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Before my first baby was born I was warned several times by other parents about the dangers of pacifiers. “Don’t let your baby get addicted to pacifiers,” they would warn in hushed tones. “You don’t want your child to head to kindergarten sucking on a pacifier, do you?” I didn’t know much about babies and their habits, but by the time I was ready to have my baby I was sufficiently warned that pacifiers were an inevitable addiction.

Here is what nobody told me: not all babies will take to pacifiers. I did try to give my daughter a pacifier once it became evident that she was treating my nipples as the pacifier, but lo and behold she spit the pacifier out and gave me a look as if to say, “Who do you think you’re kidding, Mom?” Other moms at playgroups would look at my daughter sans pacifier and tell me how lucky I was that she wasn’t hooked like their babies. Yes, it was great long term, but there were many times when my daughter was upset or resisting a nap when I really wished I could have popped a pacifier in her mouth to calm her down. To make things even more interesting, right around the time my daughter was a newborn the widespread acceptance of pacifiers as reducing the risk of SIDS became news. Suddenly pacifiers weren’t the enemy anymore, but my daughter still wanted nothing to do with them.

When my son was born we wasted no time in introducing a pacifier. He used one with gusto only once: after his circumcision. Every time thereafter it was the same familiar scenario…he would spit the pacifier out of his mouth and give me a quizzical look. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with weaning my kids off pacifiers, but believe me there were plenty of times when I wished they would have embraced that particular addiction.

Tags: habits, pacifier, SIDS