pacifier

can mums and dads share their experiences if their bub takes pacifier. i give my 9 mth old bub pacifier before he goes to sleep, but will pull out once he is sleeping. i don't give pacifier during non-sleep hours. if he stir in the night, i gave him dream feed, hence, there won't be need to give him pacifier.


i m now giving sleep training to my bub to eliminate night feeding, but am not sure whether i should eliminate pacifier at this stage also. my bub really settles well with pacifier and it really helps us too as a parents to calm baby down.


(1) should i train him not to take pacifier before sleep? my hubby really pro pacifier.


(2)i heard as they grow older, they will really more heavily on pacifier. will he come to a stage that he will ask for it when not sleeping?


(3) does it really affect the development of their teeth?


(4) is it difficult to wean them off?

Personally I would prefer to put the dummy (pacifier) in the mouth during the night. Giving up that night feed is so great and it means you can pass the buck to your partner and have them get up and pop the dummy in whilst you sleep!


Relax and let baby be baby and if that means giving him the dummy during the night, so be it. It's not like he has it permantly attached to his face all day. Here are my answers:


1), No, if he wants it, let him have for his comfort and security and for your own stress levels!


2) Not necessarily, I tried weening my daughter off the dummy when she was about 2.5 (she only had it at night by that stage) and it was just so hard for the both of us. My daughter wanted it for the comfort and me for sanity and sleep as I worked. Out of the blue one night putting her to bed, she said she doesn't want it anymore and that was that. All over and done with without fuss, fights or stress. I kept onto them (hidden in the cupbaord) for about a month just in case it all when backwards, but it never did.


3) Different people will tell you different things about affecting the development of their teeth. If your child is only using a dummy at night, then I wouldn't think there would be a problem, because 3/4 of the time, they are asleep within minutes and it falls out.


4) Each child is different, as I mentioned, we both found it stressful, but when I gave up trying, she ended up not wanting it anymore.


Is it really the worst thing in the world that your child has a dummy? Especially at only 9 months, he is just a bubba, give him the love and security and deal with it when he is older.


You will always receive different advice from different mums/dads, but in the end, you baby needs to have the comfort and happy baby means happy mum. Good luck.

(1) should i train him not to take pacifier before sleep? my hubby really pro pacifier.


If he sleeps well anyway there's really no need. If he sleeps better with it, just give it to him. No need to overthink it.


There is some evidence that a pacifier reduces the risk of SIDS, but at 9 months you're pretty much over that anyway.


(2)i heard as they grow older, they will really more heavily on pacifier. will he come to a stage that he will ask for it when not sleeping?


Yes. That's the time when you need to say "kids walking around with their pacifiers when not sleeping look silly". Oops, that's just my personal opinion. ;)


(3) does it really affect the development of their teeth?


Agreed with specks. Depends who you ask.


(4) is it difficult to wean them off?


Not really unless you do it too late. Our daughter had surgery at 10 months and couldn't put anything in her mouth for 6 weeks. Solved the problem neatly.


In the whole "getting kids used to stuff" equation, weaning off pacifiers is a minor thing. Much easier than, say, potty training.

I agree with Specks.

But if after weaning the night feed and baby is still waking often for the pacifier you might want to wean him off it then. I did this with my daughter since she continued to wake every 2 hours and it took another 3 nights and now does not have a pacifier. Give yourself some time after stopping the night feeds to see what he does. Can he put it back in himself? You could show him how to do that as well.


My son had one until he was over 2.5. He only had it for sleep and yes the odd occasion when I needed a bit of peace from the whining if he was tired. He didn't use it off and on for a few nights so I decided to stop it. WE gave it away to a ghost at Halloween which something of interest to him at the time and he didn't need it agian. He kept checking the garbage to see if it had reappeared but wasn't stressed about it. A pacifier is easier to get rid of than the thumb!

agree with Kim - one of my twins (20 months) still uses the pacifier (the other never really took to it - she has a blanket!) - anyway - I used to stress over it so much - they say 'the earlier you wean them off it the easier it is". But, am not worried anymore - she only has it night and daytime nap - NEVER out of cot. She is now big enought to find in in the cot (most of the time) herself - I just put 3 pacifiers in every night to make sure she stumbbles across at least one.


I will evenually "give it away to Santa, ghost" or whoever - i hear it is the easiest thing to do. And, I am thrilled that that stoped her from sucking thumbs - I really, really did not want that to happen.


So, do relax, leave a few pacifiers lying around in the cot - and stop that dream feeding at 9 months!!! :) How is that going by the way?