Between your child's first and second birthday, it's a good idea to wean him off the pacifier. Cold turkey is one possible method. Out of sight, out of mind. A more gradual strategy is to begin allowing the pacifier only at certain times, such as bed and naptime--and not during car rides or random moments during the day. Then, after a while, eliminate the pacifier at bed and naptime, too. You'll save on dental bills later because prolonged use of a pacifier can change the shape of your baby's growing jaw and palate. The sucking action can narrow the jaw in the wrong places and widen it in others. If pacifier use continues into the preschool years, there's a strong possibility that your child will need orthodontic treatment, says Julie Barna, a spokeswoman for the Academy of General Dentistry.

There's another reason to ditch the pacifier even closer to the one-year mark. "When a child is sucking on a pacifier, the auditory tube in the middle ear actually opens, allowing bacteria that naturally reside in the mouth to pass through, which increases the chance of infection," Barna explains.

If your toddler wants something to suck on, Barna recommends graduating to a water-filled "sippy" cup with a collapsible rubber straw, rather than the rounded, plastic-spout style. The suction action required with a straw helps promote normal facial muscle development and won't lead to ear infections. It also helps children learn to drink from a cup because sucking through a straw and sipping through a cup use the same muscles. In general, using a sippy cup helps develop hand-eye coordination. But don't fill that spill-proof cup with juice, soda, iced tea, lemonade, energy or sports drinks, or even milk between meals. They create acids in the child's mouth that can foster tooth decay.

SIPPY-CUP SAVVY If your baby has graduated from pacifiers to sippy cups and likes her water chilled, get an insulated sippy cup. In our tests, we compared regular sippy cups from Evenflo, Gerber, and Playtex with their insulated counterparts. We paid about $3.50 to $5 for our insulated cups, which cost a little more than the regular ones. We chilled water in a refrigerator overnight, then quickly poured 8 ounces into each sippy cup, capped them, and monitored temperatures in the water. The verdict? The insulated cups kept their cool. After an hour, water in the insulated cups had warmed by about 10 degrees; it warmed by about 15 degrees in the regular cups. We think the insulated cups make sense if you want to keep your child's drink cooler.