Breaking the Pacie Habit

John is 2 years, 1 month old. He is addicted to his pacie. The time has come for us to help him wean himself from it. Technically, he just gets it at night and at nap time, but the problem comes when he wakes up. He sometimes doesn't wake up in a good mood, and he needs a few minutes of extra pacie time, accompaied by a sippy cup of milk, in order to start the day off on a good foot. The next thing I know, it's 9:00 and he's still got it in his mouth. Also, when we come home from school in the afternoons, he immediately goes for it, because he doesn't get it at school, except at nap. I'm willing to give him a few minutes, but I get sidetracked and the next thing I know he's walking around at suppertime with it in his mouth.

So, we have tried to implement some rules:

Pacies stay in the bed or on top of the refrigerator.
If John needs a "fix" he can go lay in his bed, or sit on the steps with a pacie.
John is not allowed to walk around the house with pacie.

Some might say that we should just go cold turkey, but the way that I figure it, the pacies are his only security object(s). Some kids have blankies and their moms don't just take them away when they are only 2 years old. Some kids hang on to their blankies until they are much older. I don't fully buy the argument that it will harm his mouth. It's not like he has them all day long, and he often loses them in his sleep, so they really aren't in his mouth that much. Anyway, that's how I'm justifying it right now.