The almighty pacifier
Does your kid use a pacifier? If so, when did you first give it to him?
Pacifiers do serve and actual purpose. We have all seen the over-stressed and perhaps ill-equipped mother shove a pacifier in the mouth of her seven year old in the middle of Target, but it is not a silencing device really. Infants have a need to suckle. It calms them. They are able to breastfeed with different amounts of sucking depending on their level of hunger. As long as all of their other needs are met, I see nothing wrong with the modern day pacifier to help stretch out a nap-time or make a car ride more pleasant. Pacifiers nowadays are made much better than several decades ago and do not, contrary to what you may hear, cause any orthodontic or speech problems.
Personally, I was a thumb-sucking kid. I started as a newborn and stopped, for good, sometime in my I-am-not-kidding teen years. It was clearly a self-soothing thing and if I hadn’t screwed up my teeth to all hell, I’d still do it today. My mother was vehemently against pacifiers. Go ahead … psycho-analyze the shit out that one.
When I was pregnant and preparing for Noah to be born I was very certain that I wanted him to have a self-soothing method, whatever it may be. So far, his only soothing tool is my boob, much to the chagrin of my nipples and my ability to get much sleep. Alas, he is young, seven weeks, he has no coordination and couldn’t suck his own thumb if he tried. I digress …
I am all in favor of the pacifier. For one thing, you can take it away. You cannot take a thumb away. Know what I’m sayin? So I bought pacifiers. I bought several different kinds, just in case one was shaped better than another kind. I boiled them and was all ready to hand him a pacifier the moment he got a little fussy. Ha! Haa! Hahahahah!!! The parenting gods laugh in my face.
Noah will not, under any circumstances, take a pacifier, of any brand or sort or color or shape.
Another mother told me she gave her son a pacifier in the hospital and he uses it for sleeping only now nine months later. I chose to wait until he was securely breastfeeding to avoid the dreaded and often hotly debated issue of nipple confusion. For now, we are not a pacifier family. Perhaps when he gets older he will take one, but for now I suppose I should count my blessings and not worry about saving for braces.
To read about other nap-time issues, click here.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Hi Stacy. I did try pacifiers but they were too much hassle for me when the twins were infants. My older one never really took to one.
My youngest daughter did end up sucking her thumb but it beat running around searching for her pacifier which we dubbed the dummy game. She just keep tossing it and expecting us to fetch it for her.
As far as nipple confusion goes, I heard it happens but didn’t experience it with any of my children as they managed to both breast and bottle feed. I didn’t try the bottle until they were a few week old though so that might be partly why.
I do see what you’re saying about being able to take the pacifier away. Some might simply turn to their thumb anyway but maybe not.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
OOoh! This is a constant subject in my house.
We have a seven year old and a nine week old. The seven year old STILL sucks his thumb, and that’s the source of much punishment in our house. So we were bound and determined to encourage use of a pacifier with the second.
He will take it, but only when he’s REALLY tired. Any other time, he would prefer his own thumb, thankyouverymuch, and will let you know promptly.
How young is too young to apply the tabasco to the thumb?
February 26th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
[...] And all those self-soothing ideas? Yeah, they don’t work for us. [...]