No More Pacifier, Duck (Hello Genius)

We bought this book to help transition my son out of his pacifier, “Gigi” as he calls it, when he was a little over two. We read it for about two weeks and replaced the word pacifier with “Gigi”. During the day we would enact what mama duck does: taking out the pacifier and saying “only in bed sleepyhead, quack!”. We also used other tactics like encouraging him to give his stuffed animal a hug when he felt like he needed a pacifier and giving him a bottle with water to help with oral fixation. The transition was very easy for us and there were minimal tears and no traumatic experiences. I think the book really helped him understand what was going on. I cannot guarantee will work for everyone, but it worked for us.

We love this book! I actually had a very hard time deciding whether or not to buy this book based on the existing reviews. So I'll post a more detailed review for others like me.The book is a board book geared towards young children with just one or two sentences per page.The text of the book goes like this-Duck loves his pacifier. But Duck is getting bigger.Mama Duck says, "You are growing up. You only need your pacifier at bedtime""Only in bed, sleepyhead," Mama Duck says. (picture of duck in highchair 'quacking' for his pacifier)"Only in bed, sleepyhead" Mama Duck says. (picture of duck in carseat 'quacking' for his pacifier)"Only in bed, sleepyhead," Mama Duck says. (picture of duck reading a book 'quacking' for his pacifier)One night, Mama Duck says, "No more pacifier, Duck. Not even in bed, sleepyhead."(picture of duck crying in crib for pacifier "Quaa-aa-a-aaa-a-aaa-ck!")But soon enough, Duck stops crying... and falls asleep.In the morning, Duck is proud and happy. No more pacifier!"Not even in bed sleepyhead! I'm a BIG DUCK now!"That's it! One reviewer wrote only to buy this book if you believe in cry-it-out. I totally disagree. The page where the duck is crying for his pacifier does not imply that he's being left alone to cry, just that he's naturally upset and wants his pacy! The book has a positive tone to it, and most importantly IT WORKED FOR US!!! My boys ages 3 and 5 are both still attached to their pacifiers! We got this book and read it a couple of times, then spoke about how we're starting to do "Only in bed, sleepyhead!". We prepped them for about 2 weeks before we started. Since we started we've had them have their pacy's only in bed! We've yet to get to the next step of no pacy at all but for us now that's a big success! I once even overheard my 3 year old tell my 5 year old who asked for his pacy during the day "Only in bed, sleepyhead!" and they both laughed and did not ask any further.Also the lack of a more sophisticated story line was a plus for me, because i found that I did not agree with the ideas or undertones/implications in other pacifier books, which including shaming or creating negative judgement surrounding having a pacy which was not what i wanted. Just because it's time to give it up, I don't want my kid to suddenly feel he was doing something wrong for having it until now, especially since I was the one who gave it to him in the first place.Well there you have it for a very detailed review!

UPDATE 2:Only took him 4 nights and he is officially off the binky! It’s been 2 weeks and he is doing great.UPDATE:He woke up at 1:30 AM crying looking for his pacifier. My husband (unbeknownst to me) pretty much immediately got up and gave him the paci. I would have liked to have waited at least 5 minutes. We’ll try again tonight 🤞🏽————-Wow! I kept my expectations realistic because I couldn’t imagine a “training” book could work that fast. Some background, we tried weaning our 18-month-old son off of his pacifier a few days ago. He has always only gotten it at nap time and bedtime. Occasionally, my husband will cave and give it to him when he is in the car seat. The reason for weaning was because our pediatrician told us we needed to wean him sooner rather than later.We tried it, and he skipped his nap because he missed binky too much and then at night he screamed bloody murder for it (so we just gave it to him because we felt awful for him). The only reason he ever started using a pacifier was because he was a preemie and spent time in the NICU (they gave him the paci).Anyway. Today this book arrived, and we read it off and on all day. Our son even brought it to me to read a few times. He kept saying, “Duck! Binky!” and would look very interested in what was happening on the pages.I will say, the writing could maybe be better and I wish the ducks looked more realistic. You can totally improvise “pacifier” with the nickname you use for it (binky, paci, etc.) though. Another example: on one of the pages it doesn’t say what is happening with baby duck, so I just made something up to match the graphic. The words in brackets are the words I made up. “[Baby duck is sitting in his high chair asking for binky!] Mama duck says, “Only in bed, [at night], sleepyhead.” “At night” was added because I wanted our son to understand that it was his actual NIGHT time bedtime that he would get binky. Not in bed during his nap time.Anyway, his nap went very well today without the pacifier! He did not fuss for binky once and slept for an hour.While getting our bub ready for night time bed, we decided to skip giving him his pacifier during his last story before bed. We figured if he fussed for it we would let him have it. Also our plan was to wean him slowly over a week or so without making it too traumatic (for him and us🤣😅). Well, it is currently 11:30 PM and we have not heard a peep from him!I have no idea if the book is solely responsible for him saying “bye” to paci but it stands to reason that it played a significant part! I will update this review if needed.BUY THIS BOOK!! Good luck.