Lechia Davis wrote:
>
>Go Linda Smith!  I hate those darned pacifiers! How on earth do we get
>people to quit using them?  I saw a child, at least 3 years old, lounging at
>the pool with a PLUG in her mouth. I wanted to scream! I couldn't help but
>to feel that the mother was lazy. Surely she has gotten flack about it
>(wouldn't a mom who is nursing that long in our culture?), so I figured she
>must think it is too much trouble to take it away. I know I shouldn't judge.
>But...

In defence of this mum - as much as I also hate the 'plug', 12 years ago I
probably would have gone insane (or worse still, may have hurt my baby)
without it. He had atypical colic, for 5 long months, and in that time
became addicted to the dummy. We did everything we could think of to wean
him from it (my husband particularly hated it, and kept pulling it out of
our child's mouth when in public!) and he finally weaned himself of it at 4
years of age. We progressed to 'only at home', to 'only at bedtime', to
'get up out of bed to get it', at which point he couldn't be bothered! By
the way, this child weaned from the breast at 2 years, so he does not
demonstrate the effect of early weaning due to pacifier use. Although, who
knows how long he would have continued breastfeeding without the dummy?? In
those days I thought 2 years was a very long time to breastfeed.

When our second baby came along, we were determined to not have a dummy
again. So she found her thumb within a few weeks and finally weaned herself
off this at age 7!! The dummy was easier to get rid of! She also breastfed
for over 2 years. Now I wait in trepidation for the orthodontic problems.
And I thought I'd been doing the best for my babies by breastfeeding them
for so long. It just goes to show you can only do your best with the
information you have at the time.

Joy Anderson IBCLC, NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia
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