Should You Give Your Baby a Pacifier?
A pacifier can be wonderfully soothing for babies and parents and isn't harmful if it is used judiciously. A recent study, however, does recommend limited pacifier use. It found a decreased incidence of ear infections in babies ages 7-18 months when their pacifier use was restricted to bedtime. The researchers speculate that frequent sucking on a pacifier could alter pressure in the middle ear and impair the functioning of the eustachian tubes. Any build up fluid can then become infected by a bacteria or virus.
To avoid nipple confusion, breast feeding newborns should not be given a pacifier for the first month. Bottle feeding newborns should be offered a pacifier only after it has been determined that they are not hungry, otherwise, the baby may satisfy her sucking need with the pacifier and refuse the bottle, leading to inadequate nutrition.
Pacifiers are especially useful during the second or third months, when sucking needs are greatest and few babies have the coordination to get their hands or fingers into their mouths. After three months, many parents discontinue pacifier use because they prefer to let their babies develop a self-soothing habit like thumb or finger sucking. These parents feel that self-soothing is preferable to pacifiers because the thumb or finger is always available and can't be lost in the middle of the night. Pacifier use, however, can be discontinued by the parent at any time, in contrast to thumb-sucking, which is controlled by the child.
Another option for pacifiers use is to wean your baby from it at about six months, when the need of supplementary sucking greatly diminishes. Many children who stop using a pacifier at this age never develop other sucking habits.
One last argument against continuing the pacifier into toddlerhood has to do with the language development. It is difficult to speak and impossible to speak clearly with a pacifier in your mouth. Most experts agrees that it is a good idea to wean your baby from the pacifier around her first birthday ( if not before ) while her language skills are relatively underdeveloped and her memory is still short.
