Fern Michonski / Fern’s Music
Pre-School Music Education Expert: The Children’s Advocate for Love and Kindness, Inspiring Creativity and Joy.
May 2, 2012—Children & Pacifiers—the positive and the negative.
Should very young children use pacifiers or not? I’m sure many parents wonder about that question, including myself. My middle son was born sucking his thumb. He never stopped! By the time he was 5 years old I was quite concerned. My dentist told me thumb sucking could cause significant trouble when his big teeth started coming in and the school stated he should not be sucking his thumb when he entered kindergarten. I realized something had to be done, so I went out and purchased the stuff you paint on your child’s thumb that tastes dreadful. Sure enough, it worked. Before too long, the thumb sucking habit had ended—along with his ability to easily fall asleep! Sucking his thumb was comforting to him and helped him relax. Now that he was no longer sucking his thumb, calming down and falling asleep became an issue. However, his blankie became his new comfort.
When my second son was born, I asked my pediatrician what he thought about thumb sucking verses a pacifier. I never was a fan of pacifiers, but I was hoping to avoid the thumb sucking issues I had endured with my older son. His advice was great. As he explained it to me, babies are born with a need to suck. This is a very good, positive thing. He recommended giving my newborn son a pacifier right away and to allow him to suck on it as much as he wanted to—until 4 months of age. By then, his natural desire to suck would be satisfied. By removing it at 4 months, he would probably not start sucking his thumb and would not develop the bad habit of demanding to have a pacifier in his mouth all of the time. I decided to give it a try. He had a pacifier until he was 4 months old. When he reached that point, I simply took it out of his mouth one day and threw it into the trash! Gone. No crying. No complaining. No thumb sucking. It was simply over. However, I replaced his pacifier with his special teddy bear and blankie.
Having been through this situation, I now have very strong opinions regarding pacifiers. Yes. I think a pacifier is a good thing for a newborn infant. Giving a newborn a pacifier satisfies their inborn desire to suck, while preventing the beginning of a thumb sucking habit. However, I do agree with my pediatrician that removing the pacifier when the baby is under 6 months old is imperative. Otherwise, rather than having a thumb sucking habit, you have a pacifier habit, both of which are hard to break. On top of that, once the baby is crawling and walking, thumb sucking and pacifier sucking gets very dirty and is unhealthy. Dropping it, putting it back into their mouth, etc., is a breeding ground for infections, colds and viruses. In addition, I believe learning how to talk is slowed down significantly when the child constantly has a pacifier in their mouth. It is simply a bad habit. Instead, I would recommend a warm, fuzzy blanket . A blanket offers comfort, it’s soothing, huggable, washable and doesn’t affect teeth, speech development or going to school! In my opinion, a blankie is the perfect buddy that can even be tucked away into a drawer forever.
All three of my children had their own special blankie. Even as adults, when asked about their blankies, they get a smile on their faces. Needless to say, this inspired me to write a song. Please enjoy My Blankie, track 7 on my “Kids! Off To Dreamland With Fern!” CD.
