One Mom's Journey

Rewind to 2010, when my daughter was born.  First time mom, lack of sleep, a baby that constantly suckled on my breasts, lack of sleep and did I mention lack of sleep?  My husband and I did it.  We committed the ultimate sin (according to some).  We gave our baby a pacifier...and guess what.  We slept.  It was wonderful, it was glorious!  I had no regrets - until she turned two.  It was crazy.

This is where I began to refer to her soother habit as an addiction. Because it was just that.  This is also when I started noticing the shifting of the teeth, so I asked around and researched and sure enough, it was recommended to try and wean a toddler of a pacifier no later than two because of the damage it can cause to the upper mouth and teeth alignment.  But, I had another new born, and it was soooooooo easy to just plug that soother in my two year olds mouth as the solution to EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM.  I am not sure looking back if the addiction was hers or mine...because that pacifier was my savior.

Yes, I did some research on soothers, but at the end of the day, sleep outweighed the potential negatives 100 per cent.  I thought you may find it useful to see some of the research I came across along the way.It may help you come to terms with the pacifier/soother vortex you have just entered and/or support your reasons for never giving a soother in the first place.

Positives:

There aren't a lot of medically supported reasons why pacifiers are great, but any parent with a baby that uses one can tell you why they are great.  They help sooth.  Hence one of the very popular names "soother" came about.  However, recently a study conducted in the US actually encourages parents to give babies pacifiers to reduce the chances of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).  Decreases the chance of SIDS

Negatives:

There are definitely outweighing reasons to not use a pacifier, the main one being it has been proven to increase the chances of causing middle ear infections.  Other reasons, that only parents of children with pacifier attachments would know, is that it can cause early weaning from breast fed babies, it causes middle of the night wake ups when baby cannot find the pacifier and finally it becomes an addiction the longer the pacifier is used.

I have to tell you, from a parent that has now used pacifiers for both her girls, I have no regrets.  My three and half year old gave her soother to Susy 6 months ago now, her teeth are perfect (although I was scared for awhile, they completely fixed themselves) and she does not cry out for her 'sue-sue' EVER.  I know I will run into the same issues with my 18 month old, but I think we will have no problems giving that soother to Susy when she turns three, and that pacifier will remain my saving grace until then.