By Amanda Muchnok Mushro
When my daughter turned 2, it was clear to the entire family that she had a problem. A very serious problem: A pacifier addiction problem. Since I’ve watched a lot of interventions on TV, I felt completely comfortable staging a paci intervention in our home. We sat my unsuspecting girl down in her “big girl chair” for a “big girl” talk.
Just like an addict, she was shocked, angry and in denial. She blamed others for her addiction, mainly me. She even called me her “paci pusher.” And that, friends, is the sad but honest truth. I enabled her addiction. I did.
When she was a baby, I would shove a pacifier her way any time I heard a little whimper or cry. Silence was golden, but it was also a slippery slope and a gateway to addiction. In the past, when we tried to get her to kick the habit, she would throw epic tantrums, and I would give in, throwing pacifiers at her by the handful just to get her to stop.
Amanda Muchnok Mushro of Questionable Choices in Parenting
Initially, we thought she was cutting back. But then we found her secret stash. Some places were obvious: in her doll house, shoved in the couch. But some were stealthily hidden: in her shoes, in her shopping cart of play food. One day I saw her pull a paci out of the dog food bin and start sucking away. She had hit rock bottom.
We knew she had to quit, but this time would be different. I would no longer enable her addiction. It was time to quit the pacifier cold turkey.
So we started on the journey of clean living and life without the paci. And friends, let me tell you, it was rough. The normal daily tantrums of a 2-year-old doubled … tripled … quadrupled! Anything and everything set her off. It was like she couldn’t function without a little help from her friend the paci. The rest of us walked around the house on tiptoe so as not to disturb the beast.
Since I couldn’t go back on my vow to break her pacifier addiction cycle, I went into my Secret Mommy Laboratory to develop something to help her, and all pacifier addicts, get over the hump while kicking their habit.
Introducing The Paci Patch, part of the PRT (Pacifier Replacement Therapy). Much like the patch that helps smokers kick their nasty habit, The Paci Patch helps take the edge off of mom-induced pacifier weaning.
The Paci Patch is easy to apply: Just peel the backing off, and stick it to their arm. Voila!
The Paci Patch contains a scientifically researched, patented, time-release therapeutic, chemical compound that will ease your little one’s cravings for the paci to help them successfully kick their pacifier habit.*
The PaciPatch
The Paci Patch even comes in your child’s favorite television characters!
So if you have a pacifier addict, you are not alone. And now you have help, The Paci Patch.
(And if this thing doesn’t work, you can totally slip the kid the pacifier when no one is looking. I promise I won’t judge.)
*Not really, but that sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
Originally posted on One Classy Motha in 2013.
Amanda Muchnok Mushro blogs at Questionable Choices in Parenting. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.
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