Commentary By Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



Addictions can start at an early age.

For my daughter, Raygan, her addiction started at the ripe old age of 1 day old. The addiction that I’m speaking of is sucking a pacifier.

If you don’t think that it is an addiction, you should try to take one away from a child. They can get vicious over those little things.

Raygan is now 2 years old and I believe it is time to take the pacy away. But how do you take away the most valuable source of comfort in her life? If we go anywhere, there have to be 4-5 pacies in the diaper bag just in case we lose one. My car holds about 5 pacies every day so as to pass them back if she accidentally drops one while I’m driving.

I can guarantee that we have spent over $200 on pacies alone in the past two years.

The bad thing about this addiction is that it’s really quite cute to see a baby with a pacy. They just look sweet and innocent when you pop one in their mouths, especially if they were screaming before you did it. It is the ultimate tool in quieting a baby.

I made a very unpopular decision around my house last week. I decided that due to the incoming teeth, it was time to take the pacy away from Raygan. I actually prayed about it because I knew that this really would be a hard time for her.

We worked it up to a really big event. I kept telling her that if she would throw her pacy away I had a big prize for her. Well, she finally got so excited about the prize that she ran to the garbage and threw away her pacy. What a glorious day!

I took her out to the car and gave her a brand new princess tea party set for being such a big girl. It was a wonderful time, for about 30 minutes. After this, it was time to get sleepy and she started screaming for her pacy. I kept holding up the princess cup and reminding her that she was a big girl who threw her pacy away. She slapped the cup out of my hand and ran to the garbage. She tried to get inside of it to rescue her pacy, but wasn’t tall enough. She just threw herself on the floor next to the garbage and cried, and cried and cried.

I knew that bedtime would be the hardest, so I decided to allow the pacy the first night. The second night I cut the tip of the pacy off to see if it would deter her from the addiction, but it didn’t phase her. She was happy to have it. The third night I cut the whole end off the pacy. She threw it against the wall and said she didn’t want it.

She slept almost the whole night without a whimper. The morning was a little tougher, but once the third day was over, we were well on our way to a pacy-free life. It has now been five days since my daughter sucked a pacy and we are so very proud of her.

She hasn’t even stolen her sister’s pacy, yet. I guess we’ll have to do this same thing in two years for Anna. I just hope she handles it as well as Raygan has.

The Lord answered my prayers and let this be a relatively easy process. See, He is involved in the little areas of our lives.