The great pacifier debate

Soothers may calm babies, but they stress out parents. All your questions answered

Astrid Van Den Broek,

Originally published in Today's Parent May 2007

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Why won’t she stop crying?
As I hovered over my four-week-old daughter’s bassinet, her wails filling the house, I was out of my mind with frustration. I’d tried everything to soothe her, but nothing worked. In my hand, I held a pacifier. Desperate, I popped it in. Her little mouth latched on. She fell asleep almost immediately. I, on the other hand, was in tears. I felt like a failure for not being able to calm her myself. Guilt flooded over me.

My worries are very different from those of a few generations ago. Back then, pacifiers were relied on heavily and came only with a slight warning of giving children an oral fixation. Today, parents often hesitate to give one to their children: What if it creates nipple confusion? How do I take it away? When should I give it to her? Will it hurt her teeth? To soothe parents’ pacifier panic, we took these questions to a host of experts.

What does a pacifier do?
Comfort, comfort, comfort. Sucking on a pacifier satisfies the sucking reflex infants are born with, says Denis Leduc, former president of the Canadian Paediatric Society. “Some babies won’t accept a pacifier and won’t be comforted by it, but others really need it.”

What are the benefits of soothers?
Pacifiers are an easy and non-medicinal comfort technique to ease pain, whether it be from a booster shot or surgery. And in 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised that giving infants pacifiers may lower the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). However, it should be noted that experts around the world continue to debate whether pacifiers play a role in preventing these deaths.

But, of course, what usually drives parents to reach for a pacifier is the simple hope that it will help their babe sleep better. To a parent with a fussing baby, that’s a huge benefit.

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