Baby Pacifiers
As is true of many products that affect our personal lives a great deal, there are a fair amount of legends and myths about pacifiers that can affect your willingness to give one to your baby in her first year of life. It isn’t as though pacifiers are some perplexing new invention that came out of the space race that has not been "mom tested". Moms have been using pacifiers virtually as long as there has been moms, which is, obviously, forever.
The truth is that if parents don’t provide a pacifier to a child, the baby will come up with one. Who has not seen a baby put her toes or fingers in her mouth or try to suck on her clothing, the arm of a chair or on dads earlobe just to get that sensation that a good pacifier satisfies? That is why it is far better to provide a safe pacifier that is designed to meet the baby's need for oral comfort and to do so in a sanitary way with a pacifier that was designed for this purpose.
One urban myth or rumor that went around for a number of years was that pediatricians and dentists in particular were critical of the use of the pacifier because, in theory, they change the shape of the baby's jaw and affect how baby's teeth will develop in that first two years of life. This one concern has caused a lot of moms to shy away from buying a professionally made pacifier for her newborn.
That discussion occurred several decades ago and has since been recanted by the medical community. In fact, modern pediatricians actually advocate the use of a safe and well designed pacifier for the baby especially in the first year of life. The idea that it hurts tooth development has long ago been resolved. We know for a fact that it is a baby's nature to have such a strong sucking instinct as an infant because it is part of their survival mechanism. The rest of the body adapts to this instinct to such an extent that using a pacifier cooperates with the child's natural instincts which promotes good health over all.
The latest in research into the affect of pacifiers on the developmental growth of a baby have been overwhelmingly positive about the use of these simple comfort tools. In fact, some research has verified that the risk of SIDS goes down dramatically if the child is allowed to sleep with a pacifier. SIDS is a huge concern for parents so if a simple pacifier can reduce that worry, everybody including mom and dad and the baby will sleep a lot better at night.