Dummies/pacifiers - yay or nay?!

[Misscalais]

Ill just say this. I think I would have lost the plot of my boys didn't have dummies when they were babies.
I never had any trouble taking it from them and their teeth are perfect.

 

[geordie_gal]

I'll definitely be using them.
You can take them away when they get too old, my auntie didnt use one on my cousin and at 40 years old he STILL sucks his thumb when he's asleep. Not cool. x

 

[wish4baby]

All of mine used them, because my boobies need a break every now and then lol!
But really, I used them from day 1 and never had any issues with breast feeding.

I took them away between 6 - 8 months old, I found that my kids were ready to give them up around that time, it was a fairly easy transition, and they never ended up sucking their thumb or fingers. My daughter did switch her attachment to a stuffed animal, but she was the only one, and it was a pretty minor attachment.

My mom told me when I was 2 they tried to take mine away, but every morning she'd come in to get me and I'd have one. They finally hid in my room to see what was going on and I woke up, got out of bed and went to a little hiding place where i kept a stash of pacifiers! I just popped one in my mouth and got back in bed guess that officially means the child is too old!

(And we all have perfect teeth, no braces or work needed at all, and definitely no speech problems unless you count talking way too much!)

Oh, and I couldn't even believe my ears, but my oldest son had a friend/neighbor when he was 8 (the friend was 9). My son kept inviting him over to spend the night, but they kept saying no - finally the mother tells me that her son really wants to but is embarrassed b/c he still uses a pacifier to sleep - at 9!! Didn't even know what to say to that one

 

[Justagirlxx]

Ive offered pacifiers to both my children. With my son they were an absolute life saver as he would never fall asleep without one. With my daughter she never really took to it and I ended up loosing them all one day when she was 6 months and she never made\ one peep about not having one anymore. So I'll offer it to this baby too (they really are a life saver when baby is fussy for no reason)

 

[Justagirlxx]

Double post

 

[hinkybinky]

Everyone will have their opinions but all babies are different and you just need to wait and see whether you feel it will be helpful for yours.

I always said no dummy, but my LO used to get very upset with nappy changes and so I got him used to sucking one while I changed him - it wasn't as if I could stop changing him or do it a different way, he just didn't like it (he used to get a very sore bottom to do with his lactose intolerance so I don't blame him for being upset). Later we had to use a lot of creams for his eczema and, again, a dummy was helpful. We weaned him off when he was less than a year old so it never hindered his speech development.

The only things I hate now about dummies are a) photos of beautiful babies with a big fat dummy in their mouth, I always took my son's one out so you could see his lovely face!! and b) 3 year olds who talk around their dummies as they are missing out on forming some of the important sounds (I'm a primary school teacher and come across a lot of children with speech problems, whose little brothers or sisters are permanently sucking on a dummy - go figure!).

 

[hinkybinky]

Oh, I must also add that we ended up letting DS go to sleep with one, and it got VERY wearing waking up multiple times a night to go and put his dummy back. Even when we'd put 4 or 5 in the cot, he still used to shout and scream until we went into his room and popped it back in.

We managed to get rid of them one week when he had a heavy cold, so he wasn't able to breathe and suck at the same time. We just chucked them all in the bin. He did then go through a few months of biting my arms which REALLY hurt, I think that was revenge!

 

[kit10grl]

DS was a very sucky baby. My boobs needed a break so he got a dummy. It nevr interfered with breastfeeding and it was a pretty easy ride for us to get rid of it at 16 months. Would have ben earlier but his sister had just been born and he was sleeping in a strange place while she was in hospital in another town for six weeks so we let him keep it longer as it seemed unfair to take away something he used for comfort during such an upheaval.

DD was encouraged to have one during her NICU stays in hospital as she physically couldn't suck and swallow at the same time. The dummy was used to help her practice sucking without having to co-ordinate swallowing. After her surgeries to correct the physical issues she neded the to continue practicing as she had lost the instinct to suck and was completely tub fed. Using a dummy to stimulate hr orally has meant that a year later we have managed to avoid total oral aversion and she is learning to cope with solid food slowly. This would never have happened without a dummy.

 

[pinkpolkadot]

DD has had a dummy for sleeps, it was not our intention but she would get very upset at the end of a BF when she was falling asleep and I couldn't figure out why so I popped my finger in her mouth and she happily sucked and fell asleep.

It soon became clear she was upset as she just wanted to suck to soothe but milk was still coming out and she had obviously had enough so just leaving her on the boob would not work.

They are all different so we will just have to see if the next baby wants/needs one and go from there.

People seem to have very strong opinions on dummies but I do think some babies just like to suck, there doesn't always have to be anything more to it than that if they are fussing.

 

[jenniferannex]

Lily had a dummy up to 2.5 years old and I had no problem what so ever taking it off her. I think if you hear of a child sucking a dummy until 4-5 well yes that's too late for a dummy in my opinion. Since lily was born I said she wouldn't have a dummy by the time she was 3. I think a dummy is better than their thumb. I used to suck my thumb until I was 9, my mum couldn't take that off me no matter what! I will be giving my baby a dummy if he/she won't easily settle, which is what happened with Lily when we had 2 weeks of nearly non stop new born crying a dummy was a life saver!! Plus, I think babies look so cute with them in!!

 

[willowblossom]

I offered my son a dummy whrn he was a newborn but he never took to it. Would just spit it out. He sucks his thumb to go to sleep but at no other time. (Also means I dont have to get up in tbe night to replace a lost dummy) I dont think il be offering this baby a dummy but never say never. Im not against them but I just never found them useful x