The Bye-Bye Bink Game

Oh the bink, is it friend or foe? Foe or friend? In our house, sometimes it's an angel sometimes it's mommy's major annoyance for the day. I've done the whole pacifier post before, see The Bink here. It's no secret that I haven't always been the biggest fan of it but as my kid seems to make his own choices and around 7 months old, the same time he started teething, he decided that the bink was the way to go so we joined the "Bink League" of parents that are always fumbling around in their diaper bags, purses, pockets looking for one when their little angel started showing their horns, at home or in public. Especially in public. The problem with that is he seems to almost always have the darn thing in his mouth, I still stand firm in my belief that the darn thing is a picture hater, it shows up in so many memories it irks my soul but sometimes it's impossible to get it out of the kids mouth, he clamps down on it with his teeth and shakes his head no. I know better than to upset a good mood so I just leave it against my own will.

See, it even came to the beach with us :( 

I've had this ongoing fear of breaking Alex of the bink. When trying to decide on the appropriate time, my husband and I have gone back and forth. Initially, we thought we would wait until all of Alex's teeth come in, he really does seem to use it as a soother and he seems to chew on it more than anything. But then I started taking the chewing thing as he really didn't need it, he was just using it because he was bored, certainly I could come up with something else for him to do other than chew on a pacifier. The other option we gave ourselves was AFTER vacation. Alex (okay, maybe mommy and daddy) relies so much on having the bink to maintain the peace we couldn't imagine a 12 hour drive without it, honestly, we didn't think we could survive. We were probably right but this year we will never know because we weren't brave enough to attempt it. That's why we decided after vacation would be best.

So here was our plan (keep in mind we have absolutely no idea what we are doing) and I would love to hear your feedback on this. We just kind of pulled this plan out of the air.

At first, Alex can have the bink in the car, a lot of the time he gets worked up when he has to be restrained in his car seat for more than 10 minutes <-- This one is more for my own sanity. We also decided that while we are in our own home, Alex can pretty much have the bink anytime he wants but as soon as we leave, the bink stays there (expect for the car)

Sometimes the bink can be cute, like when it's used to soothe a not so happy baby into a sleeping baby in the car. 

Then we change it up and the bink may be used at the following times:

1. When sleeping, either nap times or night night
2. In the evenings between bath-time and night night (this is typically only about a 30-60minute period at most)
3. In the car

Then we thought we would cut out evenings so:

1. When sleeping
2. In the car

Next in the car has to go, so:

1. When sleeping

And then our hope is that the bink becomes non-existent in our lives.

How does this sound? Any suggestion on how long each "phase" should last before we move on to the next?


How did you or how do you plan on saying bye bye to the bink?