Pacifier Question...

Bryan will be 2 months old tomorrow and I have not introduced him to the pacifier. IMO just a habit to break in the future is always how I felt.
However, it seems that in order to fall asleep he needs something to suck on. What he has been doing is drinking one or 2 ozs of a bottle then falls asleep. I feel like he is ALWAYS eating.
Should I introduce the pacifier just for falling asleep? Is it worth it?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

ETA: He will drink a full bottle but at times look for more. At times he ends up spitting it up.

Message edited 3/14/2007 4:22:20 PM.

Re: Pacifier Question...

I think if you haven't introduced the pacifier then I wouldn't start now.

It could be that he is hungry and that is why he does that.

Re: Pacifier Question...

We gave Lily the pacifier pretty early on. I debated too because I was afraid of starting the habit and then having a hard time later, but it does soothe her many times. I recently read that the habit should be broken before they turn 1. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now it seems to be working. I may start only giving it to her when she sleeps soon. In your situation, my opinion is that he is looking for something to suck on and is not really hungry so it might be a good idea to give it to him only when he's falling asleep. But, again that's JMO and I'm still a pretty new mom too. (Lily's only 4 months old.) Good luck!

Re: Pacifier Question...

Thank You ladies. My sister babysat tonight and I am so proud that Bryan went 4 hours in between bottles.
We will see what happens tomorrow.
I am still debating. Maybe let him suck on it until he falls asleep, then just slowly take it away...
Thank You again.

Re: Pacifier Question...

IMO a lot if not most babies have the desire to suck and for most a pacifier/thumb meets this need. If he is hungry he'll let you know and won't want the pacifier but I wouldn't offer him bottles to go to sleep because that's a worse habit to break.

Re: Pacifier Question...

Jacob never liked the pacifier...he found his hand right after he was born and uses that when he wants to suck!

Re: Pacifier Question...

With both DC, we didn't want to start them on the paci, but after a while, they both wanted to suck on something, but we were giving them too much formula. Once we gave them the paci, they were happier and on a much better weight-gaining curve. IMO it's easier to break the paci habit then thumb sucking, and giving them a bottle when they just want to idly suck on something might be a hard habit to break too, and possibly cause weight issues (probably not, but we didn't want them using food as a soother).

Re: Pacifier Question...

I also didn't want to have to deal with breaking the paci habit. But, DD was given one in the nursery at the hospital and it definately soothed her. We continued to use it after we brought her home. At around 2-3 months, she found her thumb and for a while preferred that but I thought that would be harder to break so I kept pushing the paci again. Well, she is now 10 months and takes the paci every time she goes to bed. But she knows that when she is getting out of bed that she has to give it to me. It has become a little game for her. So, I don't mind her having it, as I don't expect her to be walking around all day with it. She does take it sometimes when she is upset while in the car too. Also, when she was younger and she was crying, I would offer it to her before the bottle. If she was content with it, then I knew that she only needed to suck. If she sucked a few times and then spit it out, I knew she was truly hungry. As a new mom, I didn't want to be overfeeding her and I couldn't really tell when she was hungry and when she was just fussy so this seemed to help me.

HTH.

Re: Pacifier Question...

DD made it through the 1st 3 months of her life without a paci. I started to wean her and noticed she was using me as a pacifer and it didn't want to over feed her.

We gave her the paci, but I Weaned her at 9 months, i should have done it earlier. She only used it for naps and night time.