Cold Turkey for Ashley

I am not referring to the bird. I am talking abt subjecting Ashley to cold turkey treatment by banning her from pacifier-sucking.

It was our 1st visit at The Kids Dentist. During the initial Q&A where Dr Rashid wanted to find out more abt Ashley's history, habits, diet, etc, he'd confirmed that pacifier-sucking AFFECTs how the teeth are grown. "Some parents said it didn't hv any harmful effect on the way their children's teeth grew." - to this statement, Dr Rashid said it's not true. The most likely reason why it did not have any "so-called" harmful effect on the teeth development is bcos of the way the child sucks on the pacifier and the frequency of sucking.

Before checking on Ashley, he mentioned that he usually advises parents to stop their kids from pacifier-sucking latest by age 5, and that we shd also heed this advice. After checking on Ashley, he said Ashley's teeth development is rather badly affected by pacifier-sucking and we shd stop this asap. Hopefully after stopping, the teeth development will improve. He told me maybe it's not feasible to go cold turkey and would be better to set a deadline n allow the child to be mentally prepared for it.

Now that I know this, how can I still allow my Ashley to suck on pacifier? (internally, i likened this to allowing a person to smoke, while knowing smoking is harmfully). I couldn't do it the soft way, so I did it forcefully. I explained to Ashley many times over the day abt how her teeth would spoil if she continues to suck on pacifier (tt's the easiest explanation i could think of). Luckily, she understood and even though she put up a little fuss during naptime/bedtime, she still tearfully agreed not to have the pacifier. During the first few days, she would wake up a few times at nite and cry pitifully for pacifier (i call it "withdrawal symptoms"). But still i persisted.


We are now in week 2 of "pacifier-free" days, n it's mission accomplished... Phew!