hanakahiro
New member
@sh419ob As others have mentioned evidence on nipple confusion is pretty murky. The truly verifiable negative evidence on pacifiers is about affecting oral development if their use is continued too late. But the thing that also impacts oral development very similarly is thumb sucking. I wanted my kids to use a pacifier to avoid thumb sucking as much as possible. As they get older you have control over stopping pacifiers as you can simply choose to stop providing them. You can't just choose to not provide a thumb so you have very little control over them stopping. That was enough to convince me that pacifiers are absolutely a good idea. The reduction of SIDS risk definitely adds to their appeal for me.
Our older child used a pacifier consistently until about a year old and then we gradually weaned her. It was long enough to firmly avoid a thumb sucking habit but early enough that she wasn't so emotionally attached to it. My second is a newborn and has generally hated pacifiers but we have been convincing her to take them more and more and now there is less and less time spent with fingers in her mouth so I'm feeling good about that. I'll probably keep them going for a similar timeframe as our first if I can.
Our older child used a pacifier consistently until about a year old and then we gradually weaned her. It was long enough to firmly avoid a thumb sucking habit but early enough that she wasn't so emotionally attached to it. My second is a newborn and has generally hated pacifiers but we have been convincing her to take them more and more and now there is less and less time spent with fingers in her mouth so I'm feeling good about that. I'll probably keep them going for a similar timeframe as our first if I can.