Dummy, Or Not Dummy?
To quote Shakespeare: “That is the question”.
Love them or hate them, soothers have been given to babies to comfort suck for as long as we can remember. In the past these have taken various forms including rags dipped in honey, a wolf’s tooth and a silver spoon! It was during the 1800s that the first ‘india rubber nipple’, a precurser to our modern dummy, was introduced.
Nowadays, manufacturers take a much more scientific approach and seek advice from medical professionals before putting a soother on the market. Rest assured that BornFree’s orthodontic range of soother and teethers are developed to encourage and protect natural oral development.
What are your views on using a pacifier? Could you not imagine getting through a day without giving your baby a dummy or do you vehemently disapprove of their use? Please leave a comment here or on our Facebook page sharing your views.
One person will be picked at random and given a choice of prize: either 2 packs of BornFree Clear Button Soothers or a Gumbrush Teether. Final entries by 7pm on Monday 20th Sept please.
For more information on the history of dummies please go to babybottle-museum.co.uk
UPDATE 20/09/10 Congratulations to Jordan who has been selected as the prizewinner. Thanks to everyone who left a comment here and on our Facebook fanpage.
Well I really never planned to give my son a dummy but at three weeks he just wouldn’t stop screaming and I gave in. It turned out he had reflux which was fortunately diagnosed swiftly so we could give him medicine to ease his pain. He is now nearly two and a half and has been at nursery full time since January. We have managed to wean him off the dummy except for night time sleeps. Am hoping we can give the dummy to the fairies at christmas because he is such a grown up boy now. It has definitely been a comfort to him – we may end up with just a muslin as a comforter when the dummy goes, but that’s ok with me!
I never intended on giving my son a dummy , it was only after a couple of weeks being born we thought it might help with the colic that we bought him some. I had read that they helped to reduce cot death so had no problem at all using it to help soothe and comfort him.
I weaned him off it at 9 months as I didnt think he needed it anymore , I despised taking photos of him when he had it in his mouth which was pretty much most of the time. Too wean him off it we just went cold turkey which was difficult but worked really well
According to scientist the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the third leading cause of infant death, could be lowered through the use of a dummy.
I think that alone is a good reason to give a baby a dummy, especially a premature baby. All three of mine had dummies and both my premature baby girls were give dummies whilst in NICU.
I said I NEVER would (one of the many self-righteous views I had on ‘parenting’ prior to having actually had children). Boo suffered colic-like symptoms and the only thing that helped was when he sucked on a finger. In order to have a life that didn’t involve working around using one hand whilst balancing my baby-sucking-finger with the other, we resorted to the dummy.
I was ashamed at first. I went to buy what we call a ‘dummy lead’ (fixes dummy to child’s clothing, thus avoiding screaming child in back of car / supermarket etc) from a pretty little baby store and got told ‘No sorry, dummies really aren’t that fashionable these days’ with a raised eyebrow from the snotty assistant. Now fully ordained into the world of motherhood (Boo is 19 months), I realise sometimes you just have to take what little help you can. Boo still has a dummy, he loves it though doesn’t need it all the time (and has recently started to give it back to me on occasion, which is unusual, but I’m happy to go with that) and we will stop using it. I don’t know when. We take each day as it comes. For now though, I will never say never again.
Well, i very naively was determined, when pregnant with my son, that he would not need, want or have a dummy. That all changed when he actually arrived & 1 week in, sent my husband to go & buy some! I haven’t looked back!
Pregnant again now, and i plan to pack some into my hospital bag for baby to have immediately!
hi, i didn’t mind if Erin had a dummy or not. My sister brought her son up without one and was always very determined but when erin was first born she had so many blood tests that a dummy (with sugar water on lol) was the only thing that calmed her down, plus a cuddle from mummy of course. Now shes 8 months old and still has it occasionally but i don’t mind, it will go to santa eventually… Oh on another note i would prefer a dummy to a thumb sucker, at least the dummy can be taken away x
Both our boys had dummies from birth and we, like many others here, had no intention of doing this with our first (now 6). Once we realised popping a little finger in his mouth was soothing and that we weren’t available to do that 24 hours a day, we changed our minds! When our 2nd came along (now 3) we just gave him one immediately. We were much slower in losing them than some others here but once they’re gone they’re gone. I had lots of ‘I’m never going to do that’ rules before I had children, most of them fell by the wayside – our priorities were completely turned on their head when we held them in our arms and they needed comfort. Weak parenting? Maybe… but the boys seem to have turned out ok so far
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