Baby with Altered Wubbanub

Wubbanub Refurb: How to Replace the Pacifier

Christy Baby, Sewing 10 Comments

Ever since Allie was about 6 weeks old, I have sworn by the Wubbanub pacifier. I believe it is one of the greatest inventions of our time. The little plush toy provides just enough weight that the pacifier doesn’t go flying when baby spits it out, and it makes it easier for little ones to put it back in their mouths themselves. They’re also really cute, and babies instinctively kindof snuggle with them. Look how cute Allie was with her Monkey!

Baby with Monkey Wubbanub

Once I got Allie her Wubbanub, she never used another pacifier.

Unfortunately, ever since Theo was about 6 days old, he has refused every pacifier I’ve given him except for the Mam. This has been a big problem for me, because Wubbies are only made with Soothies attached, and Mams are much smaller and easier to lose.

We started out with 4 of them, but for the last several weeks had been down to the last one. I swear, nothing has caused me more stress than keeping track of that damn paci. My husband lost his wallet while we were on vacation a few weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure I was less upset about that than I’ve been the times I can’t find the Mam.

Finally, yesterday, the unthinkable happened. I have no idea where we were when he spit it out, but we had to make an emergency trip to CVS before I could even think about handling bedtime. I returned home, armed with a pack of 3 brand new pacifiers, and resolved to solve this problem once and for all.

This took all of 15 minutes, using materials I already had in the house: needle, thread, ribbon, and a seam ripper. (Fun fact: while I was going through my ribbon bag looking for something that matched, I found one of the missing pacis. Where was that 3 hours earlier?)

How to Change the Pacifier on a Wubbanub

With a seam ripper I removed the soothie pacifier from the Wubbanub duck’s mouth.  This was seriously the hardest part of the process. They’re sewn together pretty tight, and I didn’t want to rip the fabric.

Taking Pacifier off Wubbanub

What ended up working was kindof folding the pacifier right where they’re sewn together, and working my seam ripper in between the rubber and the fabric.

Removing Pacifier from Wubbanub

The Soothie is trash now. I felt like the way the handle part was perforated made it a choking hazard.

New Pacifier on Wubbanub

Next I took the pacifier I wanted to attach, and looped 2 scraps of 1/4 ribbon through the bottom holes. (Depending on your baby’s preferred brand, you may only need one piece of ribbon. You just need to make sure the stuffed animal hangs down from the middle of the pacifier, not from the corner.)

Replacing the Pacifier on a Wubbanub

I sewed the loops together about 3/4 of an inch down, just to make them easier to keep in place when I sewed them to the duck. I also trimmed the ribbon close to where it was sewn together.

Changing Pacifier on Wubbanub

Finally, I stuffed the ends of my 2 loops in the ducks bill, the same way the soothie had been attached, and hand sewed it shut.

Wubbanub with Pacifier Replaced Duck Wubbanub with Mam Pacifier Wubbanub with Mam Pacifier

Like I said, the whole process took about 15 minutes. I should have done this months ago! On a typical day I’d say I have to go hunting for the pacifier at least 3-4 times. Today I haven’t had to search once, and Theo loves it too!

Wubbanub Hack

Baby with Altered Wubbanub