Elmo (and AA) Gives up His Binkie

November 4 is Put Down the Pacifier Day and to celebrate, Sesame Street has released a new DVD called Bye Bye Pacifier! Big Kid Stories With Elmo.

Which is great, because my son AA has been struggling with giving up his binky. Or perhaps I should say, WE have been struggling to get him to give up his binky.  And I'm happy to say that the DVD worked, although in a very different method than the authors intended.   It worked without even watching it!  (How's that for a testimonial!)

When we went to our first dentist appointment this summer, the dentist suggested giving up the binky.  We'd heard it from people before, and we knew we were going to have to get him off, but didn't quite know how.  We got him down to only using binkies for sleeping, but couldn't break him from the habit.  (Weirdly, he has been a 2 binky boy for sleeping his entire life.  He likes to have 2 binkies, and switches back and forth between them all night long.  Or I should say, "used to be" because this is Day 4 without plastic sleeping utensils.)

I asked for a review copy* of the show, and when they said it was coming, we started to prepare Aaron.  We watched some of the Youtube No Pacifier Videos and told him about the movie that we were going to get.  After talking about how he was a big boy just like Elmo, he agreed "I don't need binkies any more."   Of course that night he tried to renege, but after about an hour of crying he fell asleep.  The first night was rough. The next night, a little crying, and the third night almost no crying.  Today's the fourth day, and at night he complained about not knowing how to go to sleep, he was asleep within 10 minutes and didn't cry for his binky once!

Today we also finally got a chance to watch the program.  It totally reinforced all of the stuff we were talking about, and he loved being a big boy like Elmo.  We also watched the other two stories on the DVD, (Baby Bear getting his first haircut, and Abby learning to ride her bike)  He loved them all and wanted to watch them again.  Which I'm sure we will.

If your kid is going through something similar, I'd recommend the video.  Or at least recommend TELLING him/her about the video.  Hey, it worked for us!

You can also go to the Sesame Street Pacifier Page, which has a lot of the videos, and lots of great tips for how to get your child over the pacifier hump.

* DISCLAIMER:  I received this video as a promotional review copy, in hopes I would write about it.  I only write about things I like to write about it, and the free-ness of the product did not influence my opinion or review of the product.