Pacifier Use among Breastfed Babies: A Poll
July 15, 2007 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under breastfeeding
I’m not completely opposed to artificial pacifiers (once breastfeeding is well established). I preferred to pacify my nurslings at the breast. At one point I did try to offer my first nursling a pacifier, but she rejected it completely. She preferred comfort nursing (”non-nutritive sucking”) or a clean pinky finger instead. Eventually she used those old pacifiers as chew toys! What about your child? Feel free to leave a comment too.
{democracy:30}
When my older daughter was a baby we only used it in “emergency”situations, like in the car.
With my youngest daughter we use it a lot more often, but only when I am not around. She often gets fussy when she is with my husband and I am at work, so after trying everything else he usually uses it to calm her down or help her get to sleep.
Something about the look of a child with that plastic circle covering his face turns me off. I feel like the beautiful face of my baby would be hidden behind plastic. Seeing a toddler speak incomprehensibly through the pacifier was also a turn off and I decided while pregnant that I didn’t want to use it.
I always resented statements like “don’t let him use use as a pacifier” when my son wanted comfort sucking. As if pacifiers came before breasts!
I did have a few at home as chew toys. My son always put them in the wrong way…
My first adamantly refused the pacifier! My second seemed more open to taking one, but I guess I forgot to use it frequently enough. Before I knew it, she started adamantly refusing it as well. I think it’s something you really have to work at, if it’s important to your family. I stay home with her, so needing comfort when I’m gone is really not an issue with us.
My kids have only used pacifiers when they were infants (before 6 months) and when they were in a relative’s arms. My aunt, for example, LOVES to hold babies, so I was going to do anything I could to make holding my kids a pleasant experience for her. The pacifier worked when the kids wanted to nurse instead, and I just wasn’t around. The kids would fall asleep in someone’s arms with one. That was great.
For me, though, I could never keep track of the damn things. I always know where my nipples are.
Oh, I did use my little pinky as a pacifier if I was shopping or something, but I wasn’t comfortable with other people putting their fingers in my childrens’ mouths.
LOL about not having to keep track of your nipples
Too funny.
My baby has always had trouble with being a light sleeper and not being able to get himself back to sleep (at 9 months old now, he still wakes up every 2-3 hours, sometimes less if it’s too hot or too cold or he’s teething or he rolled over or… gack), so I gave the pacifier a try pretty early on, since I knew it wasn’t always hunger. He hated it, so it only worked occasionally in the car on an emergency basis. Then about two months ago, I tried it again during a particularly restless night, and it helped a lot! It doesn’t always work, but once in a while it does. So I don’t feel bad having it as one possibility in my back-to-sleep toolkit, since it’s not like he’s sucking it constantly, and it’s definitely not interfering with nursing.