How to ban the pacifier

When your baby is crying inconsolably and you’ve fed her, changed her and rocked her to no avail, a pacifier can be a real sanity-saver. There’s no doubt that some babies are just more sucky than others – the sucking reflex is one that develops in the uterus and many babies who aren’t given a pacifier will suck on their thumb or fingers instead.

But with the best will in the world you can’t keep your baby latched onto the breast all day to satisfy her urge to suck, and neither can you keep pumping formula into her in an attempt to soothe her mood. And it’s also a fact that there are some times when it just isn’t convenient for your baby to throw a crying fit – at church, for example, or at the store if there isn’t anywhere you can nurse her.

In these circumstances, pacifiers are an acceptable aid but there are provisos you need to keep in mind whn it comes to pacifier use. The first is that if you’re breastfeeding it’s best to hold off giving your baby a pacifier until she has perfected her latching on and suckling technique, and your milk supply is established. This is because breastfeeding requires a very different sucking technique to that used with a pacifier or feeding bottle. If she tries to using the same simple sucking motion she uses with her pacifier she won’t feed efficiently and since breast milk is produced on a supply and demand basis, this could result in your breasts producing less milk. Research has shown that moms who give their baby a pacifier within the first few weeks of the birth are less likely to continue breastfeeding.

Another issue is the fact that pacifiers have been linked to a doubled risk of ear infections in babies and toddlers who use them. But the biggest issue you need to be aware of is that once your baby becomes reliant on a pacifier to help soothe her instead of other methods, it can become extremely hard to wean her off it. It can be a particular problem if she needs it as a sleep aid, because you’ll likely find that she starts waking up at night for no other reason than that her pacifier has fallen out of her mouth as she sleeps. And up until the point where she’s old enough to find it again, she’ll be expecting you to get up and retrieve it for her.

If your baby is sucking on her pacifier most of the time as she reaches the age where she starts to babble and her speech starts to develop, there is a possibility that it could interfere with these milestones. Another thing you need to bear in mind is that it could potentially affect the shape and position of her teeth, causing an overbite (where the top teeth protrude over the bottom teeth), if she continues sucking on her pacifier long-term.

All this means there is a point where you will have to bite the bullet and ban the binkie, especially if you yourself are relying on it to literally ‘plug’ your child when she’s fretful instead of finding other ways to distract her. You need to go about it in the right way, thought, because your child’s pacifier ultimately is a representation of the comfort she receives from you and also a method of dealing with her emotions. This means she will have a very strong attachment to it, so going cold turkey might be too abrupt. Instead, wean her off it gradually and replace the comfort it provides with something else – for example, a new soft toy you can tell her to cuddle if she feels sad or tired.

You might want to try banning the binkie from certain rooms in the house, or tell her she can only use it at bedtime, not when she’s playing with her toys, or when you go out in the car. When she wants the pacifier, distract her with a game, or some coloring, or a story. Another good tactic is to make it less satisfying for her by snipping a tiny hole in the tip of the nipple so that it’s less suckable. You can snip the hole larger and larger until there isn’t much more left of it.

If your child is older you can try the binkie fairy technique – simply leave the binkie outside the front door (you can even make a special binkie box and decorate it) and tell her the binkie fairy will come get it overnight and will leave her a special treat, which could be that soft toy substitute. Older children might like to think the binkie fairy took their pacifier to a newborn baby so they could get as much love from it as your child did!

The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.