I know they say consistency is the best way to get your kid to behave...

Jessica - posted on 02/21/2010

hi to start of with if he has his dummy all the time try cutting it down to just bed time once he has gotten use to that try getting him to throw the pacifer in the bin make it a fun thing to do but let him be the one to put it in the bin then say bye bye and walk away if u do it in the morning then try ur hardest to wear him out during the day it should work i find bedtime really hard to so i make sure my kids are tired then i put them to bed read them there story then say good night and walk out and stay out till they go to sleep it should take about a week for him to relise u arnt going to give in

Renee - posted on 02/21/2010

With the pacifier...just take it away. I did that with my son. It was a LONG week at bedtime, but don't give in. If you give in it is even harder the next time you try.
Potty training...put it off for now and try a little later.
Defiant behaviors...part of that is just being 2 years old. But you have to follow threw with your "threats". Give 1 warning with what the punishment will be if he doesn't listen. Like "We don't bite. If you bite again then you will get a time out". If he bites again, put him straight into a time out and tell him "we don't bite, that is naughty". At 2 years old a 2 minute time out would be the longest.
We put my son in a playpen for his time outs and he is 21 mos old. Sometimes now I just have to threaten him with a time out and he will stop whatever behavior, other times he will have a complete melt down. He is a head banger when he gets upset, and he hits his head REALLY hard while screaming a very high pitched scream.

Courtney - posted on 02/21/2010

I agree that you need to give a warning and then a consequence. And you need to follow through with the consequence or else he will continue to think he is in charge. With the potty training, my mom gave us an m&m every time we went on the big potty, so maybe try a reward for that.

Adrienne - posted on 02/21/2010

Your son sounds like my 2 1/2year old at about 18 months old. Cold turkey for the pacifier i what I did and it took a couple of months with getting him down to bed at bedtime. But he has been really good for the last few months. consistency does work even when it doesn't seem like it. I thought I was going to go bald with the stress from it. Keep trying it does get better! For me it did.

Misty - posted on 02/21/2010

Trust me, you're not alone. My son is the same way. No matter what I try, he defies me. he listens more to my husband even though I'm the one who does most of the punishing. By the end of the day I am so emotionally drained, I just need time away from him.

I've started to try potty training with my son who is almost 2 1/2 and he has ZERO interest, but he always wants to be changed after he goes in his diaper. All the signs are there that he's ready but it's still a no go. I guess they go when they're ready to and not before so I think it's just a waiting game now.

My son never took a pacifier, but I saw on TV a little ritual that might help. A mom told her daughter that there were little kids that didn't have pacifiers and needed them so she had her daughter put all of her pacifiers in a box to send to all the kids that needed them. (the mom threw them away later on.) It made the little girl think that she was helping babies who didn't have them. I thought it was kinda cute because the daughter was so excited to help :) Just an idea.

Good luck

Erin - posted on 02/21/2010

I've heard some women suggest to snip some of the pacifier nipple off and keep snipping it until its gone then they'll let that go...



We waited to train our boy until after he was 3, there's nothing wrong w/waiting a lil while...his daycare provider said they won't even try til 3 because she felt they were more ready @ that point.



To help alleviate bed time woes take your son out to the park, on a walk or something that will make him use up all that energy after dinner. If u gotta b inside I know an hour of wii fit tuckers my boy out!

Jamie - posted on 02/21/2010

Sure with the pacifier just throw it away, then ther is no mountian to climd the issue is gone. Second, you gotta give one warning then the punishment. As moms because we are more nuturing then dads we tend to give chance after chance because we dont want to punish them, but we have to, otherwise the older they get the worse it will be. You have to follow throught the first time.