Pacifier Opinions..

[wegrowsheep]

I was against using one for DD, until I couldn't BF for 24 hrs following a contrast study 3 weeks post partum. She liked having one, and she gave it up easily at 2 yrs. I BF'd her for 13 months.
DS hated them with a passion. He also BF'd for 13 months.

Given the peace they provided to DD (and to us), I very much hope this LO will take one.

[Widget123]

DD used a soothie for about 6 months then we weaned her from it fairly easily when she started putting the whole thing in her mouth and we didn't want it to be a choking hazard. She loved it during the early months and that was good enough for me. I was an EPer fairly early on though so no comment from me on effects on breastffeeding.

[megeliz1]

DD has never taken one. She uses her fingers to soothe herself which is actually great because there are not lost pacis in the crib MOTN. She can always find her own fingers.

She was EBF and refused a bottle completely until 5.5 months.

[bendherova]

We used one with DS1 and will with this LO (if he likes it) though I doubt it will be as easy with #2. Around 4 mo DS2 started waking every hour at night searching for it. We took them away at that point and he became a thumb sucker immediately.

At christmas just before his third bday he randomly stopped sucking his thumb. I did nothing! So crazy.

[tahitiandreamin]

I didn't want to use one for DD until I spoke with our lactation consultant. Her opinion is that the "orthodontic" ones are crap... it's a munch of marketing. But any of the round ones are fairly similar to mom's nipple to it shouldn't be a big deal. She thought that the one we got in the hospital (Hawaii Medical GumDrop) were really good.

[dmoney]

So I don't have any children right now this is our first, but I have learned a great deal from watching my sister parenting her 3 little ones ( Most of what I will NOT being doing) But some things that she doesn't do that Dh and I realized that we want to do. She doesn't believe in using a pacifier. When my nephew was just 3 months old I watched her and her hubby take their good old time packing their stuff up one night to head home for the night (After a family meal) It was clear that my nephew was hungry or tired or something of the sort... It took them 20 minutes to get their sh*t together (they move at their own pace) and don't believe in using pacifiers. My nephew sat there and waled in his car seat while they took their time... After about 10 minutes of him crying my mom simply put her finger in the baby's mouth and he stopped crying and was content. This reason alone just put me over the edge, which helped me decide to use a pacifier.

My DH cousin is an orthodontist and she strongly encourages them because it helps with the child's teeth NOT being as messed up then if they sucked their fingers or thumb ( I sucked my fingers from the day I was born till I was 5 and needed 2 years of a retainer and 5 years of braces which included Head gear.) Her rational is you can take the pacifier away, but you can not take the fingers away.

Just something to keep in mind!

[mrsmonogrammed]

I do NOT want a thumb sucker, and my mom tells me I loooooved my paci when I was a kid so I will be introducing one...I'm thinking the wubanub ones that are attached to the animals to help cut down on lost ones:)

[honeybunches101]

I am definitely going to push a pacifier this time. We tried several brands with DS and he wouldn't take any of them, but I wish I would have tried harder. He had colic as was just generally very fussy and wanted to nurse ALL the time, as much as a soothing mechanism as for food. So much screaming all day every day for months and months and I was the only one who could get him to calm down. I nursed him to sleep until he was 2.5, which was awful, but none of the sleep training worked. He is 3 now and I would gladly give him a pacifier even now if it would help him go to sleep. There is no way I am going to be a human pacifier for 2+ years again, so we are really going to try to get this one to take a real pacifier.

[ajm11]

I was against giving DD a pacifier and then later changed my tune when the only thing that soothed her was nursing. I tried getting her to take one, but she refused. I definitely plan on introducing one to this LO pretty early on, and I do plan to nurse as well.

[Deleted]

I used on with DS1 but not all the time. He mostly used it when he was very tiny and then only at night for a few months. I was pretty strict about not letting him have it at all after one. I hope/plan to do the same with this one.

[lalamomma]

All of my friends who breastfeed have used pacifiers.
DD used one until she had her surgery to repair her cleft lip, then never wanted it back.
I'd rather my baby use a pacifier than a finger. I don't think the orthodontic ones make a huge difference until they start getting teeth.
DD only liked NUK ones. I think with her cleft made it hard for her to get as good of suction with some of them.

I refuse to give the big round Avent ones from the hospital. I think they look stupid. Last time we didn't use one for the first week though. To give her time to start breastfeeding.
We only really used it for short times in public and at night we didn't want her to be dependent on it 24/7.

She would spit out Avent, tommy tippy, played binky, mam and another one we tried. But Nuk was pure gold for her.

[tiffbot]

DS would use one in the NICU because they wanted him to learn how to suck, and he ended up being pretty easy to bf once we both got the hang of it.
He used it a little for the first couple months, especially when we were driving, but somewhere after 2 months old he kept spitting it out and we never really found we needed to keep pushing it so he hasn't used one since then. We'll have some around for this baby to see what they prefer too!

[ladysif]

I EBF DS1 until 2 and he used the Avent soothies and a wubbanub for a couple months. Honestly I think it will be 100% up to your kid. We didn't introduce it until 4-6 weeks and there were definitely times it helped but he often could take it or leave it. He voluntarily gave it up around 8 months or so. (I was probably more the human pacifier with bfing.) His cousin was the opposite in that it was a major crisis if the wubbanub was missing, he used it all the time until 18 months or so.

[alayne926]

DS used a pacifier from day one (we FF). As of right now, he only gets it at bedtime. We will be taking it away at bedtime once he adjusts to his new big boy bed.

[billyhorrible]

I'm pro-pacifier because DH and I were each thumb-suckers until well into elementary school, and it's much easier to remove a pacifier than a thumb!

We waited a couple weeks to introduce it, so we could get breastfeeding up and running. And then went through about 5 different brands until we found one he would take.

Weaning was really easy for us. By 6 months he was only using it for naps/bedtime and shortly after a year he quit using it completely.

[veggiemo]

I hate the freaking pacifier. I held off until DS was almost 3 months but he really loved it and I finally gave in. And he has never been partial to any particular brand, (if it's a pacifier, he'll suck on it) but we mainly used the Avent brand. He only gets it at bed and nap time but it's a pain in the ass getting him to put it away after those times. He still cries for it sometimes and argues with me about it. I hate the thing.

I'm going to try to go paci-free with this baby, but I agree with others that if he/she is a thumb sucker I would much rather the pacifier. So I think you kinda just gotta wait to see what kind of kid you have.

[ladymouse]

One of my friends was adamantly opposed to one. Then she had her baby and changed her mind. Different things work for different kids.

I prefer for my kids not to use one, but I'm not adamantly opposed. DS didn't care for them, but he did like sucking on Grandma's finger for the few days she was here.

[noeliav]

We offered a paci to DD after the LC's "window" (4 or 6 weeks? I forget) and she never wanted it. I think she maybe took one for real about 5 times in her entire life?

She only wanted the boobs. Oh well. Being a "human pacifier" was not as horrible as others had made it out to be.

We'll see with baby boy.

[sidneyvicious]

I jump all over anything that claims to lessen the risk of SIDS, so yeah, bring on all the pacis. We got a bunch of the glow in the dark ones at the shower.

[junch817]

I EBF with DD. I was initially afraid of nipple confusion, but one time they wheeled my daughter back into my room at the hospital with a soothie in her mouth (I think she had just gotten some shots), and I just didn't care. I was glad she wasn't crying. I tried different pacifiers for awhile (mostly NUK), but she never cared about them too much. Pushed them out a lot; probably could've tried a wubbanub thing if I wanted to, but I didnt care that much. A few weeks/months in, she found her fist and then her thumb. She became a thumb sucker and I was pretty happy about it. Can't lose her thumb! Then when she was about 15 months old, she had her first big fall into my in-laws fireplace hearth and busted her lip open. She tried to soothe herself by sucking her thumb and she couldn't because it hurt too much. It was so sad to watch. She wouldn't even BF for that day. I was pretty sad about it just ending so abruptly when she wanted her thumb the most, but looking back, it was probably a great way for her to break the habit - she never went back to thumb sucking after that.
Sorry, that was super long.
I suggest doing whatever works. Don't be afraid of a paci because you MIGHT have a hard time breaking it. You might NOT have a hard time. And if it helps soothe baby, and doesn't interfere with you wanting to BF and not have any difficulties, then I say go for it.

[silv3rlining]

I wanted to steer away from it the first few weeks with DS. But we ended up using it in the hospital some. I sacked my fingers til I was 3 and figured the pacifier would be easier to get rid of than his fingers. He weaned himself from the paci around 8 months. We'll see if baby girl wants one. Mostly use it during it naps/bed time. And DS wanted to comfort nurse a lot, so I would switch out if he was comfort nursing for extended periods of time. We didn't have issues with nipple confusion.

[apollo11235]

I plan to steer clear until BF is well established, and we'll see from there. We'll have a few different kinds around, and I'm not against trying them, but I don't know if I'll want LO to take it or not yet, since I don't know LO very well.