I know that some people have found pacifiers useful. I've heard nurses at
the hospital in the community where I used to live say that "every baby
should have a pacifier."

My observations are more over the long term, though. As a "volunteer group
leader" I see mothers and their babies usually a couple of times a month,
over a period of several months, and I frequently see the pacifier having a
negative effect on breastfeeding, especially as the baby gets older.

What I see is the baby learning to go to sleep with the pacifier so that if
he's tired, he may even refuse the breast in favour of the pacifier. If he
wakes up, he doesn't nurse - he gets the pacifier popped back in his mouth.
Then, as he gets older, he can crawl around or walk around with the pacifier
in his mouth, so that those "touch base" nursings that mobile babies are
usually doing are missed. He bumps his head, and he doesn't go back to mom
for a quick nurse, he just sits and sucks harder on his pacifier for a
while. I do think all those quick moments at the breast contribute to
keeping up mom's milk supply and to making the breastfeeding relationship
what it is.

And I do see these babies weaning earlier than I think they would otherwise.
Because they rely on the pacifier for comfort sucking, rather than the
breast, they lose interest in breastfeeding more quickly. Usually it is the
nursing-to-sleep feedings that are the last to go when children wean - but I
find that with babies who use pacifiers, that's the first to go.

I've had some challenges with an overly generous milk supply (due in part to
tandem nursing) where my baby wanted to suck but didn't want the rapid flow
of milk. I let her suck on my finger. This meant she was also still in my
arms as she sucked, a more complete kind of comfort. That's what I tend to
recommend to people who ask about similar problems.

Again, I do think some people use pacifiers without big problems. My
sister-in-law used one with her son for a short time, again because she had
a very generous milk supply, but she decided to always hold him in her arms
while he sucked on the pacifier. Within a few months, he lost interest in it
and was able to get all the sucking he needed at her breast.

But I do think it can contribute to early weaning, and not solely because
babies with sucking problems are more likely to be given pacifiers.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html