Getting rid of the pacifier

Hands up who's children have or had a pacifer.

Both of my hands are up!
Yes I'm a parent coach who let BOTH of her daughters have a pacifier. We found it really helpful in the early days and it was a sleep prop for months and months, in fact year and years!
Isabell my eldest daughter gave up her pacifier all by herself when she was around two and a half years old. Leilah who's 14 months younger gave her's up when she nearly three. The pacifier fairy came one night and exchanged all her pacifiers (around 8 of them!) for a much wanted scooter.
Neither daughter looked back when they had decided the time was right.

Here are my tips for ditching the pacifier.

~ It's easiest before six months old and over three years old. It's easier to break a habit in an infant under six months old and easier to reason with a child over three years old.

~ Limit pacifier use. Keep it for only sleep times and for real comfort.

~Try to introduce another comfort item, like a teddy or blanket.

~Poke holes in the pacifer with a needle, this takes the fun out of sucking!

~Once they've gone make sure they are ALL gone. That way you won't be tempted to give in.

~The pacifier fairy can come and exchange those pacifier for a much wanted toy.

It can be really tough for your child to ditch the pacifier. If you're struggling with it, remind yourself it should only take a few days/nights for them to get use to not having it.

A week without TV

We're currently having a TV free week this week, well saying that my daughters (aged 6 and 5) are. I was going to participate but Lost restarted on Tuesday and I couldn't not watch. Even knowing it was on my DVR would have been just too much for me to handle!
My daughters didn't watch a huge amount of TV, well I thought they didn't but having the TV off for a week as proved otherwise! My daughters would watch something on the TV when they got up in the morning and then again when they got home from school. Sometime we would have the TV on whilst I was making dinner, it all depended on how tired everyone was.
I started the week feeling a little scared, how was I going to cope with them not watching TV. They did great, I did great. We have spent the week talking more and playing more. Though I do think my eldest daughter benefits from watching a little TV when she gets home from school, she has a hard transitioning time.
Most of all we survived, it was easy, it was FUN. And I got to watch Lost, yes!

So, how much TV is okay?
Experts say NO TV for the first 2 years. Have you managed that?
I didn't, I would pop on a Baby Einstein DVD for my eldest to watch when I nursed my youngest, you know those newborn days when your baby nurses for at least 40 minutes! My eldest was 14 months. It was hard to keep a 14 month old entertained whist nursing.
Over 2 year olds should watch a maximum of 1 - 2 hours a day.
I think some days we were going over that, though not any more.

What are your child's favorite shows?
My daughters love nature shows, tennis is a big favorite and we all sit down to watch Phineas and Ferb. Though we may not be doing that with such regularity anymore.