2 comments

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  wahoodad

  2 years ago

  We\'ve had great experiences with pacifiers. We didn\'t take it away from our first kid (now 5) early enough, though. I think he had one until he was almost 2. We put off taking it away because we expected a couple of weeks of hell once we did. In the end, nothing happened. He didn\'t really seem to care. I\'m guessing that we just lucked out. His brother (almost 1) won\'t have his as long and the use will be restricted to the crib. Regarding the Cons:
  I think kids can become dependent on anything--ever see a kid clutching a filthy, tattered rag or a ratty stuffed animal?
  Not sure about tooth decay and thumbsucking, but I\'d bet that thumbsucking causes more overbite issues than pacifiers.
  Sleep issues: As long as the pacifier is only part of the routine and not the only thing your kid associates with sleeping, I don\'t think it\'s a big deal. It is a problem when the only way your kid can catch some z\'s is with the pacifier in his mouth.
  One more thing, YOU may not even get to make the choice about whether your kid uses a pacifier--lots of infants want nothing to do with them.
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  mamajama

  2 years ago

  My son is almost 4 months old and has never been into the binks. He\'d take one as long as I held it to his mouth, which defeats the whole purpose.
  
  \"They\" say that pacifiers actually protect against SIDS.
  
  And I commit another Dr. Ferber sin every night... I nurse Seamus (yeah, that\'s his name, you wanna fight about?) to sleep. You can tell me 100 times not to do it but my son sleeps through the night, 10 hours on average, 95% of the time. And yes, I know this means my next baby will probably NEVER sleep. Karma\'s a nasty bitch.
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