Pacifier or no

Whats your opinion on pacifiers? (dummys). Have you given your baby one straight away or have you not given them one at all as a baby? I'm still deciding whether we should or not and want to know the pros and cons of them

Yes they saved my life and sanity......

Besides baby have a natural instinct to suck......and you can't have them attached to your booby all the time.....LOL

Sometimes they want to suck even tho they are not hungry. I see nothing wrong with it...it is when you see a 3 yr old walking around with a dummy in it's mouth that is wrong.........I got mine off of them between 8-12 months.

I've had five children and none of them had a pacifier. (I wrote it in my instructions to not let the nursery staff give them pacifiers before being discharged also.)

It can really interfere with nursing. That said...it is an individual decision. If you're careful, you may not have any problems and it may be a godsend for you. It just happened that I didn't need to use them. I am with MeShell...wean them early if you do use one. I see mothers collecting them every morning from some of the kids in the nursery class at the twin's school...seems a bit odd to me!

I couldn't breastfeed......bad boobs.....l

So they were a great help to me.......as 2 out of 3 of mine had colic from hell!

Neither of mine ever took to a dummy and I at least let them try it. But I totally agree with MeShell, I dont think a three old child needs a dummy and I've also seen kids as old as five with them in their mouths.    But that's just my opinion.  

I have heard  only good things about them..  some kids don't take to them  ..I never really wanted one  my mom says  but my sister couldn't get rid of hers until the neighbor kids made fun of her..  she may have been  2.. and my nieces  had to  be  talked  out of theirs.. they made a big production about it..  and when they went  to  Disneyworld  my sister  had  built up to  the fact that they were going to  give  them  to Ariel  the Little Mermaid,.. she freaked out because they  ended  up seeing her early in the day  so she thought they'd  be a nightmare the rest  of the day..but they were fine..

My two nieces never took to dummies, they took to their thumbs and now at 4 and 6 they still suck them when sleeping and my brother and SIL are STILL trying to break that habit.
My DH and I always said we would not give our child a dummy but at 7 weeks after a night of screaming we gave in and she took to it and loved it and that started our YEAR of not sleeping.  We only gave her the dummy for naps and bedtime and thru the night she would wake up crying between 5-15 or more times a night...we would go in and give her the dummy and back to sleep she would go. She did not wake up every time the dummy fell out, but she would usually go back to sleep when we gave it back to her...maybe because we were so sleep deprived for so long, that after trying EVERYTHING to get her to sleep thru the night, we finally just took the dummy away and two nights later she was sleeping thru and has been every since. What a difference a full nights sleep makes for a happy mom, dad, wife and husband!!

They can be helpful, but I agree with the others...wean them from it early!!

It depends on the child.  Neither DH nor I ever fancied a dummy.  DD, however, was a very 'sucky' baby.  I gave her one when she was about a week old and it was a lifesaver. 

As for weaning them off it, IMO kids give things up when they're ready.  We've let her be her own guide.  She still has one at night.  It's not the end of the world.

Aillidh is a very mellow, contented child who does things at her own pace and never seems to get too bent out of shape by much.

I'd wait and let your child tell you what she wants.

I had my first son, Jordan at at military hospital. After I had him they took him away for a few hours and brought him back with a pacifier in his mouth! They never asked me! Well he became dependent on it so I let him have it. When I was preg with Brett two years later Jordan still had it so I told him he could have it until the new baby got here and then the new baby would have to have it. It worked! The day Brett was born Jordan threw away his binky. Jordan was the only one out of the four that had one. The rest just weren't interested. Each baby is different. Let them decide

Neither one of my kids would take a pacifier....but they loved their thumbs nearly from day one.  If you can get your baby to take a dummy, it's probably an easier habit for them to break than thumb-sucking....

Having said that, my sister's boys wouldn't take a pacifier and never took to sucking their thumbs either, although Wyatt enjoys a good suck at the back of his hand....I suspect your little one will make her feelings on the matter known! 

Well on our mid-pregnancy scan she was sucking her thumb, and on the 37 week scan yesterday,she was sucking her toes...so chances are shes gonna want a pacifier lol

Aillidh calls it a 'dubeet'.  

Neither of my boys took a dummy, either.  Bought and tried them, but they just weren't interested.

First one was a bottle baby, second was a breast baby.  Both sucked their thumbs in a very casual way - had no problem breaking them of the "habit."

Cannot stand seeing a child who can walk and pretty much talk with a dummy in it's mouth - actually talking AROUND the dummy...

My family calls them "ninnys" and before I had my son I swore I'd never give him one. HA! That changed in a hurry! LOL  It was a lifesaver and he had no problems giving it up at some point. Don't sweat the decision now. See how it goes.

My husband and I were very anti-pacifier when my son was born.  He didn't seem to need one, so everything seemed fine.  However, at about three weeks he began to scream and scream and scream.  We tried everything we could think of, and once we'd run out of ideas decided to try out a pacifier we'd received in a gift basket.  He loved it.  It was never a problem with breastfeeding, but I think that's because he didn't get one right away.  He still uses it (only for naps and bedtime) and will be two this month.

If I could do it again, I would have weaned him off of it a long time ago.  Unfortunately, right now he's at an awkward age to do it - he understands us, but can't quite communicate to us his thoughts.  Once his language is better in a few months, we're going to try to get rid of it.  My biggest fear (aside from potty training!) is that he'll be one of those five year-olds running around with a pacifier.