Did your babies/toddlers use pacifiers?

They both did, only for 3 months or so though.Incidentally,they’re called dummies in Britain,crazy but true.

yes they did until they were almost 4! what can I say twins are hard this in australia where it’s looked at really bad! they were formula babies

only for a few months. as soon as they were able to grab on to things other than their pacifier or bottle, it has to go through their taste-tests.

Freud would be proud…no oral fixation!

I didn’t use one either as a child

my 2.5 year old used one for 7 months, we had tons of latch issues wih him, so he as mainly formula fed.
my new baby sometimes takes a paci, usually when no one is holding him. he’s breastfed and never wants to unlatch.
they’re good for babies, they say its good for sids prevention.

Neither of my girls would accept a paci. Both were thumb suckers from hell! I have a sonogram picture of my oldest little girl at 5 months with her thumb in her mouth :)

My son did and my daughter didn’t. I would have given anything for my daughter to. She was colicky and miserable. They were both bottle fed. When my son finally started biting through his (it was a solid, one piece) that was the end of the binky!

I don’t have children, but I know my mom didn’t use on with my sister and I. We didn’t suck our thumbs either. I was nursed until 6 months, my sister for 3.

I wonder if there is any correlation for pacifier/thumb sucking, and smoking, drinking, overeating, etc. If there is a propensity to want something in your mouth, an oral fixation I guess they would call it. I don;t mean that parents cause it, I mean if the child is kind of born that way?

@ucme I wonder if they are called that because it shuts them up? Dumb = mute.

Of my four children, three of them used one for just a few months. All four were breastfed.
They can really come in handy in the car and at other times when nursing isn’t possible and soothing is needed.

All three of mine used them, but once they started to walk, I weaned them off of them.

My daughter never used one, was fully breast-fed, I never even thought of offering her one because she was so content. They also go by the name of dummy here in NZ

@JLeslie Dumb = mute… I think you might have something there.

My son wasn’t interested in them. He was breast fed. We tried and he’d suck for a couple seconds and then spit them out. I guess some kids just can’t be ‘pacified’.

I offered, but both of them refused.

Mine did, she was actually addicted to it. But she never breastfed, so it could be related. If you breastfeed, perhaps the baby gets both the necessary nutrients (as well as hormones), and the feeling of security not just from the breast itself, but the embrace that goes with it.

Do these babies suck their thumbs instead?

As a baby I hated sucked on my thumb, so did my sister. My cousin sucked hers until she was 11 or 12. My niece (who breastfed) prefers her thumb, but also has an obsession for dummies, whereas my nephew (who breastfed only shortly) doesn’t really care much and just puts anything in his mouth, hoping it’s edible (or just assumes it’s edible even if it isn’t).

None of my three daughters had pacifiers. I detest the things.

My kids didn’t; my grandson does. I’m all in favor of what works for making a peaceful household.

Neither of mine did, although one sucked her fingers until age 6. The ultrasounds had her sucking the same fingers…

Val – I am part of the La Leche Leauge Forums and apparently a lot of babies who are nursed reject any form of nipple besides mothers.

Back to Original Question:
We are using a Binky with our LO. In all honesty I feel guilty about using it for some reason. But I started to for “emergencies” like if I was on the phone and she started crying type of thing. And for when she woke up at 2am and I needed just five minutes to get set up to feed her. Now I use it to allow her to comfort herself when she is fussy (all other options used up). We BF as well but she seems to enjoy the comfort of her binky so I’m starting to get used to it, I just want to make sure we don’t get too used to it. It is really important to me she gets all her needs met before getting the binky.

My son loved his- I’m sure there must be some in the furnace vents!- but both daughters refused. They were all breastfed. I think kidlets should have all the comfort they can have.

I had 2 that used it until
their 1st birthday. One of them was breast fed. My youngest child who was not breast fed never cared about a pacifier. None of them sucked their thumbs other than occassionally, it never became a real habit.

My son actively refused them. I only offered one a couple of times, and I’m thrilled he hated them.

He is breastfed (still nursing at 19 months…). His sonogram pics show him sucking his thumb, but he was never really into that either.

Now, if I could get him to keep his hands off of his genitals, we might have something going.

@Seek_Kolinahr- That’ll only gets worse as he gets older.

@AstroChuck I’ll just be happy when he’s old enough that I can tell him to close the door, at least.

I am not a mother, but I have observed that children who are breastfed spend more time feeding. They seem to drink, and then pause, and gaze at their mommies, and then go backing to feeding, repeat a few times. I have no idea if they really spend more time statistically feeding or not, but it just seems that way to me.

Also, don’t breastfed children get fed more often than bottle fed? I kind of remember that, but not sure if it is true. Maybe those things explain possibly why breast fed are less likely to want a pacifier, along with what someone else mentioned that maybe they just are accustomed to one type of nipple. Maybe it is the taste? Does the pacifier taste like plastic/rubber?

@JLeslie what you say is true, but the reason is that breastfeeding takes longer (the milk flow is slower). Also, speed does not matter since the milk is always at body temperature, whereas milk in a bottle will go cold after a few minutes (which means parents might try and hurry the children up sometimes). My daughter always gobbled up her bottle within seconds (certainly a lot less than a minute) so it was never an issue. But yes, it might explain why she needed something to suck on afterwards.

@Jack79 you would think with all of our advancement we could make a slower nipple for bottles as a choice for mothers. Might help with weaning also.

We can. My sister’s bottles had 3 different speeds. Her daughter (even now) eats a lot slower than her son. My own daughter however was always so hungry that I actually had to punch extra holes to make the milk go even faster. This continued later too (her record for eating a yogurt is 19 seconds. Not very healthy I guess, but still interesting to watch).

I think that, if modern mothers could have it their way, they’d rather make their breasts feed faster instead of the bottles feed slower. Which I guess would also prepare the baby for the hectic life that is to follow.

@Jack79 yeah… get them started on the ‘fast food’ right away.

I wouldn’t have made my breasts feed faster. I patiently breast fed my baby for 28 months.

@JLeslie a pacifier is a different shape than a mothers nipple. it can cause nipple confusion. I’ve noticed after my son uses one, that he sucks on my nipple differently and it’s more painful.
usually formula fed babies eat more ounces in a sitting, the growth charts are different for formula fed babies than breastfed because of the different calories.

Funny story time! I breast fed my kids for 18 months. It just became a part of me, just what I did, and I would do things without have to think at all, like unhook my bra cup. Well, I was working in the infants room at church, and I was holding a baby who was about the same age as my son. I was just chatting along to another lady, and the baby started fussing. With out even looking down, or interrupting my conversation I went into breast feeding mode….a few seconds later I felt something wasn’t right….kid was kind of bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh….well because it wasn’t my kid!!!! And the baby wasn’t breast fed! I thought it was hilarious. So did the baby’s Mom (fortunately. Since then I’ve told this story and I get some horrified looks….and I don’t understand why…)

There has to be a huge difference between the taste, feel and smell of a warm breast and a bottle. I mean, which would YOU choose if you could?! Paccy’s are more like bottles.

@Val123 That really did make me laugh out loud!

@wilma I’m glad! That poor baby was like, “What in the WORLD?!!” She quit fussing and crying though!

That really is funny; you do get in that instinctive “stick a boob in its mouth mode”, don’t you?

@janbb Well, it was just a habit that you don’t realize you have until a situation like that jumps up to…bite you in the boob. HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!

@Val123 lol I could totally see myself doing that now.

@Val123 I think that was what happened with Salma Hayek and everyone went crazy.

@JLeslie You are also right that they eat more often. Another reason why besides what was stated above is that breastmilk is much easier to digest and so is processed more quickly. Thus baby needs to eat again sooner.

@RedPowerLady Hey! I have not seen you around fluther in a long time :). Not sure if I was just missing you, or if you have just been busy busy.

@JLeslie Check out her baby avatar!

@janbb What a beautiful baby! I swear! Fluther is the most prolifically reproductive site I’ve ever seen!

@Val123 It’s all those “NSFW” questions!

@janbb LOL!!! Well, thank goodness I never read them! Wouldn’t be a good thing for it to happen to me!

It would be a miracle if it happened to me!

Baby boys turn into little boys who turn into big boys who turn into men who for some reason always have to check the package to make sure everything is there. They do not grow out of it.