Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Neither my oldest or youngest ever wanted one. My middle guy was a confirmed pacifier user for a couple of years. He had health problems which resulted in 3 hospitalizations before he was two ..so I think he a had a greater need and desire for self soothing since we literally couldn't be with him at certain times. Everybody nursed like troopers and even my pacifier user had no real issue giving it up on his own when it was time. So I feel you follow the baby's lead. It is pretty amazing how smart they are about what they need and don't need.

My older child would never take one and Lard we really wanted her to sometimes. Flynn loves the pacifier and it really helps him calm down and fall asleep in seconds sometimes. I never worried too much about nipple confusion since nursing went well from the beginning and he still loves to eat. It took a few tries to find a brand that he can keep in his mouth and we just bought a bunch of them. i know it will probably be a pain to wean him off it eventually but it works for us. if we put him down for the night with one he will wake up the first few times it falls out but once he's in a deeper sleep it falls out and he's good without it for the rest of the night.

I have 3 grown children and let them try a pacifier. None of them wanted it. They were all thumb suckers which was fine because this is how they learn to comfort themselves.

We're using one with Freya, primarily for sleeping as it helps her to soothe herself (bonus = that it's a factor in lower SIDS risk factor too). We were warned about them and nipple confusion, but she's been absolutely fine. She will react differently to the pacifier (or dummy, as they say here!). If she tries to root around on the pac, then we know she's hungry. If we try to give it to her when she is looking for a bottle, she pops it out and occasionally gets a little pissed. :p She really likes sucking sometimes, from day one, even when not hungry, so for her, it's a good fit. We're hoping to make it disappear somewhere in the second half of her first year, so we don't have that battle later. She'll have developed some better coping mechanisms by then, and it will be soon enough not to interfere with verbal development to a large degree. Expecting we may have a few tearful days when it disappears, but hopefully not too bad. She experiments a lot with her fingers and thumb now, so she may yet choose to be a thumb-sucker. Urgh.

We bought a pack of 2 before our first big car trip back to the Midwest with Vi, when she was six weeks old. We don't use one at home but it can be nice in the car when we have few other ways of comforting her. She took it at 6 weeks without a problem and it was invaluable on the long drive.. She's almost 6 months now, and we still use it for longer car trips and in restaurants when we need to keep her from disturbing other diners.

FWIW, the first 3 months or so it felt like she was either nursing or asleep.. I didn't have oversupply and we were somewhat concerned about her weight gain at first. We were reluctant to introduce anything that would interfere with nursing, so that's a big part of why she doesn't get it for general use. She was sucking a lot because she was hungry.

I hate the damned binky. HATE IT so much. The babysitters in ATL introduced them and she refuses to give it up. My day is now - wake up hear her scream for the paci, she gets the paci, falls asleep and drops the paci, after that she wakes up and screams for the paci. Repeat every 10 mins. when I boobed her, the food would make her fall asleep but not the paci.

It is baby-crack. I hate it.

Aw, Tofulish that sucks! I'm so sorry! I wish I had advice but Lucy had zero interest in a pacifier. Just sending (((((((hugs))))))) and hoping this phase passes quickly for you.

Oh man, Tofulish - forking babysitters! I'm sorry and that really sucks... my gut feeling is try to get rid of it asap even though it will be horrible in the moment because it will be beneficial in the long run, but of course that's much easier said than done! :(

It was a long weekend and I am so tired still, and really hate having her scream. And she can outlast me. :( I never thought that 2 days could lead to this.

Plus side: they reduce the risk of SIDS

It sounds like it might be more stressful for you in the long run to keep giving it to her, if it bothers you that she has it so much. (I didn't do pacis either so I understand that) I guess you have to decide if it's worth stressing you out for a long time or stressing her out of a day or two of cold turkey quitting.

Parenting sucks sometimes :(

I agree! (Although -- mind you, I am biased against pacifiers -- I would probably go the cold turkey no pacifier route myself.)

At this point they aren't going to cause nipple confusion, which is good, but I can't find any clear answers to whether they interrupt the development of self-soothing. I read that many kids give them up easily at 4 months, and for now, not giving it to her is causing stress.... I don't mind it so much as the 10 min cycles of beg for paci, get paci, fall asleep, drop paci, wake frantically seeking paci and screaming till she gets it are getting old. I really don't know what is best for her here.

Its also a big fat reminder that you shouldn't second guess your parenting choices. The sitters were all established parents, and I thought oh if this works for them, how bad can it be? I wouldn't have expected her to be addicted to them so fast.

I think if it is driving you crazy, that is reason enough to ditch the paci.

Reno was a "sucker" addict until the age of 2 and she was also awesome at self-soothing. The sucker didn't interrupt that development at all for her but like always all kids are different.

We do because she has weak mouth muscles, ANYTHING that makes her suck is encourage.

I couldn't get Lorelei to take the pacifier. She has no interest in it, however the CDC did magically get her to use the pacifier for a short period of time which was really strange.

I'm not a mom and probably don't belong in this thread, but I just wanted to share the awesome pacifier story from my childhood. My brother used one and LOVED it. My mom had a really hard time getting him off it and finally she did, but around the age of four he found an old one under our couch. He hid it and would sneak using it until my mom found him one day sucking on it while watching TV. She gasped and he looked up at her with the paci in his mouth and smiled. It was awesome.

Ahahahaha! My husband had hidden pacifiers when his parents tried to ween him. Fortunately, his little clone gave up the binky all on his own before he was a year old.

We started at six weeks and it helps. He doesn't cry for it, but it helps (sometimes) to get him to stop crying when he is fussy, mostly if he is tired and having trouble falling asleep.

Oh forget to mention; they're supposed to help reflux babies keep food down :)

Ugh, I sure did see them when I was high school.

For those who didn't take them, did you try the soothie kind? Carlos likes those, they are nice and soft. He tried another kind my mom bought, but he didn't like the harder feel of the nipple.

We give Jordan a pacifier on occasion. My MIL kind of forced it on us, I wasn't really into it but V was and I don't want him to think his opinion doesn't matter so we tried it. He uses it when he is overtired and won't nurse to sleep, when he falls asleep nursing and won't unlatch on his own or in the car if he's having a rough time. He is using it less and less because I hate offering it to him. He's 6 months now and not at all dependent on it. He's never had nipple confusion. Thankfully he doesn't wake when he spits it out either, he just needs to keep sucking to stay asleep and when he's in a deep sleep he spits it out or it just falls out of his mouth.

My daughter refused her Nuk (and bottles), period. I tried, but only the boob would do. I'm not averse to using pacifiers, though. It just didn't work for her.

We're going to try a pacifier for the first time tonight. Scarlett already has no problem switching between bottle and breast, so I don't see how it could cause any breastfeeding issues. I just hope it helps her get to sleep without needing to have a boob in her mouth since I'm still having nipple pain and I can't really handle them being sucked on all night.



I saw some for sale that say "Mute Button" on the back. Yeah, I don't really find that funny, and it made me feel guilty for wanting to use a pacifier!