…are the devil or an angel, whichever way you look at it. Our boys LOVE their pacifiers…no, I take that back, they are addicted to their pacifiers.
I’m not against pacifiers but I’m also not a big proponent for them.
I don’t mind them so much when babies are in the newborn/infant stage, its when they get to be toddlers that I think you need to limit their usage.
And I’m sure that if you asked my parents, they would say I liked my pacifier just as much as our boys. Pictures that my parents have of me when I was little showed me with a pacifier in my mouth and one in my hand, just in case something happened to the one in my mouth š
Hayden & Ian the pacifier addicts
Overall, our boys are pretty content and happy babies, but when that pacifier falls out…oh no, the world has come to an end.
Ian doesn’t mind not having the pacifier as much as Hayden and that probably stems from the very beginning of life. Hayden was in the NICU and under an oxyhood so he really couldn’t be comforted other than stroking his hand, leg, etc. He wasn’t able to be held for much of his first week of life.
But he did take a pacifier and this calmed him down when he got upset in the NICU and it was really the only way to soothe him at this point and because of that, he got used to it and now naturally loves it. Because of that, I don’t want to just take the pacifier away, that would be down right mean!
Ian on the other hand was given a pacifier by a nurse in the new baby nursery at the hospital, not by us. He was also able to be soothed by us when he got upset so he didn’t have that need for a pacifier in the early days. But he does like it and like I said, I’m not against pacifier use, so if it helps him sleep, be soothed, etc. I’m ok with it.
Another issue, is that the boys are also at that stage where their need to suckle is at it’s peak and their pediatrician told us they have the strongest sucking reflex she has seen!
In the end, I guess there are both pros and cons to pacifier use.
Babies that use pacifiers tend to be able to put themselves back to sleep easier than those that don’t use them because they don’t have to be soothed by being rocked back to sleep. The downside to this is when their pacifier falls out, you get to go back in the room to put it back in their mouth….and that game could last forever, and be repeated over and over again.
This is the biggest issue with pacifier use, once it falls out, you get to go and put it back in their mouth. We do this ALL day long, and seems to be every 5 minutes.
So like I mentioned earlier, pacifiers are the devil or an angel, depending on how you look at it. In all honesty, I’m not sure which scenario is better but in our house, pacifiers work.
What do you think?
