How We Shook The Nuk In Less Than 2 Days
3 min read
There is a toddler in the Binary home (almost 3) and with that comes the dreaded and addicting Nuk or pacifier to the older folks. The item that gives them comfort, soothes them, and eases the pain on the parent’s ears in times of tantrums. However, they are evil things and I think needs to be in check because the longer you go with them the harder it will be to get rid of it later. Recently we decided that this was going to be the week to break it and we went for it and to our shock it was not as bad as we had thought and faded into a distant memory with the toddler in less than 3 days.
Since he was born the Nuk was around like most babies. Eventually they get one. We tried our best to use it as a last resort and at bed times. When he was less than a year old we dropped it to only at bed time/naptime/sleep in the car time. Waking hours it was forbidden. That seemed to work out pretty well. As time went on it seemed at night he was getting more and more dependent on it. When he would lose one in bed he would wake up screaming for it and instantly pass out once it hit his lips. This was very concerning that getting it out permanently was going to be a nightmare, but we used a clever approach that one of his Aunts used on her son.
His Aunt had his son, who was in that 2-3 year old range, pack up all his Nuk and give it to the UPS guy. He shipped them out to other kids who needed them, he said goodbye and they were gone. We did something similar. My sister had her first child recently and we built it up that our boy was going to give all his Nuk’s to his new baby cousin. Because babies need Nuks not big boys. So when we went down to see the new baby, we packed them all up, wrapped them like a present and he gave them to her. He was very excited to do that. On the way home in the car he had this “I wish I hadn’t done that look” but we were on the right track.
The next day we took his last Nuk to Build A Bear in the Mall Of America. He picked out a big monkey and when they stuffed it he put his last Nuk inside. We told him everytime you want a Nuk just hug Football George, that’s the monkey’s name because we dressed him in Minnesota Viking’s gear. That first night was easy, just one middle of the night cry out for a Nuk, but he was so wasted tired from the road trip and evening activities he didn’t have the energy. The second night was pretty bad. About 1am he woke up and it took both mom and day almost an hour to calm him back down and asleep. This was full blown withdrawl. He had the shakes, crying, searching for it, begging we rip open George and take the one inside out, and just could not calm down. The third night he didn’t make a sound and since then he has not asked for it once. SUCCESS!
For those who are facing the same battles I wish you luck and offer you one piece of advice that you must adhere to. No matter what, when you commit to break this, do not give in, you will make the situation worse. When you go, don’t look back.
End of Line.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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