The story of a boy and his soother...

^Ryan- 3 wks

Ryan has always loved his soother.




^Ryan- 6 mos

We gave it to him very early in life (much earlier than recommended when breastfeeding) and it has been his constant compagnion.




^Ryan 10mos

It's name has changed as he has grown and his vocabulary has expanded.




^Ryan 12 mos

The first word for it was "blether" which was the adult word for the sound he made when he wanted it.




^Ryan 18mos

This came from the other little boy I babysat.




^Ryan 22 mos

The sound he made was very similar to the sound Adam is making in this video.




Last Spring before Adam was born, Ryan's soother habit was very minimal. The other little boy I was babysitting only used his for naps and so Ryan was pretty much doing the same thing- to sleep and in the car. But when Adam came along, Ryan became very dependent upon his soother agaian- even though we didn't give Adam a soother until he was about 6 wks old. Ryan could often be seen going around with multiple soothers. He would steal his brothers' soother whenever he could (although at first the "baby" sized soothers he didn't like and would always give them back to Adam- but once Adam graduated to the same size as Ryan, Ryan often liked to take Adam's). He currently calls his soother a "lo" or "lo-lo". Adam has not developed such a dependancy on his soother (at least not yet) so I am think I should try to curb this with both at the same time.




^Ryan 28 mos

Since Wednesday, Ryan has had his soother only for sleep (nap and at night) and at daycare. Same with Adam. I don't think Adam cares so much and I was getting tired of always having to clean his soother because it was always getting full of stuff from off the floor (cat hair, crumbs, my hair) as he dragged it on the floor as he crawls around. I don't remember this happening with Ryan but it was probably because he always had it in his mouth. He sometimes cried and asks "Where Ryan's lo-lo is?" but I either tell him "it's got to be somewhere" and off he goes to look for it and gets distracted by something else, or I tell him "it's at (a place where we are not- like Daddy's store, gran-gran's house, playgroup, daycare, ect) and then distract him with something else. In the morning and after his nap, I distract him with something and unclip the soother. Then I hide it somewhere. I do still take it with me in my purse or diaper bag when we go out anywhere, just in case he has a major meltdown. But so far I am cautiously optimistic that we just might have success. I will continue like this for a while, and then I will try to get Ryan to give it up for naps and then nighttime. Or maybe I'll try nighttime first and then naps- I would hate for Ryan to give up his naps just because I took away his soother like what happened to Darryl and Amanda with Kathryn.




^Ryan 31 mos