Pacifiers - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good

Pacifiers pacify – that is what they are for.  Your baby is wailing and nothing seems to calm it down so it is time for the pacifier.  Babies like to suck and many times while they were in the womb, they were sucking on something.  During one of my ultra-sounds, sure enough, there was the little one sucking away on its hand.  For babies, sucking is a self-soothing activity and pretty essential to helping to calm itself down.  When babies are born, everything around them is new and different from what it was experiencing in the womb.  Pacifiers offer some relief to frustrating situations that both baby and parents encounter.  It has recently been documented that pacifiers also help in lowering chances for SIDS if used at night while baby is sleeping.  Pediatricians suggest making sure, if you are breastfeeding, that your baby is following a good feeding pattern and latching well before offering a pacifier.  Everyone also says that during the first couple weeks, even months, that you shouldn’t feel badly about spoiling your little baby – so offering a pacifier is not so bad, is it?

The Bad

Pacifiers can potentially lead to language delay and dental problems.  Your sweet adorable child might also become hooked on it, refusing to give it up and wailing for it all day.  A pacifier used too early might also interfere with breastfeeding and your baby might not learn how to nurse.   It is suggested to stop use of pacifiers by age 2 to make sure the jaw and bite of your child forms correctly.  Pacifiers can lead to various health issues such as inner ear infections and if you don’t properly clean your beloved pacifier regularly, it can assist in getting stomach upsets and colds.  You can put many pacifiers in your dishwasher or boil them on the stove.  Make sure that the pacifier you select doesn’t have any recalls and it has proper ventilation holes.  Not all babies will take a pacifier.  Many breastfed babies will spit them out.  Then you are dealing with a frustrated child and confused parent and everyone is not happy.

The Ugly

I have worked with small kids (2-3 years old) that were hobbling around all day with one stuck in their mouths.  They would take it out, sometimes to talk; otherwise it was a permanent fixture in the mouth.  If you tried to take it away it was like taking food from a hungry dog.  I have also seen the dental risks associated with long-term pacifier use such as a pronounced overbite and sometimes large gaps between front teeth.  The other concern I observed with pacifier use of this type was definite problems with language – not necessarily development, but with general verbal expression.  The few kids I worked with that had a pacifier in their mouth all day rarely talked to me or the kids around them.  Sometimes a paci would be removed, and a short comment would be made, and it was put back in.  Other times the pacifier would even remain in the mouth while the child was talking making it almost impossible to understand what was being said.  I have even observed the paci attached to string attached to child.  I vowed that when I had kids, I would heavily weigh the pacifier usage.

Then I had a child.  My wee one is still pretty small and in the newborn spoiling faze, but I really hesitated before even offering a pacifier to my child.  It turned out my husband was the one that got it out and popped it in our wailing babies' mouth one late afternoon.  She made an interesting face, sucked on it for a while, calmed down, and spit it out.  Part of me was happy she didn’t go crazy on it and refuse to let it out of her mouth, but part of me did want her to enjoy the pacifier, as my breasts were just about ready to fall off! 

If you decide to offer a pacifier to your child it is a good idea to think about how you are going to deal with it in the long run.  Make sure you set a plan of attack into action when you are ready to wean your child off a paci and have all parties on board.  It is going to be a challenge changing behavior, especially at first, but it will work out in the end if you are diligent and patient.  The removal of pacifier from your life might be harder on you than your child!  But, if you are like me and at the beginning of this fun journey called parenthood, just enjoy every moment of it, pacifier or not.