Pacifiers? - Page 2

[tryingitnatural]

Wow! I never thought I 'd get so many responses. I will try not to use one infact I haven't even bought one. Thanks for all the response!

[Kavita]

Gunter, your post totally cracked me up because it reminded me of an episode of ER in which one of the doctors had a baby and is back at work while her DH is home with the baby. One day Carter walks into the doctor's lounge and the big bear-like macho DH is in there with his shirt open, breastfeeding the baby with a medela nursing supplementer! Carter kind of looks startled, and the dad gets all indignant and says, "What--haven't you ever seen a guy nursing a baby before?" as though it was really common. It was just a very funny bit! As for here, I would definitely have to do some "manscaping" before I let our baby anywhere near DH's nipple, lest our kid end up with hairballs!

I think pacifiers should not be used for breastfeeding babies until nursing is well established. After that, I tend to view them as a sometimes necessary evil. I don't think that they are a GOOD thing from a health standpoint and wouldn't ever endorse or encourage them as something anybody should try to get their kid to take "just because." They bug me too when they are used as a substitute for holding/feeding/paying attention to babies, which I see pretty often in public. Sometimes it's obvious a baby in a restaurant or something is crying/fussing because he's hungry or needs attention, and the parent just keeps sticking the pacifier back in the baby's mouth so they can leave the baby in the carseat ignored and go on with their lives! As far as the overbite/dental issues, sucking affects jaw development, which I believe is why pacifiers or bottles can affect permanent teeth even though they're not in yet.

HOWEVER, that all said, I think that there are instances where a pacifier is appropriate and can be a real lifesaver (or at least sanity/happiness saver!) Some of the circumstances have already been mentioned, like when a baby has high sucking needs and comfort nursing won't work for that mom/baby. Or babies with reflux, sensory issues, etc. If I had to go back to work, I'd rather have my baby have a pacifier and be content than inconsolable when I can't be there to nurse him/her if he/she needs to suck a lot for comfort. Stuff like that!

But I think they are one of those things that should be tried after other comforting measures have failed, and also not be seen an inherent and necessary part of babyhood. There are a lot of things in parenting that I think are compromises that maybe don't meet our predetermined highest ideals (like plopping a kid in front of the TV so that mom can get a break and maintain her sanity.) But I feel like, hey, we're imperfect people living in an imperfect world, and sometimes you need to do what you need to do to get by!

Cultural note--as a breastfeeding geek, I always try to find baby cards/baby gifts/baby gift wrapping paper without bottles or pacifiers either as part of the actual gift or in pictures, because I don't like the connotation that babies=bottles and pacifiers. It bothers me that bottlefeeding and pacifiers are seen as so normal in our culture and breastfeeding is still kind of "alternative" somehow.

Sorry if this is all rambling and redundant! Time to get offline and have some dinner . . . !

[crsta33]

I would venture to guess that breastfed babies have less problems with overbite and other dental misalignements than bottlefed babies regardless of pacifier use. I wonder if in that quoted study it even says if the children studied were breastfed, bottlefed, both, how long, etc.

Since breastfeeding promotes jaw and tooth alignment, if more hours are logged at the breast than an artificial nipple then the child probably won't have problems caused by the artificial nipple. I could be totally wrong though.

Christa

[s_kristina]

We did use a pacifier with our dd and she didn't have any problems with giving it up around a year when she just stopped using it. When she was little the work dh was doing required him to travel long distances to get to the job site. His boss at the time also lived around 500 miles away from where we lived. Sometimes we would be able to drive him to the job site other times we would drive to Dallas to take him to his boss' place. Either way it was many hours of driving along highways through some very middle of nowhere places. That was one of the biggest times we would use a pacifier for her. If we were out in the middle of nowhere with no place to stop for 20 miles a pacifier would allow us to keep driving until we got to an exit. DD also liked to comfort nurse all night long and being able to give her a pacifier instead of her over eating helped both of us to sleep better and longer stretches. I could nurse her to sleep then slip a pacifier in while still being snuggled up and we could both sleep. The longest trips we are likely to take with ds are around an hour so I don't see us needing to use a pacifier as much. I am totally open to using one if it is needed though.