The connection between pacifiers and SIDS is not that pacifiers cause SIDS.
In fact, it may be the WITHDRAWAL of pacifiers from the baby who needs one
which is the issue.  I was surfing on the internet one night looking for
info on tongue-tie for a presentation I was preparing, and came across a
fascinating paper by some Japanese researchers on thumb-sucking and apnea.
They were interested in the question:  is thumb and finger sucking just a
habit  some babies develop or some sort of survival mechanism?

They discovered that some infants have apnea problems which they attempt to
control with non-nutritive sucking. These babies have brains which somehow
don't keep breathing going very efficiently during sleep.  Another center in
the brain controls breathing during sucking, so the babies figure out that
if they can do NNS during sleep, they don't have as many apnea episodes.
The researchers monitored this activity and decided the babies weren't
habituated, they were protecting themselves.  This work rang a bell with me
when Peter Fleming presented his work on pacifiers and SIDs at the recent
BSC conf.  (he published this research in March issue of Pediatrics).  The
study he presented discussed whether pacifier use is protective against
SIDS.  He found some  evidence for this, and calls for more research to see
whether these findings hold.  I suspect the mechanism may be the same as
with digit sucking.  It really made me wonder about the breastfed babies we
all have known who just hang on the breast and want to nurse all night.  Are
they using the breast the same way?  I never have believed organisms do
things just for the hell of it.  There is almost always a reason for
behavior.

 It must of course be pointed out that pacifier use has other risks
associated with it -- shorter duration of bfg, higher rates of infection,
thrush, etc.  But it is interesting to see how some of the objects we have
strong antipathy  to may have utility.  An open mind is the best tool of the
scientist.

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates, Austin, Texas
http://www.jump.net/~bwc/lactnews.html

             ***********************************************
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