i don't see why not

i went to a breastfeeding class that said they should never be used because that is just masking if the child has a need ( i.e. crying is the last sign a baby shows when they are hungry)
i think there fine to be given i just cannot stand to see older children with them in there mouth!! i can just see there gums and teeth being ruined. i say if you go with the same rule of thumb as the bottle, have them off it by 12 months, then its fine

that's weird. it's a fact that babies love to suck, that's what pacifiers are for initially. later it becomes a comfort item.

what you said (and i know *you* didn't say it) makes it sound like people only use them if the baby is crying, as if to shut them up.

yeah i didnt agree with when they said that. Plus i was thinking what about when they teeth and what not. who knows.. i had to take the class and i think it may just be a more liberal way of parenting. that a child cries for attention and there is always a reason for them needing that attention. personally, i think sometimes babies are just fussy.

I have to say that .I was against giving .Jaylon a binky (we call it the boop) at first. When my daughter was a baby, she loved the boop she got from the hospital and it was the only one she liked. When it wore out, there was no more boop, because we couldn't get another one, and .I remember how she cried and cried, because she loved it so. I vowed .Jaylon would never have one.

Well, he loved to suck and suck and suck, so since he was breastfed, if he didn't have a boop, guess what he would have been sucking on? O.U.C.H!!! I was a human pacifier.

I gave in and agreed to let him have one, but only if it was one that .I could walk into any store and buy, so if we lost one it would be easy to find another.
He loves his boop too. He's a happy baby, and .I know his hungry whines, so we don't use it then. He just likes to suck on it.

I know in breast feeding classes they say don't use one in the beginning because it confuses them. You want your newborn to be able to get a good latch on the breast and know that the breast is the only thing they are going to get fed from. Once they have established that, it's fine.

I already bought one for .Luke but I am going to wait to use it till he has established breastfeeding first.

I don't know if this is true but I heard that if you give one of them to the baby while they sleep then it could reduce the chance of sids. Again, I can't remember where I read that so don't take it as truth

they do say that about pacifiers and sids. i think it's something to do with the sucking keeps them semi-conscious and they can't fall into that deep deep sleep.

i wanted finn off his by 9 months. well, that's not going to happen. he's almost 8 months and he's more attached to it than ever, especially now that he's teething. i hope to start weaning him off it by a year and if he can't get off it i'll take it away cold turkey at 18 months.

he pretty much constantly has one in his mouth, i don't even know how that happened. i'll tell you, the happiest day in my life (ok, i'm exaggerating... a little) was the day he learned how to put it in his mouth on his own.

today he did something silly, he had a binky in his mouth and pulled up on the coffee table and saw another one. he spit out the one in his mouth and replaced it with the new one he found.

Finn is so cute! He just has the cutest personality! Anyways, I think that it is okay for babies to have a pacifier it's just whenever they are 3-4 yrs old and they still have one. It's kinda sad to see that.

Trey still sleeps with his at night (well 3 actually) weird kid. I've tried and tried and tried but he'll stay up to 2 am just crying for it. (I put him down at 7.30) I'm here alone and I work so i can't be up every night like that. It is only at night and it will be gone in the next 2 months. It's the only thing that I hate out of his habits. he didn't have one for the first 3 months. He would only suck on my pinky finger (even after I stopped breast feeding) I needed my finger back like c needed her boob-lol

jesslayla still has hers on a night to go to bed with but she sleeps with her mouth open so it falls out once she's asleeps

I flat-out refused to take one as a baby, according to my parents. However, I think if an infant is happy using one, then why not let them have it? I agree with .Bridget; weaning should be done before the kid hits 2 years of age.
When i was in nyc on thursday, the kid sitting in the row in front of us in the theatre must have been five years old, and he was sucking on a pacifier. i was disgusted. once you have teeth and basic verbal skills, the pacifier is a no-no.

I really really don't like dummies. The way i see it is babies coped perfectly well when they wern't invented so don't necesserilly need them. My sister doesn't like them either but her daughter was advised to have one because she had very very bad colic and a dummy was the only thing that would soothe it for her, for that reason i don't mind them but i don't think people should plan to have them before the baby is born because the baby might not have needed one and then you have the problems of getting them to stop using one when they didn't even need it. Also the thing that i hate the most about them is when you see people out with their children one's crying and she says 'oh won't you just shut up' and shoves a dummy in it's mouth

Yes I think they should be given to babies for comfort. I was advised not to give jay one because i decided to breastfeed him and it can make it difficult as sucking a nipple and a pacifier are different. But after a few weeks I thought he was used to breastfeeding, and he had colic really bad so I tried to give him a pacifier on a few occasions. He wouldnt take it, I wish he had. There were so many times I thought if only he had one it would comfort him immediately and he'd stop crying or sleep longer.
From around 18 months I would only let the child have it when they sleep, and take it away completely between 2 and a half -3 yrs. It would have to be one of those types that dont affect how the teeth grow also.

I don't see any problem with them. If it comforts them, then that's great. I think it's silly when people get all up in arms over babies or toddlers with pacifiers. Give me a break.

I have no problem with pacifiers. Pacifiers are soothing for babies and it comforts them. At first I didnt want my daughter to have a pacifier for a while b/c I was breastfeeding, but the hospital gave her one night which angered me. But luckily I was still able to breastfeed her. Anyways, my daughter isnt always depending on a pacifier when she sleeps or naps. I usually give her one when she gets pretty fussy.

my first daughter hated them n wouldnt ever take them which sucked when she was sick or teething as she didnt want anything but mummy n she teethed for 2 months before getting her first teeth
my son loved his dummy he didnt use it all the time but as he got bigger he used it as a comfort then he threw it away himself
n isabella has a dummy as a comfort too only when she is hugely unsettled do i give it to her not if she is just having a little cry i dont see why kids shouldnt be aloud to cry
babies cry when they r born as a way of telling u something is wrong or they want something if ur constantly putting a dummy in their mouth its pretty much ignoring what they have to say if u get me :/

i don't have a problem with pacifiers really. i don't think most pediatricians have a problem with them either so i'll use them if they will help buy me a few seconds here and there when i'm looking for a place to breastfeed or something like that. i don't think there is anything wrong with a baby crying but sometimes if they get really worked up it's hard to calm them down. they don't cry for nothing, but they don't really understand the concept of waiting for anything either. i think after they are a year old it's time to start weaning them off of it. i wouldn't see them as a first option either, i would go through the list of things to check for when baby cries before just popping it in their mouth.

if there is one thing about them that really bothers me it is when people clean them off by putting them in their own mouth then sticking it in baby's mouth. i think that's just wrong. adult mouths have a lot more germs in them than babies do. babies never have bad breath because they only eat one thing and their mouths are always full of saliva. i don't think they have to be totally sterilised all the time but just rinse them with water and clean them with hot soapy water once in a while. don't stick it in your own mouth.

I for one would have gone insane by now if I didn't give .Kaylee her binky! It calms her right down for bedtime but I plan on trying to take it away by the time she's one. Also when she was a newborn up til she was around 3 months or so it made me feel a little better knowing she had her binky & they reduce the risk of sids.

It's a comfort thing like any other. (special blanket, special toy etc)
Why not let them have it? what's the difference between a child having a suck of a pacifier vs a tddler or even school aged child dragging a special blanky around? I've seen parents allow a child to bring their special thing to school with them, and even seen schools that encourage it.

If a child is really hungry or in pain, then the comfort item will not fix that. There is no chance of a child being malnurished just because they suck on a pacifier- they'll still get hungry and throw that thing right at you if you keep trying to give it to them instead of food!

I had a pacifier, I kept it until I was about 4, my teeth are perfect. Mys siter went off hers earlier- preferred her thumb. Her baby teeth were a bit wonky, her adult teeth are regular.
My yougest siter was still having a suck when she was in school. Her teeth are fine too.

My middle sister used to like rubbing a piece of materoial between two fingers, or toes- that was her comfort thing- she still does it from time to time. I've seen loads of kids do that- why is nobody concered about damage to the childrens finger joints, or bones? Nobody says- "that child will get arthritis"????

The odds of a soft well sucked (have you ever noticed kids prefer a pacifier that's been well "broken in") pacifier causing permanent damage to a childs teeth are negligable.
Yet, people get all upset about it.

Do what works for you and the child. No matter what the comfort thing is, the child will grow oiut of it themselves eventually.
Not many people are bringing binky, blanky or ted on their honeymoon!!!