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We went cold turkey, we told the kids that we sent their binkies to their new cousin because she's a baby and needs them and they are big kids now and get to pick out big kid toys instead. I think we bought our girl a Barbie and our boy a stuffed animal. It was rough for maybe 1 day at most. And now we're good. And this was coming from our BINKY OBSESSED 1.5 and 2.5 year olds. I thought we would all need family therapy but we're good!!

We did it right around age 2.5. She was already down to only using it for sleep and car (she gets carsick so we let her use it). For a few weeks, we talked about she was a big girl and how "binkies are for babies" and how the "binky fairy" would come soon and take her binkies and replace them with a big girl toy. By the time we actually did it, she was really excited about her big girl surprise toy and actually asked for the binky fairy to come sooner. Then one day, we just switched out all her pacifiers (she liked to sleep with 4!) for Anna and Elsa dolls. It was almost painless, I think she may have cried for a min or two the first night, and the second night, she definitely woke up looking for her pacifiers but then went back to sleep without much trouble. She's been fine ever since and occasionally asks for a binky (I think just to see what we will do) but we tell her the binky fairy took them all and she accepts that.

Ironically, she ended up not really liking her new toys and she stopped bringing them into bed with her pretty soon after. I felt guilty about it but she never really complained.

We did it at 2.5 and suggested to her that she would give her Nuki to Santa for Xmas presents. We kept talking about it constantly for months prior to Xmas. By the time it came, she would say it on her own, she wrapped up the nuki into a present, put it on the fireplace hearth and had no issues. I was SHOCKED! She was a nuki addict.

We're still struggling with this. Mine is a few months past 3 and she seems to have a physical dependence on it for settling down to sleep at night. She never asks for it, never complains about missing it, but she can't seem to calm down for sleep without it, even if she's exhausted. And I'm not sure if any of the tricks like giving them away to other babies or exchanging them for something would work because she doesn't even seem to recognize that she has it, but her body knows it's missing. I've tried a few times and I feel like I'm torturing her and give up.

@MrsSRS: That's actually exactly why I've been lax on fighting it with her. She already has a tendency to put her hands when she's worked up or upset, and I grew up with a family of thumbsuckers, and it's awful trying to kick that habit. I'm hoping as she gets older and her emotions stabilize a bit more, it'll just happen naturally.

We did a little ceremony - we thanked the paci for helping LO get to sleep and being a great companion to her when she was a baby and told the paci that we didn't need it anymore now that LO is a big girl. We gave it kisses and said goodbye. (Totally inspired by the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.)

I was terrified because she really seemed to rely on it to go to sleep. The first night it took her a while to settle down but after that it was fine.

We did it at 2.5 and it was surprisingly smoothe. First we got him down to using it only at night (no naps no car). Then they started breaking one by one and we had him throw them away. You could also "help" this along. When we got to the last one DH told DS they were all gone and he seemed to accept it. He asked for it a few times but we reminded him it broke and that he threw it away. He pretty much accepted that and was fine.