Rachel reports,

> "The pacifier may be essential for infants.  Children who use pacifiers
> during sleep cut their risk of SIDS in half, new research shows.
> Pacifier children strengthen the musculature in their throats and the upper
> part of their trachea.
> The children sleep more lightly when they use a pacifier, and the
> researchers believe that children who die of SIDS, sleep deeply.
> Department director Lorenz M. Irgens at the Medical Birth Registry says a
> pacifier recommendation can come this fall."
>
Well, this sounds suspiciously like some bits & pieces of the research that
Peter Fleming did in Great Britain awhile back.  What he found was that babies
that used pacifiers had more arousals than babies that didn't -- but of
course, we know that breastfeeding babies have more arousals and don't sleep as
deeply as formula fed infants.  I think there was a greater incidence of SIDS in
the infants that usually took pacifiers, but didn't have it on the night they
died.  What I got out of the article was that formula fed infants may actually
have decreased incidence of SIDS if they use pacifiers because they don't
sleep as deeply.  Breastfed babies don't need them.

I don't remember the bit about increasing the musculature in their throats
and upper part of their trachea.....and I didn't recall that it would cut the
SIDS rate in half!!

Sorry I can't put my fingers on the citation right now.

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, RLC
Wheaton, Illinois
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

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