Pacifiers, pros & cons
There's a parentsguild-esque (ie. thoughtful, provocative) article on Salon about pacifiers titled, appropriately: "Babies suck: The twisted history of pacifiers". It says, in short, that experts have been advising against using pacifiers for a very long time (for a variety of reasons), and that the current reason en vogue is that it may interfere with nursing. Yet, the article also cites some positive outcome studies of pacifier use (better health outcomes for premies, reduction in SIDS), and questions the validity of the nipple confusion findings. One recent review of the literature seems to tell pediatricians to "not discourage" pacifier use between 1 and 6 months of age.
What do you think? Did you / do you plan to use a pacifier with your child? Why or why not? Do you feel the same or differently now that your child is older?
I'll start. I can remember:
- deciding not to introduce a pacifier (because why introduce a habit that may be harmful that you'll have to quit eventually?), and
- an offhand comment from a friend, a dad of 3, who said "our kids *really* seemed to like it and is it really that bad?", and
- our decision to try it after nursing seemed to be "okay" and
- our son's great happiness when we did and then
- dramatic fears about how we'd get rid of it and finally
- slowly decreasing use when he turned 1, and "quitting" being easier than we expected. Still not sure why!
5 Answers
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Ha! This was one where I had one very sure opinion *before* I had kids that disintegrated the moment they arrived. I had always been super judgmental about them, and *swore* I wouldn't use them with my boys. Then the twins arrived. The FIRST MORNING* when I brought them home, I was nursing Jack, and Andy started to fuss. I knew i could hold him off for 5-10 min if he could suck on my finger (or a pacifier), but I didn't have any. And with the boys being total newborns, I needed two hands to hold and nurse the baby. I remember calling to my aunt who was staying with me and saying, "Please add some pacifiers to the Target shopping list!" Well, that didn't take long, eh?
We never had a problem with nursing, or with them over-using. I mean, why would they? They're not as good as the real thing, after all.
Bottom line - I got over my judgement of them pretty fast!
*Note that while I remember parts of this story very clearly, others are lost in the haze of the first sleepless week. Was is that morning, or more like 3 in the morning? Was it my aunt, or my stepmother? Hmmm.
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what I've learned is that it's easier to wean your child off a pacifier than to wean them off their thumb -
I second this. My daughter didn't have an interest in pacifiers, but liked her thumb, and we're really struggling now with reducing her thumb use (which has increased after age 3). I wouldn't care that she still occassionally sucks her thumb to pacify herself, except that her two front teeth are becoming increasingly bucked. We've already decided we'll use pacifiers for kiddo 2.
- leafygreen, Jul 5, 2010
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We introduced the binky with both our children and have no regrets. At the time, it was all about "whatever works" to give us some peace and quiet. We also reasoned that a binky would be easier to wean than thumb-sucking. You can't exactly take away their thumbs.
Our son actually self-weaned from the binky at just over 1 year old. One day he just stopped using them. Our daughter who is 14 months now still uses the binky, but we reserve them only for nap and bedtime now. Eventually we will wean completely (probably by 18mo), but for now she still takes comfort from it.
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We were advised by our pediatrician not to start if we didn't need to. In her experience, the weaning process for most parents has been challenging, so why start if you don't have to.
In our case, our 14-mo-old never really needed it. We actually tried introducing one several times when we he was difficult to calm, but he would spit it out. (Several times, he grabbed it with one hand and just yanked the thing out!)
So I suppose we just got lucky and didn't really have to deal with the issue.
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We used one with our first and am using one now with our second. Our first took to it immediately. He had always preferred having it over having us rock him to sleep. When we did not give it to him, he would suck on his thumb so we chose the pacifier over the thumb. In fact, we used to listen carefully to the monitor when he was sleeping and when it sounded like he was sucking on his thumb, we would immediately run in and replace it with the pacifier. At almost one, we limited it to use only in bed. When thumb sucking was no longer a threat, we would yank his pacifier out whenever he had it in his mouth while asleep. By age 2, he weaned himself. One day he put them "away" in a drawer and just stopped using them.
Our second would spit out the pacifier. When she got worked up, she was almost impossible to calm for the first month. The nurse at the hospital actually told us to introduce a pacifier to reduce SIDS risk. But we did it because she became much happier after she learned to like one (we went through ~10 different brands/varieties). When she doesn't have the pacifier, she sucks on her blankets or fingers. We plan on limiting use the same way we did with our son.
Babies like to suck and it helps calm them. I don't see what's bad in letting them have it. With orthodontic pacifiers now, there is no risk of teeth damage as opposed to thumbs. They'll wean when they're ready. Even if that's at age 4, is it really that bad? Do you ever see a 10 year old with one? They will eventually be without one, just like they'll eventually be without diapers.
The only thing I don't like about pacifiers is when parents use them as a way to shut their kids up instead of finding out what's really going on.
Hi all - loving the dialogue here. I'm a pediatrician & mom of girl twins & boys twins. We've been through all kinds of pacifier variations & truly believe up until the age of two, parents should give themselves a break & let "babies suck" (cute slogan!). The debate will continue forever - but the "let baby give the answer" is often the best approach. For one of our kids, we went cold turkey during a family vacation when he was 26 months saying "they don't let us have pacis on airplanes" - he never went back.
Dr. Jen
https://www.playthisway.com/baby_and_toddler
- DrJen, Jan 28, 2012