Even before our son was born, my wife and I had to have the pacifier discussion. People wondered whether we were going to use a pacifier or not. We heard a lot from both sides. Pacifiers are great tools that provide babies with comfort and parents with peace and quiet Pacifiers are dangerous items which harm babies and delay their development. We wondered what was true and what was not. Here’s what I found out.
How do pacifiers help babies?
All babies have something called a sucking reflex. The sucking reflex can be seen when anything touches the roof of your baby’s mouth. Your baby will begin to suck. It’s incredibly useful to help your baby when feeding; just touch the bottle and breast to the roof of their mouth and they’ll begin drinking. This reflex is fully developed by the time they are thirty-six weeks old, before they are even born, and around four months old the motion will likely be completely voluntary.
So how does this involve pacifiers? Pacifiers trigger the sucking reflex. A sucking baby is a happy baby, so having a pacifier can calm and soothe unhappy babies. It’s amazing how instant the result is. If your baby is fussy and unhappy, just stick the pacifier in and they almost always will immediately settle down, sometimes even fall asleep. If you know something is coming that might startle or bother your baby, you can stick the pacifier in the lessen or eliminate the impact.
What is the controversy around pacifiers?
Even though pacifiers can have such a great, calming effect on babies and give peace to parents, they are still controversial. There are so many fears too. Some say that pacifiers harm a child’s mouth, make them sicker, make them dependent on always having a pacifier, and interfere with breastfeeding. Let’s take a look at each one of these.
Can a pacifier harm a child’s mouth?
Yes, it is possible. Know though that it generally only happens with extended use. As a child’s teeth grow, it is possible for a pacifier to exert a force on the teeth and move them. This tends to only become an issue if a child is using a pacifier consistently for years. If you stop the use of pacifiers by the time your child is two years old, then you’re not likely to have this issue. As I said earlier, the sucking reflex starts disappearing after four months of age, so the pacifier will have significantly less power at this time anyway.
Can a pacifier make a child sicker?
Yes, it is possible. First and foremost, don’t let children share pacifiers. That’s just asking for illness sharing to happen. Second, pacifiers tend to fall down often and hit dirty surfaces. You wouldn’t lick your living room floor would you? Well, you probably shouldn’t stick that pacifier back in your child’s mouth after it bounced off that same floor. Be sure to clean off your child’s pacifier any time it touches a dirty surface. Your child’s immune system is still developing and likely won’t be ready to fight whatever germs are living all around it.
Can a child become dependent on pacifiers?
Again…Yes, it is possible. It is possible for your child to seem unable to function without their pacifier. With the pacifier they are happy and calm, but without they are irritable and cry often. Like I said earlier, your child has a sucking reflex. They feel a strong urge to suck on things. This sucking helps them learn to coordinate their sucking with swallowing and breathing, so it’s a good thing. How much of a good thing is a good thing though? No one seems to know. There’s no real hard evidence either way. Generally it seems that as long as you don’t constantly force it and overuse the pacifier, it’s not a big issue. After four months the pacifier will start to lose its power anyway, and your child will likely start needing it less and less anyway.
Can a pacifier interfere with breastfeeding?
Once again…Yes, it is possible. This is typically referred to as nipple confusion. Your child might become so comfortable and used to sucking on a pacifier that they might reject other types of nipples. Often a baby is able to learn the difference between different nipples and adjust, but sometimes they can struggle. Unfortunately in this area there isn’t much hard evidence either way.
Recommendations for using a pacifier
In the end my wife and I decided to use the pacifier. Initially we were extremely cautious with the pacifier, only using it as a tool of last resort, but eventually settled on a much more liberal policy. These days we do use a pacifier regularly, but only when necessary. We prefer to see our son without a pacifier, but will happily give it to him whenever he needs it. These days though he is well past four months of age, and I see that he doesn’t need it nearly as much. Sometimes he’s just as irritable with the pacifier in his mouth as when the pacifier is out.
Here’s some general rules we developed to help ensure we don’t overuse the pacifier and experience some of the issues I mentioned earlier.
- Be sure to always either have several pacifiers, or many pacifier sanitation wipes. If the pacifier hits something dirty we are careful to either swap it out for a clean one, or grab a wipe and clean the pacifier before giving it back to him.
- Only give a pacifier if other distractions, like toys, are not helping. If it is nighttime, and toys would only keep him awake, then we just use the pacifier.
- Don’t use the pacifier past their second birthday. We haven’t reached this point yet, but we already use the pacifier less than we used to. He just doesn’t need it as much anymore. I suspect we’ll be finished with pacifiers well before his second birthday.
- Wait until your child is well adjusted to either breast or bottle feeding. Make sure your child knows how to drink from the bottle or breast, whichever you choose to use, and then introduce the pacifier.
- Only use pacifiers that are one-piece and easy to clean. You don’t want any crevices where germs can hide. You also want a pacifier that is simple without seams that can potentially separate.
- No pacifier sharing. If our son is around other children, we are careful that they don’t share and use each other’s pacifiers.
- Make sure everyone is on the same page. If you have a pacifier policy, make sure that your significant other, other family members, and any daycare teachers are all aware so everyone can be consistent.