Does a baby need a dummy?
All healthy children immediately after birth have a pronounced sucking reflex. Thanks to him, babies get food from the mother's breast. Sucking helps the baby calm down and feel the comfort. That's why parents give babies soothers - to console or distract at the right moment. But does this accessory need babies or is it better to give it up?
Benefit
Thanks to the use of pacifiers, you can:
- Satisfy the sucking reflex in formula-fed babies.
- Reassure the child.
- To help the baby with the discharge of gases, as sucking will stimulate the motility of the digestive tract.
Most experts note that the dummy is a useful accessory for parents, and extremely rarely for kids.
Harm
Psychologists say that the main harm of the pacifier is that it replaces communication with mom and peers. Having calmed the baby with a dummy, the mother does not solve the child’s discomfort problem, but simply “closes the mouth” of the baby. The crumb remains with the nipple alone in the crib, while he would be better on her mother's hands, feeling her warmth and love.
Other negative aspects of the influence of the pacifier on the baby:
- Nipple can affect breast-feeding.
- Sucking a pacifier, the baby can fall asleep hungry, which causes poor weight gain.
- Dummy can be a source of infection, especially if it is bad to sterilize or lick an adult.
- On the material of the nipples in the baby may be allergic.
- When the baby has teeth, there is a risk that the baby bites off the nipples.
- Wean some children from the pacifier it can be very difficult.
Breastfeeding
Babies who receive breast milk on demand in the first 2-3 months of life are not recommended to give a pacifier. Take advantage of the nipple at this age can only be done without it. Having given a baby's dummy immediately after birth, there is a high risk of not breastfeeding.
According to specialists in breastfeeding, the nipple is an enemy of the nursing mother, since the baby’s satisfaction with the sucking reflex with the help of a pacifier will be an obstacle to sufficient breast sucking. Especially often there are problems with breastfeeding, if the mother has little milk or a tight nipple. In addition, when sucking a pacifier, it is not the muscles that are involved when sucking the breast. This leads to improper seizure of the breast, sucking only the front milk and the gradual failure of the baby from the breast. In mothers, the predilection of the baby for the pacifier can cause a lack of milk and trauma to the nipples.
It is also important to know that infants who constantly require a pacifier may do so due to malnutrition. In addition, in this way he can simply attract the attention of my mother.
When is she really needed?
Dummy worth using:
- For easily excitable kids who have trouble falling asleep.
- For babies who suck their fingers between feedings.
- In premature babies, if they need to increase the sucking reflex. Note that these children are taught to suck in a certain way.
- For babies whose mothers go to work early and are absent for more than four hours.
- In babies left without a mother.
Opinion E. Komarovsky
A famous doctor calls a dummy an interesting, but not at all obligatory thing for a small child. Moreover, Komarovsky says that if a crumb does not want a pacifier, then this is very good. Nevertheless, the pediatrician recognizes that such an accessory helps the baby to satisfy the sucking reflex, and for the mother - to take some time off from worries and crying.
He recalls that it is important to keep the pacifier clean, for which it should be regularly sterilized and stored in a special case.
Komarovsky also warns that mother should not be licked at the pacifier. He considers it wrong to compare people with animals that clean their young with the help of saliva, because animals live in completely different conditions than people.
Regarding the effect of the dummy on breast-feeding Komarovsky supports other pediatricians and recommends not using the nipple if the nursing mother has any problems with lactation.
Tips
It is not necessary to give the baby a pacifier in order to distract the child or to take his work, thereby reducing the time of communication with the mother. If you constantly try to stop the baby's crying through the nipples, then this can prevent the mommy from learning to understand the desires and needs of the baby more quickly.
- Do not leave your baby a dummy all day. If the pussy is already at that age when the babies begin to study the surrounding objects with the help of the mouth, the nipple can prevent to explore everything around. Remove the soother as soon as the child is distracted from it.
- When the baby fell asleep with a pacifier, the accessory from the sleeping baby should be carefully picked up.
- It is not recommended to lubricate the pacifier with juice or honey. There is a risk of allergic reactions and early development of caries.
- Do not abuse the dummy, then it will be much easier to part with this accessory. It is best to say goodbye to the nipple up to a year, but if the baby does not agree with this, wait for the age at which the child can be explained why he no longer needs the nipple.
