Newborn NEEDS Pacifier to Sleep! Need Advice!

My daughter used a pacifier for the first few weeks and then switched to her thumb/hand for a while. Neither habit stuck but at 2 1/2 she bites her nails. She also has a blankie that she sucked the on the corners for some time. I think a lot of newborns need that sucking to self soothe which isn't a bad thing.
L.

Congrats on your new baby! Let me first say - you are lucky to have a baby who can comfort himself in this way. That bodes well for you getting some quality sleep in the near future! My older daughter never liked the binky, but my younger one screamed in the hospital until we put a binky in her mouth, and she was the happiest baby in the world after that. She pretty much had that binky in her mouth non-stop, sucking furiously on it, all the time until she was 2. I had been pretty much opposed to binkies until she was born, and then I realized, why take something away from her that comforts her and lets me get some sleep? When she turned 2, our dentist said to take it away from her because it was affecting her teeth. We did (it was easier than I thought it would be), and her teeth grew back into a perfectly normal position within about 2 months. She's a happy, adorable kid now that she is almost 3.

I hope this helps. I think the hardest part about having a newborn is knowing which stuff to really worry over. In my opinion the binky is something not to worry over too much. Just let it be - nobody ever went off to kindergarten with a binky in their mouth!

Current studies show that pacifiers can actually help reduce the risk of SIDS. If the baby keeps the sucking motion going throughtout the night, it is keeping them in a somewhat conscious (or more awake, not such a deep sleep) state. I would let the little one have what he needs and then work on the issue of attachment to the pacifier later on. Good Luck! For me, I later on wished I had used a pacifier, because at times, I felt like I was a human pacifier!

First, congrats on the new baby! Both of my sons had pacifiers; my one year old still does. Unfortunately, for me, they use them for sleep. Until they were old enough to put them in their own mouth, they did cry sometimes if they woke up without it. Mine would usually cry when it came out of their mouth suddenly, like they were moving their hand around and they would hit it out of their mouth. :)

Congratulations! I'm sure your newborn is absolutely beautiful!
Both of my children used pacifiers, and we also had the problem of them crying if they woke up without it in the night (until they were big enough to retrieve it themselves). But honestly, I'd rather deal with the pacifiers than with the alternatives. Babies seem to need something to help them soothe themselves. The pacifier habit is much easier to break than finger sucking. And my friend whose baby refused both the pacifier and fingers had tales of woe of how difficult it was when the baby really needed help soothing. So don't be too afraid of the pacie--it may be your best friend too sometimes. :)

From a parent of two pacifier users, I think it's perfectly OK. My son gave his up after about 10 months, but my daughter had to be bribed at the age of 2 1/2. Their peds dentist (and mother of two young kids) always has said she prefers pacifiers over thumbs. You can take away a pacifier, but not a thumb. One thing I will say against the pacifier is that you should try and take it out of their mouth once asleep. A friend of mine had two pacifier kids, her son used it until after four with no lasting effects. Her daughter on the other hand used it for almost three years and will have a lot of dental problems. The difference between the two her daughter sucked vigourously on the pacifier all night long and her son sucked on it until he fell asleep and then spit it out, maybe only sucking on it on occasion throughout the night. Hope this helps you make a decision.

My daughter (6 mo) sleeps with a pacifier. That's the only time she gets it. She now understands how to put it back in her mouth when it falls out but that takes a long time to learn b/c of the motor skills needed. If we dont' give her a pacifier she'll suck her thumb (a habit I don't want her to pick up since you can't take a thumb away.) In a few weeks your son will discover that he has hands and will begin to suck on them. If at that point you decide to stop using a pacifier he will probably start sucking fingers, thumbs or an entire fist.

If you decide to continue using a pacifier have it be a part of his sleep ritual and not an all the time thing. That should make it easier to quit when the time comes.

Good luck and congratulations on the new baby.

Let him have it.

Usually the babies that want pacifiers NEED them, and you will find that it is hard to comfort them without one. This was one of the (many) things that I changed my ideas about during the course of parenting. I had a similar belief about pacifiers when I started out. Before I became a parent in my opinion pacifiers were dumb things stuck in a kid's face to shut it up, and they were completely unnecessary. Wrong.
You won't be getting him "hooked" - he obviously already has that need. My daughter loved pacifiers, and my two boys spit them out right away and wouldn't have anything to do with them (they, on the other hand, were attached to a blankie and a thumb).

I could have not given my daughter a binky, but she would have been much less happy and it would have created a lot more work for me. When she was a toddler she would walk around with one tethered to her shirt and one in each hand. She really was a binky addict! And she was so cute!! (The sweetest ray of sunshine ever to grace the planet, and still is at 15.)

When she was two or three a dr. or a dentist recommended we break the habit, and in our case cutting the tip off worked. (I have the cutest memory of her looking really puzzled and concerned as her binky not only felt really weird but made an odd whistling sound.)

So my advice is give him all the binkys he wants and make life easy on yourself.

p.s. - Your getting up in the middle of the night just goes with the territory - it would be a unique situation indeed if you (unlike almost every other mother) got to sleep through the night with a new baby.

Congrats J.! Well I have used pacifiers and thumbs. I had one baby that just wanted to suck and I had to get up at night many times to get it back in her mouth. After awhile they learn to do it themselves or they don't need it so much. If you are up to it, you can try to let her work on getting her thumb or fingers. The nice thing is once they get it down, they never lose it. They stop waking you up at night to find it. I've had both and like the thumb sucking best. Good luck and best wishes.

Give it to him!! LOL...I have 2 kids and when it was time to take it away, I did. Some infants need that sucking motion as comfort. This is what I was told by a pediatrician. It didn't hurt anyone...unless the pacifier got lost. Then we were up in the middle of the night going to the store to buy a new one!! Give the child the pacifier and you both will rest well.

My children are both older now and have no issues that I can see (LOL) My son is 19 and serving in the U.S. Navy and my daughter is 11.

Sucking is an instinctive reflex that newborns need to be soothed...some more than others. It is not connected to hunger.

Trust me...your baby will not go to kindergarten with the pacifier. I am a big proponent of giving newborns whatever they need. When he gets a little older, he will wake up and find the pacifier himself...for now if it makes him happy then don't worry about it. Newborns wake up during the night even when they don't take pacifiers. My boys are 9 and 14...they both had pacifiers to sleep until they were 3 years old. They gave it up easily and there are no lasting "problems" because of it. If anything, it made them happier babies...and happy babies make happy moms!

Congrats on the baby! If it makes him happy, then why not use it? Everyone has different opinions, but do whatever works for you and baby. My daughter uses it to sleep every night, and I don't mind because that means I get sleep too.

Infants suck to soothe themselves - the action does not necessarily mean he is hungry, but it is one of those few innate abilities (such as breathing and swallowing) that newborns display. He is only one week old - if the pacifier helps him soothe himself to sleep, by all means, give him the binky! He cannot become "addicted" to it yet - so let yourself get some sleep. You will be experiencing the new mommy sleep deprivation boot camp bit for months still, so give yourself and your newborn a break. In fact, most pediatricians and child development professionals agree that giving your newborn a pacifier to suck on while sleeping unattended greatly reduces the rate of SIDS - it is believed that the pacifier in the mouth stimulates the child to suck and, in turn, to breathe. Often, newborns will "forget" to breathe because, well, they are just learning how to do it!
My daughter is just over two, and we are slowly weaning off the binky - she is allowed to have it at nap and bedtime only, and soon, we will make the transition to one binky, and then none.... the only reason I haven't done it sooner is because, well, I think I need her to have that binky more than SHE needs it! She has loved it since she was born, and I have to tell you, its gotten us through some difficult situations (late night emergency room visits, stitches, scraped knees) - I have not allowed its use to hinder her speech (and she is VERY talky) or compromise her teeth. She was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old (and thats 5-7 hours straight), nursed exceptionally well and gained weight fast - because of the binky, she learned the art of soothing herself at a very young age, and my hubby and I were rewarded with a child that, to this day, can sleep longer and more soundly in conditions that don't seem possible to sleep in! Since he IS so new, it may take him another week or so to get the "hang" of keeping the pacifier in his own mouth, but I would suggest letting him have one for at LEAST a few months until the risk of SIDS has decreased significantly (once a baby can roll over front front to back and back to front, they are capable of rolling themselves out of a situation that would have caused SIDS at a few months younger).