Pacifiers and Thumb-Sucking

When my baby was on the way, I had a birth plan. I wrote out exactly what I did and did not want for my baby. One of the things I DID want was to breastfeed. I DIDN'T want her to have any pacifier or foreign nipple.

I really wish I had had some advice on the matter.

According to an American Academy of Pediatrics study on The Effects of Early Pacifier Use on Breastfeeding Duration:

"In adjusted analyses, pacifier introduction [after] 6 weeks was associated with a significantly increased risk for shortened duration of full and overall breastfeeding. Women who introduced pacifiers tended to breastfeed their infants fewer times per day, with significant differences noted at 2 and 12 weeks' postpartum. At 12 weeks postpartum, women who introduced pacifiers also were more likely to report that breastfeeding was inconvenient and that they had insufficient milk supplies. Pacifier use begun either before 2 weeks or before 6 weeks' postpartum was not significantly associated with breastfeeding duration at 2 and 3 months."

"Conclusions: Breastfeeding duration in the first 3 months' postpartum...was unaffected by pacifier use."

Interesting, no? This is one of the reasons that the AAP recommends pacifier use up to four months of age.

Let me just tell you how much it calmed my baby down in the first week to have the pacifier to suck on, as sucking is the main way a newborn soothes themselves.

I took my daughter's pacifier away at about 4 months. Before 4 months, the pacifier was wonderful for getting her to go to sleep. After 4 months, I was waking up in the middle of the night and putting it back in her mouth to get her to go to back to sleep and I was not about to do that every night for goodness knows how long.

She would suck her fingers and I thought that her thumb would be a wonderful replacement. So, when she would suck her fingers, I would try and stick her thumb in there instead. (I really started this from the beginning) Yeah, she wasn't having any of that. I also wondered if thumbsucking could be bad for her teeth. It turns out, not so much.

According to the American Dental Association article on Thumbsucking it is perfectly fine for a child to suck their thumb. However, "Children should have ceased sucking by the time the permanent front teeth are ready to erupt. Usually children stop between the ages of two and four years." Makes sense to me.

Granted, you can't always get your child to stop, but once they go to school and are the only ones sucking their thumb, they'll quit soon enough. Some tips from the ADA are:

1. Praise children for not sucking, instead of scolding them when they are.


2. Children often suck their thumbs when feeling insecure or needing comfort. Focus on correcting the cause of the anxiety and provide comfort to your child.


3. For an older child, involve him or her in choosing the method of stopping.


4. Your dentist can offer encouragement to a child and explain what could happen to their teeth if they do not stop sucking.


5. If the above tips don’t work, remind the child of their habit by bandaging the thumb or putting a sock on the hand at night. Your dentist or pediatrician may prescribe a bitter medication to coat the thumb or the use of a mouth appliance.
   

Willow is 8 months old and happily sucks her thumb. Who am I to argue?