How to Use a Pacifier Health Article

Pacifiers help parents and infants get through periods of crying when the infant is either not hungry or too full to eat but still needs the comfort that sucking provides. 

Pros and cons

Pacifiers, which have been used by parents for more than 1,000 years, have proponents and opponents.

Possible benefits of a pacifier:

• Pacifies and comforts the infant

• Helps a parent's frayed nerves

• Produces an actual pain-relieving effect if the infant is hurt or uncomfortable

• Encourages faster weight gain in premature infants when they are tube fed

• Helps development of muscles around the mouth

• Slightly decreases the risk for sudden infant death syndrome

Possible drawbacks of a pacifier:

• Affects the formation of the teeth, so that they do not meet properly

• Increases dental cavities, especially if the pacifier is dipped in honey, sugar or syrup

• If a latex pacifier is used, the risk for latex allergy increases

• Early weaning if the infant is breast-fed

• Increases incidence of ear infection (otitis media)

• Contamination with Candida (a yeast) and bacteria, although this does not necessarily increase the baby’s risk for infection

• Exposure to harmful chemicals used to make pacifiers soft (for example, di-isononyl phthalate, a polyvinyl chloride)

• If a homemade pacifier is used, the risk increases for choking, ingesting materials and contamination with bacteria, fungi or toxic substances

Store display racks carry a bewildering selection of pacifiers. It may help to know that manufacturers say there are basically two types: orthodontic and non-orthodontic. An orthotic design is meant to simulate a mother's nipple and to accommodate the baby's "tongue thrust" -- the motion that strips milk from the mother's breast. The nipple tip is typically flatter and square-shaped. Non-orthotics pacifiers are the older style, with the uniform bulb tip.

Materials

The vast majority of pacifiers are made either with latex, silicon rubber or soft plastic.  Silicon is probably preferable to other materials because its smoother surface harbors fewer microorganisms.

Which should you buy?

Let the baby decide. It may take several tries with various pacifiers to find the one your child prefers, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says.

Simple rules

• Make sure the pacifier is a one-piece pacifier when possible.

• Avoid pacifiers with built-in gadgets, moving parts or liquid interiors.

• Use pacifiers that have sealed rather than open bases.

• Do not, under any circumstance, hang the pacifier on a string around the baby's neck.

• Do not dip the pacifier in sugar, honey, corn syrup or other sugary materials.

• Clean the pacifier regularly. Boiling is recommended for pacifiers if the child is less than 6 months old. An automatic dishwasher will do an adequate job of cleaning for all ages.

• Replace the pacifier if it becomes damaged, the plastic begins to crack or the surface breaks down into small plaques or plates.

• Wean the infant from the pacifier by 1 year of age.

Giving up the pacifier

After infancy, children should be weaned from pacifiers, according to experts at the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association.

A toddler who spends too much of the day with a pacifier in the mouth may miss opportunities for speech development. At about 1 year of age, the association says, pacifier use should be limited to high-priority times at home, such as bedtime or particularly emotional moments.

But if it comes down to a choice between sucking a pacifier and sucking a thumb, go for the pacifier. A child who becomes dependent on a pacifier is likely to put it aside at school age because of peer pressure, the AAP says. Long-term dependency on thumb sucking, on the other hand, can stretch into adolescence and can have long-lasting consequences, actually altering the jaw structure and disfiguring the thumb.