Baby's First Pacifer

Breastfed babies aren't supposed to be given a pacifer until they are at least 1 month old. Elise is almost 8 weeks old, so you can see that I've been struggling with the decision of whether to use a pacifer or not.

I don't come from a culture of pacifier use, so I don't instinctively think baby = pacifier. At the same time, I recognize that sometimes babies need to be soothed and you can't always give them exactly what they want exactly when thay want it.

I don't like it when people give babies pacifiers for every little reason. The baby's crying, so the first thing they reach for is the pacifier. The baby's sleepy, they reach for the pacifier. The baby's happy, they reach for the pacifier. The baby's breathing, so he must want his pacifier.

I believe that pacifiers should be a last resort for when the baby is upset. I think that usually there's something that the baby wants more than the pacifier-- food, a clean diaper, attention, a nap. That's just me, though. I don't want my baby dependent on a pacifier for happiness or to feel normal.

Elise REALLY doesn't like car rides. They stress her out. Sometimes she does okay, but once she gets upset, there's no calming her. And I obviously can't take her out of her seat and hold her while we're riding down the road. So I started to consider using a pacifier for these situations. She gets so stressed out, and I want to be able to...well, PACIFY her.

So I did some research. Basically what I found is that so long as you don't give pacifiers too soon or let the kid keep using them too late, pacifiers are probably okay. They might increase the instances of ear infections, but since I plan to use a pacifier so infrequently and only in specific instances (car rides, out in public when I can't feed her the instant she gets hungry and she's very upset about it) I'm not terribly concerned about her getting extra ear infections.

So today we were stuck in traffic. Bad traffic. And Elise started screaming. I tried singing to her and petting her head, which sometimes works. I tried shushing her. No dice. I decided to try a pacifier for the first time.

I could tell she was confused. She didn't seem to understand why she was sucking but getting no food. However, she didn't spit the pacifier out. She kept grumbling and looking generally miserable, but she wasn't screaming anymore. And eventually she fell asleep. Fitful, angry sleep, but sleep nonetheless.

So the pacifier was successful, I think.

Now I just have to keep myself in check and make sure that I'm not tempted to rely on it everytime we get in the car. I really don't ever want to have to break a "binky habit."