When Baby Rejects The Pacifier
When I was pregnant with my first child, I read article after article about how babies would get hooked on pacifiers. I read about moms who were desperate to figure out how to get their older babies to stop using their beloved pacifiers, how frequent pacifier use might cause delays in speech as well as eventual dental problems. I also read commentaries that stated these babies would never learn how to deal with their emotions if a pacifier was shoved in their mouths every time they got upset.
It seemed like the best solution to me was to simply not give my baby a pacifier. I announced to every nurse who came into the room after my baby was born that my daughter was under no circumstances to have access to a pacifier. Any pacifier we got as gifts was unopened and given to charity. It seemed like I was avoiding a huge hassle and felt good about what I was doing.
After a few weeks it became obvious that if my daughter wasn’t going to have access to a pacifier, I would become her pacifier. No matter why the baby was crying, which happens a lot with newborns- she wound up nursing. Whenever she was tired but wouldn’t fall asleep -which also happens a lot with newborns- she wound up nursing. I’d had enough, so I researched the best pacifiers online and then sent my husband out to buy a wide assortment. I was anxious to start her on pacifiers so I could get a little rest.
Some Babies Just Don’t Want a Pacifier
Guess what? She didn’t want anything to do with the pacifiers. I tried all the tactics the experts talked about to entice babies to suck on pacifiers, but it was all to no avail. She wasn’t having anything to do with pacifiers no matter what brand I presented and no matter what tactic I tried to use.
I wondered if the reason my daughter didn’t take to pacifiers was because I didn’t allow her to experience them in the first few weeks life, so when my son was born I wasn’t going to make the same mistake. I had pacifiers at the ready when he was born. I looked forward to the opportunity to give him an option to self-soothe that didn’t involve him spending long hours nursing when he wasn’t even hungry.
You may have guessed where this is going; he didn’t like pacifiers either. I was amazed because this time around I had set out with all the intentions in the world of getting him started on pacifiers early on and would just deal with any consequences later. The lesson learned is this: Some babies just don’t like pacifiers.
If you are like me, you have probably heard stories from seasoned parents who had to resort to the “Pacifier Fairy” or some other tactic to get their babies (or toddlers) to shed the pacifier habit, but you should know that your problem may instead be like mine. I never even got far enough with pacifiers to have to worry about weaning my babies from them.
I guess it just goes to show that you never really know what to expect when it comes to your baby.
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6 Responses to “When Baby Rejects The Pacifier”
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Jennifer says...
Mine never took it either – I was glad I didn’t have to wean her off. She almost panicked if we tired to offer her one.
Sandra says...
When my daughter was born I was the same way. I hated pasifiers. I didn’t want to use them because I always saw 2 & 3 year olds walking aroung with them & that was not going to happen with my daughter, but I did eventually come around & tried to see if she would like it, but to my amazement she didn’t like them at all. My son’s story about pacifiers is a little different. He has Congenital Heart Disease & right after he was born he had to have heart surgery. When I finally got to see him after the surgery he had a pasifier in his mouth and they told me they used it mainly so that he wouldn’t over exert himself from crying. Now my little man is 6 months and just had his second surgery just last month and is doing wonderfully. Of course he still sucks on the passy and I’m not looking anytime soon to take it from him. One day will, and hopefully it won’t be too hard.
KAt says...
My first son loved his paci and weaned off them just before his 1st birthday and never looked back UNTIL he broke his leg at 18 months. Here I was in the hospital with a screaming child, 7 months pregnant with #2 trying desperately to entertain and calm a very scared and hurt little boy. Amazing I found one at the bottom of the diaper bag and it calmed him down enough for them to transport him to higher level care (alone) while I followed. 2 month later when the body cast came off the paci disappeared and we never looked back. My 2nd son born shortly after wants nothing to do with the paci and has instead found his thumb. I think I preferred something I could take away
sarah says...
I finally got my daughter to take a pacifier after 2 months of nonstop screaming and now she’s 7 months and 2 weeks ago she just rejected the pacifier–cold turkey. And now I have NO IDEA how to get her to stop crying. and she has no idea how to stop crying herself. and bedtime has become impossible (jet lag doesn’t help). Any tips on how to get a pacifier-less baby to go to bed? we had both just gotten so dependent on the paci.