If you are a new mom considering whether or not using a pacifier, binky, dummy, is the right choice. You are not alone, I came across very resolute in my decision before our baby was born that pacifier use was not for us. At that time I have over a decade of experience as a Pediatric and Neonatal Nurse combined.
I knew it offered a soothing benefit and a pleasant feel in the baby’s mouth and could prevent the likelihood of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). I tried to weigh the pros and cons of my decision; I wanted to breastfeed and not worry about weaning from a pacifier.
How did we end up giving our baby a pacifier?
After our baby was born, I was shocked into reality by what it really meant to be a new mom. Having gone through an unplanned Caesarean Section, and baby that needed soothing. A month after our son was born, my husband and I eventually decided to give him a pacifier. I was more relaxed and he was a lot more comfortable. We had a structured feeding schedule so there were never any concerns about him missing feeds. He got his pacifier after feeds.
Choosing A Pacifier
Pacifiers are a dime a dozen from several different brands all selling their product to be the best for babies. Pacifiers for premature infants are different from newborns are different from six months old infants and so on.
As we never had the intention of offering a pacifier, we never had a brand in mind. But we ended choosing the Tommee Tippee brand of pacifiers. We chose this brand for bottles since I wanted to breastfeed but also wanted something that closely mimicked the breast in the likely event by husband had to feed our son while I was out. I must add, I never regretted this decision.
Tommee Tippee has excellent quality newborn products if you’re ever looking, and their pacifiers and bottles closely mimic the shape of a breast and support oral development. Before you knew it, I had a few pacifiers for every developmental stage. While our son had his pacifier most of the time throughout the day, we were unbothered since it soothed his constant desire to suck and helped him drift off to a comfortable nap.
Where did my pacifier go!?
Weaning your baby from a pacifier is probably every mother’s dreaded nightmare. How do you get rid of the thing?
There are a few popular methods such as:
- Taking the pacifier away- going cold turkey
- Reading books that introduce saying goodbye to the pacifier
- Replacing the pacifier with toys like teethers or blankets
- Snipping a hole in the nipple to interrupt the suction.
Out of sight, out of mind
I never used any of the mentioned methods, and I certainly did not want to take our son’s pacifier away cold turkey (although I thought of doing it), so I did this instead.
Once our son started crawling around at six months and began interacting with the environment, I used that as an opportunity to take his pacifier. At every instance, when I saw his pacifier lying on the floor as he explored the environment with his month, I’d put it away until he was ready for a nap. As the saying goes, out of sight of mind, never once did he complain about his missing pacifier. And just like, the pacifier was losing the battle…yeah!
Success…
We successfully weaned our son from his pacifier at ten months old. Eventually, we moved to the point where he never got a pacifier while awake during the days, but rather at nap times. He would awake so excited to explore he didn’t even stop to consider his missing pacifier. From the pacifier to self-soothing, and before long, pacifiers were a thing of the past.
I was truly happy, once we were over the pacifier stage, our son never made a fuss and transitioned smoothly from his pacifier. While, I know it can be a bit more challenging for other mothers, employ the methods I mentioned above as well as communicate with your child in hopes of achieving a desirable result.
Leave your feedback on the methods you employed when weaning your child off their pacifier. If you have tried and had success using my method, also let me know.
Best wishes!
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