Howie had one from about three weeks (when the colic kicked in) and it didn't interfere with breastfeeding at all. (It did interfere with sleeping for more than 30 minutes at a stretch, but that's another story!)
― Meg (Meg Busset), Tuesday, 22 December 2009 22:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Neither Amber nor Alice had pacifiers/dummys.
Amber sucked her thumb until her baby teeth were 'over', we told her about 'you might well need braces to straighten yr teeth', not 'scarily' just matter-of-factly, and she pretty much stopped immediately.
Alice never sucked her thumb, ever.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 23 December 2009 16:35 (fourteen years ago) link
I remember when I was first pregnant thinking pacifiers were going to be my savior ie kid cryies, kid gets pacifier, kids not crying anymore. Of course, it doesn't work that way at all. In any case, Beeps would never take a pacifier. She sucks her thumb loosely only when falling asleep now but she did go through a period of rubbing her teeth up and down while sucking so she was permanently missing most of the skin on that thumb.
Something I recently read was that thumb sucking is preferable to a pacifier because the child is able to comfort themselves which = more sleep for parents.
Henry uses a pacifier but doesn't seem in love with it. He has also learned to scream with it in his mouth so there goes my original theory. It does seem to chill himk out sometimes though. I hate him sleeping with it just because it ends up lodged in his neck or ear and wakes him up. Our biggest fear though is when the time comes to separate the child from the binky.
My niece was one of those kids who had pacifiers hidden all over the house, car, backyard etc etc. Her parents ended up telling her a story when she was 3ish. It was about all the poor pacifier-less babies in the world who needed her 'dubbers' more than a big girl like her did. They collected all of the pacifiers in a box and took them to the Santa Claus in the NYC Macys who had been briefed of the situation ahead of time. He promised on Christmas eve he would take the pacifiers with him on his present run leaving them for kids who needed them. She wasn't happy about it but it worked.
I kind of like the paci-fairy technique because the kid gets really involved. Here are some peeps who did it but The idea is to give all the pacifiers up, not just one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFJCDOrBnUw
― drinking coke in the kitchen with a kid that doesnt know his n (sunny successor), Thursday, 31 December 2009 00:19 (fourteen years ago) link
i don't really know anything about this stuff, but: my three-year-old niece still has a pacifier (and apparently a baby bottle) while my six-year-old niece, who is in kindergarten, wears a pullup diaper to bed.
i don't know what the "dangers" supposedly are, but aren't they a bit old for that?
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 30 March 2010 18:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Lots and lots of kids are in nappies at nighttime until 6/7+ years. Nighttime continence is something that (unlike daytime) cannot be 'trained', you simply have to wait until they are physically ready to go the whole night dry and clean.
― Meg (Meg Busset), Tuesday, 30 March 2010 20:01 (thirteen years ago) link
okay, cool.
(how does that happen, anyway? i seem to remember kind of training myself that if i was dreaming about peeing i should really really try to wake up . . .)
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 30 March 2010 20:08 (thirteen years ago) link
my son wore a nighttime pullup until he was about 5
― velko, Tuesday, 30 March 2010 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link
We did a slightly less-involved version of the paci-fairy. We were out for dinner one night, and saw a little baby with a pacifier. We told the boys that it was now time for them give all their pacis "to the babies." Then we gathered them all up that night, and told the boys we were going to give them to the babies. They seemed satisfied with that explanation, and pretty much got over their paci addiction after a night or two of restless sleep.
― schwantz, Thursday, 1 April 2010 13:15 (thirteen years ago) link
i plan on doing the same thing with my son's thumbs
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 1 April 2010 14:54 (thirteen years ago) link