My children have always LOVED their paci…and given that I love a little serenity in my life, I am not to “anti” to these little “suckers” either! Unfortunately, there exists a fine line in society where pacifiers shift from an acceptable soother for young babies to an unnecessary accessory for growing toddlers! Not only are new parents concerned about their little one becoming dependent upon their pacifier far longer than they really should…but there are also the dental risks that come with allowing our children to suck to their hearts content!
Read below as Molly, our resident dentist, weighs in on this hot topic – shedding light on both the pros and the cons to pacifiers.
We’ve all heard the warning that pacifiers will cause our children to have bad teeth if we allow them to use them for too long. What is your advice to parents regarding pacifiers and at what age do you recommend the children be completely done (day and night) with the paci?
Pacifiers are considered a must-have for most parents. They can be very beneficial for infants but they can also be very damaging if they are used for a prolonged time. Pacifiers have some great benefits such as lowering the risk of SIDS in infants, soothing a child to sleep or calming a child at those unwanted Doctor's appointments. Pacifiers also have many cons as well. They can interfere with speech development, infants that use pacifiers are more likely to get middle ear infections, and the biggest concern is damage to permanent teeth. Permanent teeth start erupting between 5-6 years old, so the child should definitely not be using a pacifier at that age. I would recommend weening the child off the paci between age 2-3. Start by letting them have the paci just at nap time and night time, and maybe stressful times (like those trips to the Doctor). The earlier you can stop the paci habit, the better. However, it is important to remember that a pacifier habit is much easier to break than a thumb sucking habit!
For those of us that have braved the dreaded task of weening our child off of his/her paci, we know that there are a number of tricks needed to successfully break them free from this habit. We want to hear your tricks…what did you do that worked for your little one?
Right when we returned home from a visit with my sister and her family, I told my 18-month-old that we left the "pacis" for the baby, aka her younger cousin. I threw them all away so that I would not give her one in a moment of weakness. She was a paci-lover, but surprisingly she seemed satisfied with my explanation and never asked again. I had been dreading the paci weaning, but it was so easy, who knew???
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