Voice your opinion about pacifiers.

My son used one and at age 2 we only let him have it for his nap and at night. Between 2 and 3, if we lost one we wouldn't replace it until we were down to one. A week or so before his 3rd birthday we started telling him that his new baby cousin was going to need it. He was all excited about giving it to her. The night of his 3rd birthday, after his party we took it away. It was a hard night but eventually fell asleep and only asked for it one or two times after that. My daughter never took a pacifier. She always sucked her fingers. . .and still does. It doesn't bother me, but it really bothers my mother-in-law. She is 4, but what do you do, you can't take them away. I tell her not to suck on them when we are out in public that she needs to save that for bed time. I talked to her pediatrician about it and she said don't worry about it for now, because you can't do anything about it. She said until she starts losing her teeth and getting permanent ones, it won't hurt her teeth. My daughter is learning not to do it and does it less and less. Mostly when she is tired, nervous or sick.

Personally, I don't like them and my kids never had them. Mainly because I think they look horrible but also for lots of other reasons such as deferment of speach development, reliance on them, etc. I really hate to see them but more so for toddlers. I think if a child is more than 2 then they really shouldn't have one. It can be dangerous if they are walking around with one in their mouth. Also, I know a lot of children who try to speak with them in their mouth and no one knows what they are saying. So, certainly if a child is trying to talk then that is a good indication that they shouldn't have a dummy (pacifier)

I wish I had never given my kids the pacifer when they were little.Maybe only at night time.My son only gets his at night .He will be 3 on the 28th of this month so I am hoping to get rid of it completely .My daughter at first didnt want hers then at around 6 months she did.She goese without hers now during the day but at night gets her binky.She is 19 and a half months.I think everyone is going to have different parenting opinions on when to get rid of a binky.I say that around 2 and a half or 3 years of age.I would have liked to have got rid of it around 2 and a half but he was attached to it and people would stick it in his mouth when i was trying to weenhim off of it.SO it was hard.

My first kid was the only one who had one. It was the only one he used, so he sucked on it for so long the nipple got enlarged so it fit perfectly in his mouth. I used to tease that his pacifier was growing up with him. When he was 7-8 mos. old, he dropped it while napping on the floor. The kittens got it and they chewed the nipple off. We went to the store and bought 5 or 6 new pacifiers but he wasn't having any of it, he wanted his. We washed and gave him the ring from his old one so he could see that it was ruined. He threw it in the can and that seemed to be it. He never cried, he just didn't want a new one. I decided that pacifiers are not such a good idea, so my girls didn't get one, they didn't suck their thumbs, either. I'm not sure it's rational to give them a crutch so early in life, but it probably has the same effect as a blanket. Every child is different(thank goodness), and so is every parent.