Is a pacifier bad for babies?
By adamyzle
@adamyzle (34)
Philippines
July 30, 2010 10:09pm CST
Most health professionals do not denounce pacifiers, as long as they are used responsibly.
A baby needs to suck, not necessarily for feeding, because the sucking action calms her down.
Experts feels that feeding a pacifier is safe as long as the child outgrows it before the appearance of permanent teeth, requiring treatment to reverse damage. Some experts also prefer pacifiers over thumb-sucking because sucking on a pacifier produces more saliva. Saliva is a natural antiseptic that helps fight plaque and eventually tooth decay. Pacifier use has sometimes been linked to oral thrush in babies, but this is usually easily treated. There is also no evidence to say that pacifiers delay speech. However, pacifiers may stop a child from speaking if it is constantly in her mouth.
So, should you buy a pacifier?
4 responses
@pastigger (612)
• United States
2 Aug 10
I didn't want my daughter to have a pacifier as I had one and when I was done with that I did become a thumb sucker as a child. It went on for quite a while I am thinking until I was in 1st grade or so. Once I was older I never did it around anyone but every night. My one thumb was smaller than the other for a while. I also have an overbite that I think comes from thumb sucking. Also my teeth are very badly aligned. So I said never for my daughter. But then she was born at 29 weeks and with preemies the pacifiers are very helpful to help them learn that sucking that they need to learn. So I said alright. Yes I was that mother in the NICU telling the nurse I don't want my baby to have a pacifier. But after knowing that she needed it I made my piece with it. She actually gave it up before she cut her first tooth and never wanted it back. So I counted my blessing and got rid of it. I think if you are going to give your child a pacifier get rid of it when teething starts and I think it would be easier they baby would be to small to really miss it and you wont have a two year old with a pacifier. Or even older. Just from my personal experience that is my thought on the subject.
@shia88 (4571)
• Malaysia
31 Jul 10
Hi,
I don't say that pacifier is not good for babies.but it will be kinda of habit
for babies to keep sucking the pacifier and it might goes for few years till
he/she is able to wean it off.
I never give pacifier to my son since he was born. I don't want him to have
this habit of sucking pacifier just to calm him down.
Even when his gums are itchy, I will just buy the teether for him and wash the
teether few times a day,as his saliva will be everywhere.
I have some friends who gave pacifier to their kids,and they have difficulty
to wean it off.
I don't wish to go through this stage,so I decided NO PACIFIER for my son.
@Laurelle11 (409)
• Australia
31 Jul 10
Hi I have 3 kids and two of them had dummies. The only real problem I found with them was my son thought it was funny to throw his out the window on the highway and then tell me to go get it. Haha. It never did my kids any harm so I think it would be an individual choice.
@lindaharding627 (1442)
• United States
31 Jul 10
My son had a pacifier and loved to throw it on the floor. We solved this problem with a little clip that we found at Burlington coat factory. You put the pacifier through it then it just clipped on babys bib. The only disadvantage of pacifiers is that some kids don't want to give them up when they get older.
