Dear Lori, I think pacifiers have their place, some babies really enjoy
them in the early months and if they  did all that sucking at the breast
they'd be enormous (gain tons of weight).  But nowadays they are so
ubiquitous.  Virtually all babies seem to be given a pacifier with little
thought.  Many parents use them as a plug - to shut the baby up, not to
satify sucking needs.

Then thepaci becomes a habit for the baby and I see children 2 years -4 & 5
years running around with pacifiers, and speech problems and rashes on
their faces and probably (I'm not a dentist, but....) dental problems.
Parents miss the time around 5 -7  months when a baby doesn't have such
intense sucking needs and miss the chance to  get rid of them. (After all
the pacifier is attached to the front of the kid's clothes with this nice
little pacifier minder that is sold everywhere).

New research implied that pacifiers past 6 mo contribute to otitis media.

Now that was just about pacifiers in general.

Pacifiers and breastfeeding in the early learning period are a no-no.  The
baby wastes time and energy on the pacifier when s/he should be at the
breast, stimulating and establishing mom's milk supply.  A report in Lancet
1993 said that pacifiers were associated with decreased duration of
breastfeeding.  An on-line Peds article from 1999 associated pacifiers with
shorter duration of BF and the same association was not found with thumb
sucking (interesting.)

The most graphic case I ever saw was a young 1st time mom who called me in
a panic because her previously gaining baby boy was dx FTT at his 4 mo
health check.  I asked her to come see me and she did that day.  She
arrived carrying the baby in with pacifier plugged in.  I couldn't see
anything wrong with his suck or transfer of milk. Diapers were so-so, bare
minimum. I asked her to go  home and not use the pacifier.  To only nurse
whenever he wanted.  In 3 days he gained 12 oz!!!!!!!  Her supply came
right up in response to increased nursing - problem solved. But what if she
hadn't asked?  She would have simply added the bots and figured she was one
more mom who  didn't make enough milk.

So I  have mixed feelings about pacifiers and breastfeeding.  If baby is
gaining heaps and bounds and seems to need to   suck then they are probably
useful  for a few months.  But they are used too early, too often and then
too long!
Sincerely, Pat in SNJ

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