binki.  All and all, I know its hard for him, he doesn't understand why all the sudden we aren't allowing him to have to the binki, especially when we, his parents, were the ones teaching him to use it to begin with.  Hopefully though as the week progresses he will realize that he truly does not need this sucking devise to get through the day.

You ask if we get rid of it during the day, then, when do we get rid of it at night?  We aren't quite sure.  We aren't going to force James to give up the binki at naptime and bedtime for a while.  He usually only needs it to fall asleep and usually can find it in the middle of the night if he needs it.  Hopefully, by him learning he doesn't need to rely on it during the day, then he may realize that he doesn't need it at night.  Who knows, it may not work out this way, but we will have to determine when the right time (if ever) is to break yet another habit, we as his parents enstilled on him.